http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html Life at CofC - Comments en http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html UPSIDES: This is a great mid-sized liberal arts school where there is a lot of space to grow and shape your future with you in complete control. Charleston is a visually beautiful city (pastel houses... Sun, 05 May 2013 05:15:32 GMT StudentsReview 1245-93670 Copyright 2013 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 1245-93670 1245 17 English Female Undergraduate Class 2015 2nd Year Advice UPSIDES:
This is a great mid-sized liberal arts school where there is a lot of space to grow and shape your future with you in complete control. Charleston is a visually beautiful city (pastel houses and azaleas everywhere!) with a steadily growing fine arts, fashion and independent music scene. The city is very welcoming to college students of the undergrad and graduate type. The school is easy to navigate as the campus is condensed to a mere 7-8 blocks of the city. The school is also generous with scholarship and grant money. There are many work study and on campus job opportunities that are flexible and well paying for those that are looking for them. There are 21 major student organizations on campus and 64 smaller ones. If you are into greek life its relevant on campus but if you aren't rest assured you will not be in a minority if you are not too hot on that deal. College of Charleston's campus is safe with public safety officers on duty all around, note the actual campus is safe not the city of Charleston, these officers can only take care of you ON CAMPUS. Oh yeah moderately warm weather during the school year if you are looking for that kind of thing and a 10 minute drive to the nearest beach and hundreds of great uniquely Charleston restaurants, shops, gardens, museums and historic sites if you are also into those things.

DOWNSIDES:
Some of the stubborn faculty you will run into once you declare a major and commit to a department. Some faculty tend to say racist, classist, sexist comments in order to discourage students from taking certain courses or picking up certain minors or even looking at certain graduate schools! Not every faculty member or professor is as supportive as they should be, or respectful to students' personal choices and decisions. You will come across at least one if not two assistant professors or advisors or head's of departments that will try to turn your plans from what you want help or advice to do into what they would rather see you doing. Stick to your intuition! Don't be discouraged!

Other downsides include a close minded predominately upper middle class, white, female, able bodied, heterosexist/hetero-normative and Christian campus. Cultural, Religious, Class and Racial Diversity is HIGHLY lacking at College of Charleston and this causes underrepresentation across the board. It also its the root of far too many micro-aggressions (some macro aggressions too) that make attending the school EXTREMELY unpleasant if you don't fit into 5 of the 6 categories above.

The out of state fees are a common complaint because of the lack of state scholarship money (a possible $14,500) these students are not eligible for in addition to nearly 12,000 diff in tuition for instate and out of state.

The biggest downside about College of Charleston is the apathy of the students. The majority of students are not motivated to achieve greatness, create social change, improve anything or work creatively towards anything positive. Very few students are hardworking intellectuals that are supportive of their peers who are also bettering themselves. The slacker population is high at CofC which is surprising because every year the incoming classes are filled with more and more high achieving individuals. Sun, 05 May 2013 05:15:32 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html Being from the Charleston area, this university provided me with nothing as far as the beach, downtown, night life, etc. as I had already been exposed to it. I picked a worthless major for anything... Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:34:30 GMT StudentsReview 1245-92532 Copyright 2013 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 1245-92532 1245 32 Philosophy Male Undergraduate Alumnus Class 2000 Negative Being from the Charleston area, this university provided me with nothing as far as the beach, downtown, night life, etc. as I had already been exposed to it.

I picked a worthless major for anything other than a higher degree; to spend so much for a generic liberal arts degree is a slap in the face nowadays.

I didn't meet any long-term friends or have any unique experiences, especially considering I commuted for the last two years.

The worst part of my college experience came afterwards. Without going into too much detail, there was some sort of problem with my last payment to the college... The problem being that I made one, and was told that all money owed for services was satisfied. Fast forward a year and I start being harassed by debt collectors because the college had sent my debt to an agency. I received no notice that I owed anything, considering I was told that I had paid.

Apparently I was lied to, so I still owed money. Unfortunately because the college did not bother to contact me, it was a debt collection agency that was now contacting my cell phone and work daily. This also needlessly showed up on my credit report.

