"Oh, is that the school that beat Notre Dame in last year's March Madness?"

Introduction
Winthrop is a medium-to-small school in Rock Hill, SC. If you are from semi-rural South Carolina, you would most likely fit in and like it here. Most kids here are from SC high schools with graduating classes of about 100, and ended up with a class rank of within the top 50%. Winthrop has a beautiful campus with lots of history, but it's surrounded by shanty houses on one side and Ferris Bueller-like neighborhoods on the other. That said, security is a bit of a problem here, not to the point that you cannot step outside after dark, but you probably don't want to walk alone too often. Winthrop is pretty diverse in that we have a large contengent of minorities represented here, mainly African-Americans. For the most part though, Winthrop's students are pretty conservative, God-fearing Southerners. Students coming from the North should be prepared to face the stereotypical Winthrop student who has lived in a small town miles from a big city all their life and loves their home (returning to it often).

Campus Life and Social Life
Weekends at Winthrop are awful. As said earlier, most Winthrop students chose WU for its proximity to home, and will go there often. WU feels like a ghost town on weekends because so many students choose to go home, argueing that there is nothing to do on weekends at WU, only to be the cause of the problem themselves. Although, with only 4 fraterities at WU and 2 bars within walking distance, the options for parting are not that great to begin with. But if you get involved on campus, weekends are not so bad, after all, college is what you make it. WU's basketball team is the only sport students will come out in numbers to cheer on, and students have been asking for a football team for years. WU is great for clubs, offering something like 150, and the option to create your own if one is not offered. The Student Union offers a lot of events, like concerts, comedians and entertainers, but rarely a big name band, comedian or entertainer. However, the food offered in the cafeteria is pretty good. Advertisement
Academics
Academics at WU are not the best. School and studying are not high on the list of priorities for WU students. If you coasted by in high school without studying and getting just enough done to end up with a decient grade, then WU is for you. Most students (except those on scholarships) schedule just enough classes to be qualified as a full-time student. I, personally, have forgotten about tests and still managed to get a B. Although most students here do not choose to, you can challenge yourself academically if you want to.

Student Body
As I said earlier, parties at WU suck. Some weekends you can't even find a party to go to, and if you want to go to a popular club/bar (there is only one popular one), they charge a ridiculous cover at the door, and if you are under 21, there is no guarantee you can get a drink. Also, due to safety, residence halls have strict security policies: presenting ID that you actually live in that residence hall to a person at the front desk, complicated, severe guest (students living in other residence halls are considered guests) check-in/sign-out procedures (with rules like, "No guest can stay overnight Monday-Thursday"), and steep fines for those who break the rules.

In Closing...
WU is best suited for small-town, conservitive, God-fearing South Carolinians, with slightly below average SATs and an average GPA. If you fit this description, WU is a pretty solid choice for you.