Continuing with my review of colleges we toured this year…
College of Charleston - UP and DOWN - What a gorgeous, cool and vibrant campus in an urban setting. Great shopping and dining right there, really nice buildings, friendly and informative guides. Our neighbor attends CofC so we were able to go into her dorm and see the setup. She was a freshman and the dorm was more like an apartment with a living room, full kitchen with fridge, dishwasher, etc and then two double bedrooms and two full bathrooms (one fore each bedroom). We also toured a normal dorm room which was not apartment style, but was suite style with a bathroom shared between two rooms. This was also nice. We wanted to visit the computer science building and realized that was off campus and required a car or bus to get to. It is not part of the main campus which was disappointing. The art studio spaces were in the main part of campus and were on upper floors with good lighting. We visited the beach in the evening by car, it was gorgeous and nearby. This school moved way up on our list after spending the day there. However, we noted a lack of diversity which was concerning to us. That combined with the long drive from our home in PA eventually moved the school off of the list.
Clemson University - DOWN - We did a tour of more southern schools because my senior had a strong interest in Clemson. We stayed in Greenville, SC which is a nice city albeit very quiet. The drive from Greenville to Clemson was at least thirty minutes, but finding hotels near Clemson was challenging. There aren’t many options and most places were at least 20 minutes away. The tour was very disappointing as we spent most of it standing outside listening to the guide drone on and on. We did not get to see a dorm, a dining area, an academic building, student center, etc. The only building we went into was the library. The dorms looked dumpy from the outside. This was probably the worst campus tour I have been on. Luckily we met up with some family who are alumni and live nearby and they gave us a much better tour. But by the then the damage was done. The art studio spaces were in the basement and dark. Also as we were driving away towards home, we saw a GIANT confederate flag on the highway, that was the final nail in the coffin for us. I was not comfortable with the idea of sending my biracial children to an area where some residents still unabashedly put up that flag for all of the public to see. Some research revealed it is the largest confederate flag in the state of South Carolina.
University of Pittsburgh - UP and DOWN - We live in a Pittsburgh suburb so are very familiar with this campus. Also I am an alumni of Pitt and CMU so I know Oakland well. We have done two campus tours. The first was a general tour in the fall of 2022. We were the only family on the tour and the guide was excellent and accommodating with showing us what we were most interested in. She gave us an overview of the campus and neither of my kids liked the campus at the end of the tour. The adults on the tour (my sister, my mom and I) all really liked it. July 2023 we returned for a blue and gold day so my kids could meet with representatives from different academic programs. This warmed them up to the school more. They met with the business school and school of computing. Neither of them love that the campus doesn’t really have a central green area to walk around. My daughter was disappointed that the club tennis team is highly competitive to join since the school no longer has a D1 team for the highest level of players. A visit to the art school revealed that the studio spaces are in the basement with no natural light. The business school told us that starting this fall all graduates from their program will be required to take two computer programming classes which I thought was interesting. I’d double check to see if that’s actually true. I love the diversity on campus and there are plenty of food options. I’ve heard the dining hall called the Eatery which is part of the meal plan is terrible. Both of my seniors applied, but it’s not at the top of their list.