<p>I am looking at USC-colombia, Clemson, Virginia tech, Auburn, and Elon.
Junior '15 from northern Virginia
3.85 gpa 1910 sat(taking it again)
9 AP
girl scout gold award, youth salute, governor's school, founder/president of outdoorsmen club, varsity swim team since freshman year (possibly captain next year) and a few others</p>
<p>I am fairly confident I will get into all these schools or at least most.
looking to go into business specifically finance, minor in engineering</p>
<p>I recently visted VT and liked it but felt it was too casual for me
I'm from South Carolina and grew up liking Clemson better than USC but I am finding pros and cons about both
Clemson- I like the fact that its in a college town, good greek life (I don't like the fact that thy do not have a greek village though) good academics</p>
<p>USC- Party school (While that sounds bad, I want to get the most out of my college experience) good business program</p>
<p>elon and auburn I dont know much about</p>
<p>I'm looking for a "preppy" college with good greek life good business program and a fairly equal male/female ratio (or a higher male ratio)</p>
<p>also, should I be worried about being from Virginia even though I was born in SC. I heard SC schools can be biased against out of staters</p>
<p>If you’re interested in USC look at money matters under admissions to see what stats you need to qualify for reduced/waived OOS tuition. You didn’t mention money, but the ones you list vary in cost. What can you afford. I don’t think SC schools are biased, although like lots of schools in other states it’s often harder and stats need to be higher to get in as OOS student. </p>
<p>First of all, it’s *Columbia (with a U, not Colombia) Second, if you currently live in Virginia, you will be treated as an out-of-state student unless you can prove that you live in SC. (Do you have a parent, for example, who lives in SC?) As such, you’ll have to pay out-of-state fees, be put in the out-of-state pile, and have a harder time getting in.</p>
<p>Your comparison of Clemson and Carolina are odd, imo.</p>
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<p>Both Clemson and Carolina have a good greek life, have lots of parties, and very good academics. Columbia is also a college town. You’ve got several colleges in the area including USC, Columbia College, Allen, Benedict, and Midlands Tech. It’s more of a difference of Are you a city person or a middle of nowhere person? Both have beautiful campuses and while you’re on USC’s campus, a lot of it does not feel like it is in downtown Columbia. Clemson is great if you’re into doing outdoors stuff.</p>
<p>If you want to study business, then USC is the place to go. Even their engineering program is solid. I have a lot of engineering friends at USC and job prospects are good.</p>
<p>USC pretty much fits all of your requirements. Finding a higher male to female ratio is hard these days at any college. USC is fairly equal, as far as I could tell.</p>
<p>What do you find appealing about Elon? It is very very different from the other schools on your list - very small, private, no engineering, 60% women. It is super preppy though, and the campus is meticulously maintained. It is like Disney World.</p>
<p>Clemson is not much of a college town, IMO. College Ave, a few restaurants, thousands of acres of farmland. Greenville is a cute town but it is 30-40 minutes away. Columbia is a lot more gritty when you get off campus, and there is a lot more to do. You really need to visit both.</p>
<p>I don’t think any large state university can be called preppy, they are too big and diverse. At USC there are lots of women who dress up, and lots who wear shorts and sweats. And everyone dresses up for the football games, which is strange yet cool to me.</p>
<p>Elon is a different animal than the other 4 big state schools. My d visited or applied to every one of the schools on your list. In reality, they’re all good schools, it just becomes a matter of personal preference. In the end my child chose Auburn - it was between the city feel of Columbia and the middle of nowhere of Clemson. She ended up feeling Va Tech felt much bigger and more isolated than the other schools. Auburn also skews a little more towards more males, but I believe they all do. But really with 20k+ students does it really matter if there are 9 thousand females vs 10 thousand? Elon as a private lac follows along with all the others and has more females. If you like Elon you may also like Furman. </p>
<p>Every one of those schools will have a wide range of students. Apply to all of them, see where you get in, what your financial package looks like and decide after that what you prefer. </p>
<p>A point to be made: You can’t minor in engineering. You can’t double major in Finance/Engineering either.
What I would recommend is do a business major and then minor in math. </p>
<p>You should probably get into all of the schools - don’t worry about SC schools being biased. It’s true its harder to get in a school as an out of stater, but you shouldn’t have a problem. </p>
<p>All of those schools are good choices, (I would personally recommend USC just because it’s business school is awesome and I go here) but make sure to visit. All of those schools are really similar, so just see what kind of atmosphere you like best.</p>
<p>If money is a factor in your college choice - USC and VA tech are probably the cheapest, because USC gives nice scholarships to out of staters.</p>
<p>You could also minor in computer science or physics. At USC there is also a new summer program where you basically get enough hours in one summer for a concentration in business if you wanted to do that as an add-on to an engineering degree. I do know someone who was a double major in engineering and musical performance, but he did major hour overload each semester.</p>
<p>“It’s true its harder to get in a school as an out of stater, but you shouldn’t have a problem.”</p>
<p>Carolina undergrad is 36% out of state and I was told by admissions that they’re getting a huge uptick in kids from Illinois, Ohio, and California, among others. It’s becoming more of a national university and is growing a national reputation. </p>