USC vs. out of state thoughts

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of South Carolina
1

Son is in-state, c/o 2018, and will apply this fall for Honors College. He should be top 10 in his class (top 3-4%), and has a 32 ACT (will take a couple more times). I think his Honors College application could go either way. He thinks he wants to major in Business or Econ or similar - and no idea this early about graduate school or career path. He also has no idea where he wants to end up living - he likes SC but also would like a decent city in another state. Anyway, he also will apply to several good OOS schools (UNC, UVA, Mich, Texas, Wake, Vandy), and he is concerned that there may be more and/or better job prospects overall from those schools than from USC. We have visited several of these schools and he has liked them all pretty well (including USC).

Assuming that we can afford any and all of these schools, what is the case for USC being his top choice (especially if he gets in the HC)? Is there a better case for going to one of his OOS targets, if he can get in? I know these are broad questions but would love to hear from any USC students / parents as I suspect many good in-state students/families have wrestled with this. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

2

Leaving money on the table with state scholarships . There are high stats students from all over the country and world dying to get into the Honors College at Clemson and University of SC.

3

If you don’t have financial need, then be prepared to pay full freight at places like UVA and Wake (and maybe others). Your kids stats are fantastic but so are a lot of other kids (more than we thought when applying). Ds got into those and similar schools, but no meaningful money. Honors at USC? D put overage $ in bank and had more money than when she started.

HC opens lots of doors for motivated students. But try them all if you can afford to apply - you never know! It’s nice that all the schools you are looking at are large enough to accommodate different majors - kids often change their mind. I agree with ^^^. It’s hard to leave that Palmetto Fellows money behind!