Upon reviewing the schools I’ve been accepted to, I really like my options in schools located in the south such as USC. However, the one thing that keeps me hesitant about coming to a school like USC is southern school’s notoriously conservative and preppy body of students. As a liberal northerner, I have some kind of apprehension that I will not fit in with the student body at a school such as USC. My question is, what kind of liberal presence is there on campus? Are there any clubs or associations I could join? Would being liberal cause any kind of conflict or discomfort for me? Any past experience or anecdote about USC or a school similar to USC would be helpful. Thank you.
Well in what ways are you liberal? Politically, socially, religiously? What issues are important to you?
Even though SC as a whole is a more conservative state, a college campus as large as USC has all sorts of students and I think most large college campuses are more liberal than the city they are in as a whole. There are students here from all over the country. Believe it or not, conservative students are also interested in social justice, sustainability, philanthropy, politics, etc. Check out the following
https://www.sa.sc.edu/stlife/ and explore the clubs and organizations that USC offers.
The greek participation at USC is around 30% so that means around 70% are not in greek life. Is there a preppy vibe - maybe but please don’t judge intellect or interests of the students based on khakis or dresses or camo or some greek letters. You will find a great group of people at USC interested in all sort of activities and issues. And they will be respectful and interested in your views if you return the favor.
Can you come to an admitted students day? Meeting other students and seeing the opportunities might help.
My D (from PA) leans left, and she is more than comfortable at Carolina. Her roommate (from SC) is fairly conservative but two of her most liberal friends are also from SC. While many students are from SC and NC, she also knows people from NJ, NY, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, and Connecticut. Both Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio appeared on campus earlier this year and both sessions were very well-attended. My kid went to see both as did several of her friends.
Some students look preppy, but many dress like typical college kids up north (hoodies or sweaters with jeans or cropped pants, t-shirts with those little Nike shorts–I forget the nickname for them–etc.) Oh, although the girls do wear black dresses to football games (sundresses, knits, not super dressy, with cowboy boots or sandals/flip flops).
Don’t know if religion is a concern but several of my D’s friends are (like her) Catholic. She has two good friends who happen to be Jewish. At the start of the school year, a lot of the religious organizations have social events. My kid went to a couple of them and found people to be very welcoming.
Agree with @scmom12 that the size of the school means lots of different types of people. Have you visited?
@scmom12 @LuckyCharms913 Thank you for the information! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I realized I sounded a bit pessimistic in my original post but I just wanted to clear any doubts I had about the school. I did visit last spring but I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to many students.
My son is a senior graduating this coming May (engineer) and he’s had an awesome time here. He never joined a fraternity and is as liberal as anyone can be. He’s never had an issue here. He’s had an assortment of roommates (only one was really conservative, but liked to drink beer - he’s over 21 
and discuss issues with my son - great guy and all was good). There are so many different crowds to run with here. My son plays a lot of tennis so he has tennis friends from all over the U.S - some liberal and some conservative. He studies hard (and sometimes plays hard) and has great friends for both of those activities - some liberal and some conservative, but all great people. No worries, really - this university is large and accommodates so many different groups - you will find your peeps. It really is a large melting pot in many ways.
To OP: Your concerns are somewhat opposite of mine. I don’t like UC Berkeley, Stanford or Yale type of schools precisely because they are too “left” or “liberal” for my taste. I give you one example: Princeton or Yale students demonstrating to change the name of Woodrow Wilson Center because he was a racist. I am a minority but I think if we tried to change names of some buildings or scholarships just because someone was a racist 100 years ago – many, many people were then and openly so – we would have to change too many names. I also consider this “white washing” history.
Even though I am an agnostic, I like the fact that many of South Carolina people go to church; it shows they believe in something and are community-oriented.
Univ of South Carolina Honors College is the only OOS public school to which my son in CA is applying. I have a feeling it’s going to come down to choosing between SCHC and one of UCLA/UC Berkeley/Stanford for my kid. Visited these colleges in CA and plan to visit SC. I am not going to stop him from going to a “liberal” school if he chooses to do so.