<p>We just attended the admitted students day. However, as we walked around the area we didn't notice a lot of students, just those helping out and the admitted students and their parents. Just curious if anyone else was there and felt the same way or if anyone knows why we didn't seem to see many. Were we just in a different area from where they hang out or did they all go home for the weekend?</p>
<p>/\ /\ Just wondered if you could share any other impressions after attending the open house. We were unable to attend both admitted student days and my daughter is frantically attempting to decide between USC and another university in the Northeast. She is down to the wire now and really struggling with this decision. We visited last summer so of course there were no students around then either.Are you OOS?</p>
<p>They were all over the place on Thursday! If you were there on Saturday, realize that this is last full week of school and lots of final tests/papers due. They definitely do not all go home for weekend. Saturday night was Relay for life all night long (postponed from Fri due to weather). Honestly, Russell House is not hopping on weekends since not as many food places open/hours shortened. Can be busy at night when movies are shown. Most kids are around dorms, horseshoe, strom fitness or maybe at baseball game.</p>
<p>I was there too. I didn’t really see many students that weren’t involved in the program either. </p>
<p>NJMOM - Here’s what I really liked about the school: I was impressed by the business school presentation, especially IB. A friend was with me who had gone to scholars day last year and said the Moore presentation was much better than the honors presentation she had been to. I also really liked the honors college and honors dorm - probably about the best dorm I’ve seen. I also really liked the Greek Village with all of the houses together. </p>
<p>What I didn’t like, and this is pretty much a deal breaker for D, but there are lots of streets with lots of traffic. She loves the campuses we’ve been to that don’t have cars, or at least not too many. If she definitely wanted to study IB, she would probably suck it up and deal with it, but she’s leaning other directions. The other thing is that the sororities are HUGE, as in the small one had about 200 girls and the bigger ones 350! Having been in a sorority at two different schools, I can’t imagine being in one that big, seems like it would defeat the purpose in my mind.</p>
<p>/\ /\ Thanks for that info!..the traffic won’t bother my daughter…her other option (she’s basically eliminated all others) is also urban…actually more-so. I do like a compact campus with very few cars, however, my daughter doesn’t seem to be looking for that. I think she is eliminating one of my favorites because it is too close to home! She seems to want big. Not sure if she will be affected by the sororities or not. Actually every school she likes has them, but she really never mentions whether she’d actually be interested in them one way or another.I just want her to make a decision that she is happy with and I didn’t expect her to be this confused…but one way or another by next week I’ll finally know where she is headed!</p>
<p>It’s funny that you asked this! We weren’t there on admitted student day; we were there for a campus tour about 3 weeks ago…a Wednesday morning. The only thing my daughter said about it was that the campus seemed too big for the number of students. I thought that was an odd observation but thinking about it, we didn’t see very many people!</p>
<p>We visited on a Thursday three weeks ago and my son remarked that he saw more students walking around campus than at many of the other schools he visited. Guess it really depends on the specific day and time you visit. I also didn’t notice busy roads with lots of traffic - but that could just be because we are from DC and Columbia is very quiet in comparison. We thought Georgia had a lot more traffic and general hustle and bustle around campus.</p>
<p>If you have to cross Assembly or some parts of Blossom, it can seem like there is a lot of traffic, particularly Assembly. But other than those I have never felt like there was a lot of traffic through campus. Traffic has seemed worse to me at some small colleges we went to that have their parking lots in the middle of campus.</p>
<p>As far as a lot of students walking around - remember that this is not like a high school, where everybody has a class every minute between 8 and 3, and everybody changes class at exactly the same time.</p>
<p>You will have many fewer hours of class in college, and the times can be scattered.</p>
<p>In addition, the campus is much more spread out than any high school.</p>
<p>And a large percentage of students live off campus, so they won’t be there a lot of the time.</p>
<p>Weekends on campus aren’t ever going to be “hopping”. It isn’t because we are a suitcase school, but it’s because pretty much the only people on campus on the weekends are freshmen. The majority of upperclassmen live off campus.</p>
<p>One of the things I like about USC is the fact that it doesn’t seem super massive and you don’t have tons and tons of students walking around. During class change around the Humanities Building, it is completely overwhelming the amount of students who walk that path. During a normal tour, you’ll wonder why the pathway is so big because not that many students seemingly traverse it, but during class change, it’s completely filled with people walking from point A to point B.</p>
<p>Traffic is not that big of an issue. You can get to almost every building on campus without having to cross a major road. There is a walk-way underneath Assembly, so that’s not even a necessity. Swearingen is across Main Street, but Main Street really isn’t that heavy in traffic. There’s a bridge over Blossom and one over Pickens.</p>
<p>Depending on the time of day you were there on Saturday, a lot of the students may have been asleep. I remember trying to get breakfast with friends certain mornings only to discover that most people sleep until almost noon.</p>
<p>I guess they were either sleeping on a Saturday or off campus or studying because we didn’t really see many students. But she still liked the campus and will be attending. NJMOM3 we are also from NJ. Did your daughter decide to go to SC?</p>
<p>//. Yes. She finally just decided!! Her choices were in many different directions and of course she picked the farthest one! She loves the campus and has a friend from high school who just finished freshman year who just loves it there and had an excellent year! We are from South Jersey so I am trying to get used to the idea of her being so far. My other daughter is 5 hrs away, but at least it’s in the same direction!! What is your D majoring in?</p>
<p>Congratulations! There is a fairly large contingent from New Jersey and an even bigger group from the Northeast (15% of the freshman class?), so she should feel right at home.</p>
<p>^Yeah. Some year’s it’s almost 50% out-of-state. You’d think that be mostly kids from GA and NC, but GA has such a sweet deal in-state.</p>
<p>I’ve met plenty of students from NJ and NY. Your daughter will fit in perfectly! She’ll probably be able to find other students to ride home with as well.</p>
<p>I know there is a sizable group from MD in the incoming freshman class as well.</p>
<p>//. Wow that’s awesome to know that there are so many from the northeast there! She will be thrilled. She is so excited now that the decision has been made! And that is great to know that the possibility of carpooling may also be there too! I know what you mean about Ga and the deal they get AUgirl… My sister in law lives in Atlanta and has been telling my husband to move there for years… With 4 kids we should have listened! My niece will be getting a nice deal on her college education! In Nj we get no incentive to live here… My d only applied to one instate school and that was the only one that didnt offer her any merit/grant… Anything!</p>
<p>NJMOM3- and others… My son joined this FB group- University of South Carolina Class of 2017 - <a href=“https://www.facebook.com/groups/355532587871846/[/url]”>https://www.facebook.com/groups/355532587871846/</a> and saw where there is a Ride-sharing group where you can coordinate carpools home and back. I haven’t seen it but I told him, he needs to make some friends on that group if he wants to come home more often than long weekends or holidays!</p>
<p>/. Thanks for that info… I’ll pass that on for sure!</p>
<p>My son committed and we are from South Jersey! Happy to hear there are a lot of kids from the Northeast!</p>
<p>Scavena… Congratulations to your son!! There are several girls from my d s high school who also just committed so they will all feel right at home.</p>