Quote:
Originally Posted by kayla91188
Hi everyone.
In a few weeks I am going to be taking a road trip down through Raleigh, Columbia, and Charleston. I'm going into my last year of college and would really like to move down to one of these areas after graduating. I'm looking to get out of the freezing & snowy winters and move to somewhere warmer. I'm going to be seeking a job in special education after graduation and have heard that the Carolinas are a good place to go.
Anyways, we'll be spending about a day & a half in each of these areas. I've done some research, but would like to know if there are any specific parts I should check out? I'll be going on 22 when I move, and would like to end up within driving distance from the water, an area with a decent nightlife and people my age, and (obviously) some good schools around!
Please give me any suggestions on areas to check out, I'd really appreciate it! I'll be in the areas between July 16-22! Thanks!!  |
Kayla, my wife and I made the move 2 years ago from Ohio to Columbia, and so far we have no regrets. We are in our mid-20s, my wife is a teacher like you, and was laid off from 2 consecutive teaching jobs in Ohio (one not even in her area of expertise), and we explored the areas you mentioned.
One thing to keep in mind is that that 2 years ago, teaching jobs were in abundance in the Carolinas, however, that's not the case any more. SC has had a lot of budget cuts meaning districts are cutting or not adding new teachers, and NC is not much better w/Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District having laid off over 1000 teachers/staff (over 5% of their total work-force) in the past couple months for example. That said, being in special education, they seem to always be in need - you'd probably be able to find something even in Ohio - so you can probably land something in any of the 3 cities you mentioned.
I'll give you a few reasons we chose Columbia over the other two that you mentioned (we also considered Charlotte). First off, any of the cities have a lot to offer, and regardless of where you choose, you should be able to enjoy it. The weather isn't too different between any of those areas either, which at least to us is very enjoyable outside of July & August when it gets quite hot & humid here. The biggest difference to us is that there is a lot more sunshine than the abundance of cloudy days that you get in Ohio.
The biggest thing that brought us here was that my wife found after doing some research, that Richland 2 (where she teaches) and most of the other Columbia area school districts rated very well nationally despite our state's low rankings and better than the cities mentioned earlier, although Raleigh I think had some decent one's as well. Add to that the fact that she received an offer for exactly what she wanted to teach after just 2 interviews over the phone, that kind of gave Columbia an advantage to begin with!
Cost of living, in particluar real estate, was a big factor though to us. Compared to Charleston or Raleigh, Columbia is far more reasonable in buying a home. I would imagine you will be renting just out of school though, and even that you would probably find cheaper here generally speaking.
A couple of other things were, we liked Columbia's size, not too big, but not too small either; and also growing at a reasonable rate, not very rapidly like Charlotte or Raleigh, b/c typically when there is a red hot market for a while, it cools down very fast as is happening in Charlotte now. To give you an idea from an Ohio standpoint, Columbia is a little bigger than Toledo, and a little smaller than Dayton. We also liked the location, we are 90 minutes from both Charlotte & Charleston, 2 to 2 1/2 hours to pretty much any beach in the state, 2 hours to the upstate & mountains, 3 1/2 hours to Atlanta, and we can get back to see our family/friends in NE Ohio in about 8 1/2 hours, not ideal, but we've done it on a 3-day weekend a couple of times when we had something we needed to go back for. Also, being the state capital, the economy is fairly stable, despite SC being 3rd in the nation in unemployment right now, Columbia has the lowest rate among the state's metros for May at 9.2% (national rate was 9.4%).
That's just a few of the things we've enjoyed thus far. Charleston is great too though, a neat historic city w/a lot to offer. Not being as familiar w/Raleigh, I do have some relatives that have lived there and they have mostly positive things to say about the area as well. I think between the three, you should definitely be able to find one that meets the expectations of what you are looking for.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
