Clemson University

Positives= Clemson is a beautiful campus, well landscaped and planned. Students take a lot of pride in the school while enrolled and as alumni. Student involvement is high and there are many opportunities to participate: intramural sports, student government, volunteer societies, religious groups, newspaper, and the list goes on. There is really NO excuse for going to class and then staying in a dorm room - I couldn't tell you a single person who has not been involved in something. Clemson provides a billion niches.

Other strengths: Division 1 sports, study abroad, leisure skills, emphasis on being well rounded, community spirit

My experience academically has been great - the honors program let me sign up for classes with the seniors so I always got to pick my professors according to ratemyprofessor.com. The only bad professor I've taken was in Physics and he got fired. Overall, my classes have taught me a lot, and most importantly, inspired me to keep learning in those areas.

Architecture at Clemson is more about design than practice. A lot of my friends want to go into other design fields than architecture anyway so that's good for them. I do want to be accredited so I will have to go onto a 2-3 year grad school. The 5 year program other schools offer is good if you are 100% sure architecture is what you want to do but the 4+2 program is good for flexibility. I like that I'll be able to do graduate work in a city.

I know I checked this site out before applying to Clemson for architecture and was worried because they don't have a national reputation for it: after studying there 2 years and spending the last semester abroad in Barcelona with their program there - I have to say that they deserve a great reputation. This is a public university: there are opportunities and professors there to be great - but you don't have to take them.

Negative:

Clemson provides diversity though it could be said that it exists without integration. Your experience here really depends on your major and extracurriculars. The administration does a lot for minorities and international students - that said, Clemson is still 82% white. The bulk of that demographic follows an image of rainbows/sperrys and polos. At a shallow glance then, Clemson students may seem (visually) cookie cutter. Another (subjective) weakness: the town of Clemson pretty much is the University; it's small and controlled by sporting events. It's rural.

On the other hand, you're two hours away from Atlanta and Charlotte and in the middle of a bunch of outdoors activities (water sports, hiking, etc).