Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My daughter recently went to Charleston with her friend and now she has been telling me every day she wants to go to College of Charleston in a year. I am trying to do some preliminary research on it.
Although I grew up in SC, I have never really heard much about this one. I only knew two people at my high school who went here and I never saw them after high school. Most everybody at my high school who went to college went to Clemson or SC if they stayed in state.
My older brother wanted to go to CoC but my parents would not even let him apply because he never serious about academics in high school, and they thought he was just party all the time at CoC, and they thought Charleston was too unsafe for a teenager. They shipped him off to Erskine instead, he didn't have a choice. I don't want to do that kind of thing to my daughter though. I would prefer to her decide which college she goes to, although it has to be a public in state. but CoC might end being an exception.
It occurred to me that I can't remember ever meeting anybody at work or elsewhere in SC who went to CoC. I have met some guys who went to Citadel and in my mind it is the College of Charleston.
My impression is that CoC doesn't have much name recognition, even in the Southeast, and I don't want to send her to a college that doesn't have good name recognition.
But you would think it would have good name recognition, given Charleston itself gets a lot of hype.
My other concern is it may be too much of a beach bar crawl school, and not all that challenging.
I talked to a coworker today who said his son goes there and he said a lot of the students at the school use Adderal, a prescription drug for attention deficit disorder, to study for exams even though they don't have ADD. They are taking this medication without a prescription. I don't remember students this doing this kind of thing when I was in college.
I assume parking is a major hassle there, and looks like they don't have many dorms on campus and the ones they do have are expensive. Don't think I would be comfortable with her living off campus in downtown Charleston though.
Anyway, just looking for some other people's perspective on CoC. I'm kind of torn between ruling this one out for her or letting her make her own decision. All her friends want to go there too and she is going to hate me if I don't let her go. She has good grades and I can't see them not taking her but crazier things have happened.
I'm going to feel sick in a few years if she can't get a job but I paid more for her to go there vs the other in state publics.
Last edited by Gville Man; 06-05-2015 at 06:06 PM..
My son is a student at CoC. He lives in a nice house with four other young men off campus. Parking IS a hassle. He chose to not bring a vehicle. His roommate has a car and has gotten ticketed a few times.
It's a beautiful school and campus... very historic.
If your daughter hasn't shown any indications of being a drug abuser, I don't necessarily think you need to be overly worried about the Adderall thing. I've heard of college students doing that across the country. It's not a "just at CoC" thing at all.
I don't think it's a "beach bar crawl" school from what I could see. I saw a lot of very upstanding, studious people there when I visited.
A good place to start your research would be US News and World Report ratings of Colleges and Universities... For the Cof C ... its ranking would be under southern colleges if I recall correctly.
I have no axe to grind here ...my daughter went to Duke ... but returned after graduation and went to CofC for her Masters. She had no problem finding professional employment... with multiple offers , finally accepting an offer in NYC... she just got engaged to a Charlestonian... and cant wait to come back home.
My wife went there for a year and hated the school. Loved Charleston, but didn't like any professor, didn't connect with any roommates, and had parking difficulties. She said the best part was The Citadel boys waiting around to see a girl. She transferred to USC and finished 3 degrees there.
I only know 2 other people that went to CofC and neither has had any trouble in finding high school teaching/coaching jobs. One teaches Social Studies and the other teaches English.
It's very popular with the wealthy, northeast crowd. When we toured, the students in our group were from NJ, PA, ME, and MD. On a vacation in Maine, we went to a restaurant and there were 3 cars in the parking lot with CofC stickers.
It seems to have good liberal arts programs but mine was interested in business so Carolina was an easy decision.
I'm currently a student at CofC. It's a decent liberal arts school. I originally went to USC then I join the Air Force and got station in Charleston. After my commitment was up I enrolled more so because I didn't want to leave my job in Charleston. Like earlier post, there are high amount of out-of-state students that go here but its definitely more so about living in Charleston rather then the school itself even though the campus is beautiful. Charleston is a food and beverage town so there are a lot of restaurants and bars so it's more on trusting your kids to make the right decisions. Parking is a pain but I get around by biking. I would research to see if the major your child chooses is offer by CofC and see how CofC ranks in it. Also see if employment for that major is available because Charleston does have a limited field of employment
CofC is fine, your daughter will get educated there, for sure. However, it is not a major research university. If national brand name recognition and prestige are important, USC and Clemson both have more of that. Anecdotally, most of the CofC grads I know are in Charleston, not least of which because they understandably love Charleston. That also means it does not have the same breadth and depth of alumni network across the country.
CofC is famous for having eight or ten females for every male in the student body. Beautiful campus and good music department. After 400 years they certainly have more name recognition than 'Erskine"?? What's that??
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
