Charleston
Southern is great academically. The class sizes are small and
the professors are extremely helpful and want you to succeed.
If you want to be a teacher, this place is
great. The education program here is awesome. I've also heard
that about athletic training and nursing programs. Aside from
the academics, there is not much else I like. If
you aren't a Christian I HIGHLY recommend not to come
here. You will be looked down upon and the closed
mindedness of the the students here will drive you crazy.
Even if you are a Christian, if you're not a
conservative Baptist, there's a good chance you won't fit in.
I am a born and raised Lutheran and I did
not come from a very conservative family. My faith is
important to me but a lot of people here don't
see you as a Christian if you don't have some
kind of story to tell about the day you got
“saved”, and that really bothers me. Not all, but the
vast majority of students here take their Christianity to just
crazy extremes. I am a Christian but my views compared
to the people here are very different. People here are
usually nice for the most part but definitely judgmental and
closed minded. My New Testament professor even said to the
class that baby baptisms aren't real and I was pretty
offended. People here don't see me as a Christian just
because I don't talk about God 24/7 and that is
just very upsetting to me. I wanted a school that
was small and didn't focus on parties. I'm not a
goody too shoes but partying just isn't my thing. I
definitely got that but it's too much of an extreme
opposite from a party school. The only way to make
friends here is to be an athlete or join some
kind of religious club. It is VERY hard to make
friends if you are just in the middle like me.
There are people here that I get along with but
I feel like if they were to know my opinions
on some things and how much they differ from theirs,
they would either want nothing to do with me or
try to “save” me.
As for Location, Charleston is beautiful.
I'm an SC native and I've always loved Charleston. But
I definitely like visiting more than actually living here. It
is very high in crime rate and I definitely don't
always feel safe. The location of the school is nice
though. It's only 15 minutes from downtown and 20 from
the beach. It is close enough for having fun but
not close enough to distract you from your school work
every day.
All in all this place has it's
ups and downs. Academically, I love it. Socially, it's the
worst place ever. It's dead on the weekends, because it
is very much a suitcase school where everyone goes home
when the school week is over. If you stay here
on the weekends there is absolutely nothing to do.
So I just recommend really looking into a school and
get opinions from students before you decide on one. I hope this helped!