The University of South Carolina - Columbia

I want to preface this by saying that USC has the potentially to be a dream school for a lot of people! I simply want to share my personal experience. I came from a high school with 1,200 students in a Connecticut suburb. After seeing the scholarship that I got from USC I essentially made the decision to go there (money was a huge factor in my college decision). I THOUGHT I wanted that huge SEC party school with football and tailgates, and I couldn't wait to be in a sorority. However, it turned out that the size of the school and the atmosphere simply wasn't for me.

I am currently a freshman and feel like in drowning in a sea of students. I don't like sitting in Chemistry and Biology classes with 250 other students, as that was the size of my graduating class! I also am a person who likes to know a lot of people, and once everyone establishes a set group of friends, it can be difficult to make new friends; ESPECIALLY if you are not in Greek life (I am not). I have gotten involved in a pre-medical fraternity and 3 clubs. In the clubs especially, people are more focused on writing it down on their resume than getting to know the members.

There is a huge emphasis on partying here which, again, is to be expected. Don't get me wrong, I like to have a good time and go downtown Thursday-Saturday but people literally go out every night of the week and sometimes ya girl just wants to watch Netflix and eat ice cream with her friends on a Saturday night. I want to emphasize that A LOT of people love USC, and I can totally understand why! I would recommend joining Greek life and getting involved as much as you can! I will be transferring to a small school of about 2,600 students next year because it is just a better fit for me. :) My biggest piece of advice is to choose the place where you will thrive rather than the place you THINK you want to be (or desire to associate yourself with)- go with your gut!!

1st Year Female -- Class 1921

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Individual Value: F

I went to the University of South Carolina for my Master's degree and was a graduate assistant. The way I was treated by the faculty and staff was abhorrent. Repeatedly they were unable to complete basic actions such as have hiring paperwork in to offices in time for GAs to receive pay checks in a timely manner. The professors were unable to have grades in to the graduate school in a timely manner. Repeatedly, emails to the director of the program I was in were responded to in an unprofessional, and to be entirely honest, incredibly rude manner. With a program that harps on professionalism, I found this quite disheartening. The program director is overstretched with too many duties and only cares about her research and receiving grant funding for her projects instead of actually caring about her students. I felt many times as though any of my emails and meetings were just an inconvenience to the professors and that they did not care about me as a student. Assignments were never intellectually stimulating and felt more like busy work than anything else. As a Master's degree student, busy work is not appreciated especially when your graduate assistantship causes a busy schedule. Overall, I had a negative experience at the University of South Carolina and would strongly suggest someone choose a different institution for an advanced degree.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Choosing to come to the University of south Carolina is easily the biggest mistake of my life. People here are so dumb and close minded and the course work is so easy I don't know why I'm paying 40,000 dollar to come here. People here are clones of each other every stupid sorority girl dresses the same, act the same, and are so intolerable I actually loose brain cells being around them. But really, I don't know who are worse the stupid sorority girls or the arrogant self centered frat boys that patrol the school. If you have any desire to do anything besides get drunk at shitty bars in five points there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do. I mean literally nothing. No one goes to any events besides football games and everyone is so trashed they usually can't even remember who won. The faculty and staff have no clue what they are doing and most are grad students until you get to junior year. The advisement told me to take two of the wrong classes and I ended up having to retake them over the summer because there was no guidance. If you have any sort of brain in your head do not come here.

2nd Year Female -- Class 2017

Education Quality: A, Useful Schoolwork: F