Sure! Right now, I’m deciding between Rice (no financial aid package yet) and USC (Columbia) on a full ride. I’m a CS/Engineering major but have an interest in teaching later on.
Within South Carolina, a lot of people see Clemson as the STEM/Agriculture school and USC as the Liberal Arts/Business. However, I’d say which one you’d like to go to depends on what you want out of your college experience. I’d say AP credits are widely accepted at both.
Clemson is located in Clemson, SC which is definitely a college town. It is rural, but is near Greenville, SC. The kids there are very spirited, passionate, and happy about their school and sports (especially football) is big there. Academics-wise, known for STEM programs. I don’t know anything about writing/humanities at Clemson. I’ve been told their honors college isn’t much and that for engineering the curriculum is rigid, leaving little room for anything else. I believe Clemson is 35% OOS and 65% IS. They do not give much merit money, even to in-state kids. I only got 3.5k from them, but I also have Palmetto Fellows (an in-state scholarship that can be used towards any SC school).
USC is located in Columbia, SC, our state capital. There are definitely parts of the city that aren’t that nice, but the campus itself and surrounding areas is. Unlike Clemson, campus is integrated with the city. Columbia is probably a lot smaller than any major Texan city, but there is plenty to do. Academics-wise USC has a fantastic honors college with over 600 courses. Some are made to satisfy the Core requirements, but others are more like electives. USC is a big school, but the honors college makes it a lot smaller. Biology is a popular major, I think.
USC is around 40% OOS and 60% IS, but the Honors College is 50-50. A lot of Northeners here (NJ, OH, PA), but I’ve seen Texans and Californians here as well. For your son’s test scores, you’d see merit, but I’m not sure about the GPA. To apply to the Honors College, there’s a separate application. You can get tuition waivers regardless of being in the HC or not. National Merit for OOS is $6k and tuition reduction. There are other scholarships he may also get, but apply early action to both the school and the HC for best results!
I received a full ride as I was invited to interview for their Top Scholars program. Each year, they invite 50 IS and 50 OOS kids (separately) who applied to the HC to interview for these awards. Everyone invited is guaranteed half-tuition, which is what I received. This award plus National Merit and Palmetto Fellows gave me a full ride.
Finally, a note about GPA and SC schools. I believe both Clemson and USC will recalculate your GPA, especially if you’re OOS and not using the SC GPA formula. Not sure about how that works, since I was IS for both.
About the Park Scholarship. I felt they emphasized service/leadership. Everyone making it to semi-finalist has the grades, so once at that stage it’s about your vision (for either yourself, the world, or others). You need to present yourself as compelling, having varied interests, being passionate about issues/ideas, and be a good interviewer (which I am not). PM if you’d like more details about selection/my application.