Tell your son to apply to the Honors college. It looks really good on everything in general (SC has the best public Honors College in the country) but especially graduate school applications. The Honors Dorm is really nice too, it's pretty centrally located (important because SC's campus is spread out and freshmen typically have classes all over) with one of the best cafeterias on the ground floor and it's pretty close to Swearingen where he will probably have a few classes at least in the 2nd semester.

I lived in Bates West my freshmen year, I was in the Honors College but at the time they were building the honors dorm and all of the honors students couldn't fit on the Horseshoe so that's where I ended up... it was all guy's at the time (08-09) and like half of the dorm was pledging a frat so it was really loud and crazy. Basically your idea of what an all guy's college dorm is like. I basically partied really hard and my freshmen GPA sucked so I couldn't continue in the Honors program.

Carolina is a great school but it's also a school where it's easy to find a party... so if your son is serious about academics then I would suggest Honors dorm first, then maybe Preston (our most 'unique' dorm, if your son is eccentric, worldly or quirky send him here), Capstone, Columbia Hall and anywhere on the Horseshoe... all of those dorms are pretty much central campus so they're quieter.. the further out from central campus you go the crazier the dorms get.

Whatever you do, stay away from Bates, Bates West and The Roost.. those places are madhouses. Try to avoid the Quads (especially East, but try to avoid South as well) if you can, but they are hit or miss, some floors are quiet and some floors are loud.. When I was a student East Quad was the party dorm on campus because the athletes lived there. It's probably different now though because all of the athletes now live in 650 Lincoln, the newest "dorm" on campus. Although, West Quad is better, quieter at least, and closer to Swearingen Hall (Engineering building). When I was a freshmen, 1st year students couldn't live in the Quads (kids with apartments, living on their own for the first time.. imagine the debauchery) but freshmen are allowed to pretty much live anywhere on campus now.

If nothing on campus works then look at off campus. They strongly encourage 1st years to live on campus (I strongly encourage it as well, at least until he really gets to know the city) but the good thing about USC is that there are tons of apartment complexes for students that are near and sometimes essentially "on campus".. and they are building more every year it seems because the school's enrollment growth is almost exponential at this point.

This post was edited on 1/26/17 at 7:59 am