Fast forward two more years, and this debt has been paid off. I call the state department of revenue to verify my information because the SSN hacking scandal. I was informed that my tax refund was being appropriated by the College of Charleston because of debts owed. Debts that I had paid off well over a year ago. Hopefully I can get my money back so the college can't double dip. Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:34:30 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html I am currently a freshman here at CofC and like everyone else I really came here because of the beautiful campus. This is the first time i am reading these reviews and I wish I had read them before ma... Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:21:27 GMT StudentsReview 1245-91553 Copyright 2013 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 1245-91553 1245 15 Education Female Undergraduate Class 2016 1st Year Negative I am currently a freshman here at CofC and like everyone else I really came here because of the beautiful campus. This is the first time i am reading these reviews and I wish I had read them before making my decision. I have been coming to Charleston ever since I was little. I loved the city. I had 2 aunts, and 2 cousins come here so I decided to come here as well. I am from New Jersey which seems like this year a lot of people are which is probably why I haven't felt isolated and looked down for being a northerner. I love the city and the campus. The academics and faculty are great as well.
My issue is with the social life. I decided not to rush in the fall but after being here for a few weeks I regretted that decision. And what is the deal with the fake ids? Where I'm from I did not know anyone who had a fake id. Now that I'm here I feel like everyone does. Two of my room mates have one. I can never go out on the weekends with people because they all want to go to the bars and I can never go cause I don't have a fake. I wouldn't even know where to get one. It really sucks. I was excited to come to college and experience the partying but I'm not able to cause everyone goes to the bars...Yeah there aren't a lot of boys here but the ones who are here are really cute but unless you are 5 foot 4 weigh a hundred pounds and have flawless make up and hair boys won't even look at you twice. I have no plans of transferring but thats mainly because I don't want to be embarrassed by my whole entire family and I don't feel like starting over at a new school. I just wish I had more of an open mind when I was picking a school and had read these student reviews first. Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:21:27 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html College of Charleston is a wonderful school to attend. The faculty in the history department was very great to work with, and you learn a lot from them. As for the Political Science department, depend... Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:58:15 GMT StudentsReview 1245-90801 Copyright 2013 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 1245-90801 1245 41 History/Histories (art history/etc.) Female Undergraduate Class 2007 4th Year Neutral College of Charleston is a wonderful school to attend. The faculty in the history department was very great to work with, and you learn a lot from them. As for the Political Science department, depends because most of those professors are members of the Democratic Party. However, as a conservative or moderate student you may have a hard time expressing your opinion in their classes. As for the taking classes from other professors outside your major, for me it was a mix bag but you had to take those class in order to graduate.

Library: Very wonderful and plenty of computers to use to do your assignments. Best time to use the library is on Friday and Saturday's nice and quiet. Or if you classes in the summer.

Social Life: Plenty of activity to do at the College of Charleston. You can join almost any organization or start one on your own. Furthermore, there are alot of activities around Charleston, but the downside is the clubs or bars require that you be 21 or older, but you can enter those establishments provided that you get your hand stamp if you are under age.

Student Body: for the most part the student body consists of preppy, artist, stakeboarders and etc. However, the Caucasian students will talk to you and are more friendly then say the African American students that goes to the College of Charleston. So if you are an African American student expect for your own color some of them not talk to you. (Unless you join a NPHC fraternity or Black Student Union. Better yet the Student Government Association). Also if you are a guy, you may like the fact that more women at the College of Charleston.

Staff members and Employees: For the most part the employees at the College of Charleston were friendly, but you have some who were rude to you maybe because they suffer from an inferior complex or something because you are getting an education and they may not have one.

My advice is for anyone who decide attending the college of Charleston is pick your major very early, screen out the professors and join an organization. Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:58:15 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html I personally did not have a good experience with College of Charleston when it comes to the staff, classes, and how things were ran. The students are great, the campus is beautiful, and there is a lot... Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:37:31 GMT StudentsReview 1245-90783 Copyright 2013 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 1245-90783 1245 6 Biology Female Undergraduate Class 2013 2nd Year Negative I personally did not have a good experience with College of Charleston when it comes to the staff, classes, and how things were ran. The students are great, the campus is beautiful, and there is a lot to do in Charleston.

The staff at the college treats you like you are just another number in line. Forget about getting anything done (doing paperwork, setting up financial aid, getting a hold of who you need to talk to, etc.) because when it comes to doing all the dirty work you are ALWAYS missing something with them. I can't even tell you how many times I had to go from class to office to home to office BACK home just to go back to the office to do one simple task. No one there seems to know what they are doing, or even who to talk to, to help you. Of my 2 years I spent there, I spent WAY WAY WAY to much time just trying to figure out basic information that any other basic college offers with a click of a mouse. They change their website so often that I feel like every other month I was remaking a user ID, or signing up for a new program they were trying out. It's very frustrating as as student to try and study and balance everything AND learn a new poorly made website every other month (half the time the logins wouldn't even work and you would have to call for help, but they didn't know what to do either!!)

Needless to say I went to a community college for 2 years before College of Charleston and I would recomend the community college WAAAAY over College of Charleston. I wish I could get the HUGE amount of money I spent on this CRAP of a college back!

DO NOT ATTEND COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON. YOU WILL REGRET IT! Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:37:31 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/SC/CoC_comments.html