The University of South Carolina Upstate

It is true that I am still blue collar, but that is due to my personal decisions and no fault of the school. I was almost 40 by the time I got my degree and well established in a good paying Union job. So for me my education was almost entirely for personal improvement. However, I have a four-year computer science degree that at the time of my graduation actually had some market value (unlike my BJU degree). After graduation I made the (perhaps foolish) decision to not walk away from a blue collar job that paid 80k+ a year to start over again at the bottom in a corporate I.T. job.

At the time I was there the Computer Science department was having issues due to the shortage of qualified professors. It was almost entirely taught by mathematics professors who were in over their heads in computer programming. One spoke very poor english. One had poor classroom skills. Two had only rudimentary skills in C++.

But whatever the issues past and present, these local State schools are a remarkable opportunity for working class kids to improve themselves. It can be a ladder into the middle class. Unfortunately, there is a grey lining to that cloud. The costs for students has exploded, even as academic rigor has fallen -- and there is a dearth of vocational training, a falling of off high school academic standards, and an explosion of easy university degrees. But I digress.

If you are looking for a college with a huge campus, high enrollment, and party-town location were you can party hearty for a couple of years before dropping out and getting a job in your father's tire shop, this is not the school for you. This school is best suited for those looking to work hard and to seriously attempt improving themselves. There is a lot of opportunity here to soft fail or to outright fail -- and to fail without even having a good in-your-20's party experience. If your looking for a good party, there are cheaper and better ways to do it.