I know several graduates from NCSA, all of whom were very happy with their choice to attend school there and some of whom are pretty successful (at least in my eyes). A friend and mentor of mine once told me "It doesn't matter where you go to school unless it is Yale, Carnegie Mellon, <school name>, <school name>" I can't remember what the last two schools he mentioned were, but his
point was this: How hard you work to succeed will be far more important than where you go to school. I know several graduates of the programs from the aforementioned schools (or at least
CMU and Yale) and they all reported to me that the networking opportunities was by far the most important factor of their success at those schools. And, if you work hard, you can make those networking opportunities for yourself by asking questions here on CB or in other relevant online communities and just directly reaching out to people who you admire in the industry and asking for a
bit of help or advice.
I wrote a post on the subject of finding a mentor or asking questions and learning from those you admire here:
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/any-tips-on-finding-a-mentor.39919/#post-345386
As far as specific schools go:
I'm not familiar with schools in the south, nor am I familiar with
stage management. But if you want to talk about engineering and
theatre, I love to talk about that.