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Hi there!
I'm so glad to find this website and so many friendly people talking and sharing.
We live in Oregon and are from California. My husband need to apply for new jobs (his is ending soon) and there is one in Columbia, SC at the University. My husband is a professor.
I've never been to the south, although I imagine it's warm, sunny, diverse and friendly with great food and music.
We are so accustom to living in a small town and being able to hike and visit wilderness areas easily. We love to hike and birdwatch and tent-camp. Does Columbia have areas for this nearby? I don't even know the topography of S. Carolina, but aren't there mountains?
Also, we have always lived in liberal, university towns and I worry that we might not fit in or find friends easily. I don't want to sound prejudiced, but I would feel uncomfortable living in a deeply politically/socially-conservative area. Just as I imagine a person who is used to that would feel awkward in our liberal town in Oregon.
Any feedback or feelings are welcome. I will be very grateful for your opinion. I'm just grateful that I have the opportunity for any feedback from such a diverse community. Thank you thank you.
Stick with the university types in Columbia and you'll feel at home. Congaree National Park is 20 miles south of the city and is a birder's paradise. The mountains are about two hours away. Three rivers flow through Columbia, with river walks along them, and the Palmetto Trail, which will eventually crisscross the whole state from the ocean to the mountains, runs through the heart of downtown Columbia. Harbison State Forest, Sesquecentennial State Park, Peach Tree Rock, and the clay pits woods park in Cayce just across the river from Columbia offer hiking trails. Lynches Woods in Newberry is 40 miles away. Harbison, Peach Tree Rock, Sesquecentennial and Lynches have deep crevices that make you feel as though you were in the mountains, as well as peaks that offer views for miles. The ocean is also about two hours away. The summers get very hot and humid for about six weeks altogether typically. This year the whole state broke a record for heat. Columbia is a nice city with lots of locally-owned restaurants mixed in with the chains, and interesting boutiques, flea markets and the like. If you come here looking for conservative minds who think differently from you, you'll find them. If you come here looking for opportunities to hang with like-minded people, you'll find them. I wish y'all the best!
You'll find plenty of areas to enjoy the outdoors as mentioned above. While Columbia is more than just a college town, you'll find the liberal college town vibe in town around the University. There are also 7 other colleges and universities here with a total of over 50,000 college students here
Hi there!
I'm so glad to find this website and so many friendly people talking and sharing.
We live in Oregon and are from California. My husband need to apply for new jobs (his is ending soon) and there is one in Columbia, SC at the University. My husband is a professor.
I've never been to the south, although I imagine it's warm, sunny, diverse and friendly with great food and music.
We are so accustom to living in a small town and being able to hike and visit wilderness areas easily. We love to hike and birdwatch and tent-camp. Does Columbia have areas for this nearby? I don't even know the topography of S. Carolina, but aren't there mountains?
Also, we have always lived in liberal, university towns and I worry that we might not fit in or find friends easily. I don't want to sound prejudiced, but I would feel uncomfortable living in a deeply politically/socially-conservative area. Just as I imagine a person who is used to that would feel awkward in our liberal town in Oregon.
Any feedback or feelings are welcome. I will be very grateful for your opinion. I'm just grateful that I have the opportunity for any feedback from such a diverse community. Thank you thank you.
There are mountains about an hour and a half north in the Upstate. Numerous waterfalls, great hiking areas, camping areas, etc. Many beautiful areas. The coast / beaches, are about an hour and a half south.
Don't assume a college town automatically means liberal.....remember, at least half of those students that attend USC are from small, rural, conservative areas in South Carolina. While people are generally friendly, liberal only goes so far.....Columbia is one of the few cities in the U.S. where I was actually called a derogatory name for gay men, while walking down the street. Don't expect USC (Columbia) to be a Boulder, Austin, Burlington or Charlottesville.
I lived in Washington, DC for five years and that's the only place I was ever called the f word while walking down the street, just because I was headed toward the bar in DuPont Circle. A taxi driver nearly ran me over once there, too, and when I shouted at him he called me the q word, once again, just because I was in the DuPont Circle area. gsupstate just happened to be in the wrong spot when the wrong redneck from southern Lexington County or somewhere was riding by. As southern cities go, Columbia is liberal. There has been racy and controversial stage theater that first played in Columbia, only to later be run out of Charlotte before returning to sold-out crowds back in Columbia. It was the kind of play that just wouldn't go over in a non-university town, including the nude scenes. But yes, the mountains being near is a very good thing. In fact, the drive to the mountains from Columbia is all interstate with no need to stop anywhere on the way there or back. Same for the beach. THE MOUNTAINS AND BEACHES ARE EQUALLY NICE TO HAVE WITHIN TWO HOURS OF YOUR FRONT DOOR! I've lived here 27+ years and have some rather radical views even for the typical Oregonian's taste probably, and I know a little bit about finding the liberal and conservative vibes you would be looking to find and avoid here.
