Charleston Southern University

Date: Jan 19 2012
Major: Education (This Major's Salary over time)
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!