Monday was college #1, The College of Charleston. With approximately 10,000 students, the campus is urban, set right in the center of downtown Charleston.
Sprawling live oaks, impressive landscaping, and historic homes turned into offices and student housing meet modern, cutting edge classroom buildings... all within walking distance of famous Charleston landmarks.
Although Charleston is hot and humid like MS, the campus was shady and pleasant. The presentation and tour lasted about 2 hours, and then we went to meet with a representative from the honors college. Following this meeting, we wandered around campus for a while, checked out the bookstore, and then had a picnic lunch in the car before leaving the parking garage. It was fun walking from campus straight onto King Street, a famous street of shops in Charleston.
Within 20 minutes, we arrived at the Grice Marine Laboratory. A very kind and helpful professor sat and talked to us about choosing undergraduate and post graduate programs, marine biology careers, and undergraduate research experiences. His advice about how to be a successful student prepared for graduate school was most helpful: choose a school where you will thrive. For your undergraduate degree, it doesn’t have to be a big or famous school- your performance is more important. Go there, work hard, EXCEL, search for opportunities to get involved in your area of interest, NEVER take the minimum requirements for a program, take a wide variety of classes in your department, and be proactive in looking for research experience- this is almost a necessary prerequisite for a masters degree. He assured the boys that the students who follow this advice are successful wherever they choose to get an undergraduate degree and put themselves in a position to be accepted into high-ranking graduate programs.
I was happy to hear him caution the boys about the long-term burden of taking on student loans. He seemed to agree that (for marine sciences) a debt-free undergraduate degree, rather than obtaining an undergraduate degree from a “prestigious” university, would not handicap them at all in their chances of gaining admission to a top graduate program. Being debt-free would give the freedom and flexibility to take a low-paying/ great-experience type job after college, OR it would make taking a small student loan in order to study and research abroad for a semester more feasible.
With this advice ringing in our ears, we headed out for our next destination: Durham, NC.
Along the way, we made this pro list:
Urban campus
Museum of natural sciences
Recycles- dedicated to sustainability
Only 20% of students participate in Greek life
Health services is included in tuition
Close to marine lab
Close to beaches
Pretty campus
Friendly atmosphere
Honors college
Great library
Free transit around town (no vehicle)
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