There are mountains about an hour and a half north in the Upstate. Numerous waterfalls, great hiking areas, camping areas, etc. Many beautiful areas. The coast / beaches, are about an hour and a half south.
Don't assume a college town automatically means liberal.....remember, at least half of those students that attend USC are from small, rural, conservative areas in South Carolina. While people are generally friendly, liberal only goes so far.....Columbia is one of the few cities in the U.S. where I was actually called a derogatory name for gay men, while walking down the street. Don't expect USC (Columbia) to be a Boulder, Austin, Burlington or Charlottesville.
You had one incident occur god knows how many years ago. It is awful that it happened, but I've seen homophobia in the most liberal of cities including New York and Boston. On a public policy basis, Columbia is one of the most welcoming cities in the southeast for gay people and you were the victim of an isolated incident. In your beloved Greenville, public policy is homophobic or at the very least, not gay-friendly.
Columbia is a mixed bag. Don't let anyone tell you any different. However, it's pretty easy to ignore the bits that aren't for you and focus on the bits you like.
And I think it's fair to say that my personal interests are somewhat in line with yours, OP. SC has some really good state parks, and as has been mentioned, at least one national park near Columbia.
Furthermore, if you're plugged into the University, most of the people you meet won't be from here anyway. I mean, many of the undergrads are, but most of the faculty and many of the graduate students will be from elsewhere. Which is only to say that the "local culture" (which isn't bad, by any means. Columbians are a pretty fair-minded bunch. There are some hicks around, but in the city, you'll be better off than you would be in, say, Lexington County or points farther out.) will only have so much impact on you.
And no sense mincing words: Take anything gsupstate says with a grain of salt. The guy's hell-bent on deriding Columbia, and he doesn't even live here. Sad, really.
There are mountains about an hour and a half north in the Upstate. Numerous waterfalls, great hiking areas, camping areas, etc. Many beautiful areas. The coast / beaches, are about an hour and a half south.
Don't assume a college town automatically means liberal.....remember, at least half of those students that attend USC are from small, rural, conservative areas in South Carolina. While people are generally friendly, liberal only goes so far.....Columbia is one of the few cities in the U.S. where I was actually called a derogatory name for gay men, while walking down the street. Don't expect USC (Columbia) to be a Boulder, Austin, Burlington or Charlottesville.
Wow, you get called a name by someone in Columbia and are ready to assess 800k people based on one experience, man would I like to sell you something.
First, let's address the Carolina Student population. I am not sure if you are a CPA and are trying to distort the numbers or a department store display manager who has never seen a balance sheet but, simple math would suggest your characterization of the student population to be inaccurate. As with other state universities in SC, it is true that a little over half of the students at Carolina are from SC. If that population of students follows the same distribution as the general state population, less than 30% of the students at Carolina would be from rural parts of the state. Without getting into much more, that figure is still high due to a disproportionate share of rural students not attending college. But, suffice it to say that once again, you are way short on facts in your attempt to paint Carolina & Columbia in a bad light.
To the OP, one bad part of this board is that there are some from Greenville who have an agenda against Columbia. You will have to sort through and see what can be believed or not.
If you are interested in the outdoors, there are many options in SC from places along the coast, national forests around Columbia, The Congaree River in Columbia and small mountains in the upstate. If you want high elevations, you will have to get into NC, still within a couple hour drive from Columbia.
As for politics, SC is a conservative state. But, within that, Columbia would lean more towards the middle politically. While nothing is as conservative as the upstate, Columbia may not be as liberal as some coastal communities. Because of many transplants in the area, you would not have trouble fitting in with people in Columbia.
Columbia is a mixed bag. Don't let anyone tell you any different. However, it's pretty easy to ignore the bits that aren't for you and focus on the bits you like.
And I think it's fair to say that my personal interests are somewhat in line with yours, OP. SC has some really good state parks, and as has been mentioned, at least one national park near Columbia.
Furthermore, if you're plugged into the University, most of the people you meet won't be from here anyway. I mean, many of the undergrads are, but most of the faculty and many of the graduate students will be from elsewhere. Which is only to say that the "local culture" (which isn't bad, by any means. Columbians are a pretty fair-minded bunch. There are some hicks around, but in the city, you'll be better off than you would be in, say, Lexington County or points farther out.) will only have so much impact on you.
And no sense mincing words: Take anything gsupstate says with a grain of salt. The guy's hell-bent on deriding Columbia, and he doesn't even live here. Sad, really.
100 % true. Here and on other boards such as Urban Planet, the poster has made a life out of bashing Columbia.
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