We visited CofC as well and had many of the same observations. The location was beautiful and my son loved the city and beach atmosphere. Looks like a great place to go to college, but there were too many downsides that we couldn’t ignore. The housing crisis and high cost of living for the large majority of students who live off campus were the dealbreakers for us. They won’t guarantee housing beyond freshman year, and the off campus rents we looked at were eye popping! If you have a vehicle, you’re paying for a parking spot on top of your monthly rent. Coming from the Northeast (with no family even somewhat close) having a car would be a must just due to evacuation concerns on the peninsula. I think it’s probably an attractive school to in state students who get the tuition rate benefit, but way too expensive for an out of stater. We could clearly see that we’d be paying as much for room and board as we would be paying for tuition. Sadly, it came off our list as well due to these reasons.