How strong is USC's rivalry with UCLA? I like the idea of having a rival, but just how strong is it? I assume we're all people, and there's some civility at least lol.
Considering there's another 40,000 students about 15 miles away, I'd think there would be a lot of friendships between the two schools, so is it something people just have pride for, or is it taken very seriously?
This is just an observation but there are several other similar rivalries on the west coast and it seems to generally have to do with football teams and their big annual game versus each other.
UW vs. WA State.
UO vs. Oregon State.
Stanford vs. Cal
UNLV vs. UNR.
My math teacher last year went to UCLA...I went back to school on the first day and told her I visited USC and really liked it there and she automatically asked me "Why?" with this face I really can't describe. Haha...she wasn't disgusted or anything, I think it was more shock because of the reputation of the area.
Also (I mentioned this in another thread), at USC, there was a girl in my tour group wearing a UCLA jacket she just got on a visit there and the tour guide was teasing her about it. But he did say it was a respectable school and some other positive things about it...even though he clearly prefers USC.
I have a friend at Oregon State. I told her I applied for UO and she told me to go so she can hate me. =P
My English teacher went to Berkeley. A girl in my class got accepted to Stanford. My teacher made signs in class that said "Standferd" (or something like that) written in marker and a printed one saying "UC Berkeley" and went on to project the 1982 Cal-Stanford game on the board in class. He made comments the entire time ("What? They got it?! Oh, no...we have no chance." "Looks like Stanford has it this time...") and it was rather funny especially since I saw the video before. (In Physics. It sounds like all we do in school is watch videos, huh...There was a reason, really.)
ANYway, I don't know where I'm going with this, but those are the examples of school rivalries I encountered in the past year.
I'm sure there's some level of serious...ness, but they seem to have a deal of respect for each other. Mostly.
And I saw a few houses that have both USC and UCLA fans while walking around the Newport area. Fun times.
Yeah, coming from a kid who has grown and raised a duck (i'm from eugene, the home of the oregon ducks) or rival with osu is HUGE. bigger and much more epic than any other rivalry. in my opinion...
S has many friends at UCLA, and it's certainly a friendly rivalry as they often visit each other's campus. But for sports, it's a different attitude...
My son's fraternity pledge "haze" prank is to drop the pledges off at UC*A wearing all USC apparel and leaving them there to find their own ways back. The Bruin campus cops usually get involved by prearrangement, if they are not busy with legitimate problems, briefly detaining and questioning the hapless pledges. The same fraternity has a chapter at the Westwood campus too, and what happens is the actives there rescue the USC pledges, which allows everyone to get acquainted as friends on their way back to USC. That kind of illustrates the level of rivalry between the two.
Another illustration I like is the "finger" fountain at USC. It is one of many fountains on campus, but unique in its abstract shape of a hand with an unusual "we're #1" arrangement (if you get my meaning). It faces due west, and as every campus tour guide will explain, symbolizes the regard USC has for its rival located in that direction.
Haha, the thing about the finger fountain is that it doesn't actually face west, it faces northeast-ish.
Obviously the rivalry with that school across town is greatest around sports. The annual crosstown showdown football game is always a blast, and preceded by a week of spirit activities on both campuses. Though USC students are far more enthusiastic and successful, see the bruin bear painting incident this year. And tonight the USC men's basketball team just beat the bruins by the same amount we beat them in football: three touchdowns worth.
As a Trojan, it is your duty to despise ucla. As with everything, some people take this more seriously than others. If you do go to USC though, make sure you participate in westwood invasions. A nice easy one is just going to In-N-Out in westwood wearing all SC gear, trash talk up the people in ucla gear, then do a Socal spellout as you're leaving. Then walk over to Diddy Riese and repeat. Tasty, easy, and worthwhile.
As one who attended both schools and have friends who are rabid Bruin supporters I can say this: Yes, there is a rivalry. But much more blind hatred on UCLA's side. Our friends' have license plate covers that say I'm rooting for anyone who is playing USC. Their fight song contains the words, "And if by chance you see a man from USC every Bruin starts to roar" (why not Stanford, Cal, Oregan?--change at will.) We cannot wear anything Trojan to their home. (When one daughter was 6 she received a party favor of a Trojan hair ribbon as we were going to their home. She had to remove it before entering their home.) But, as for dropping pledges off at UCLA....most Bruins don't care day to day. We have worn SC gear when our kids played UCLA (not saying what sport) on their campus. The kids were polite, if a bit amused.
But then again, USC just knows that we're better. We don't have to keep "proving" it by running down the competition because no one competes with us.
Its a big rivalry. I'm a UCLA student applying transfer to USC though. There is no undergraduate business school at UCLA, which is somewhat of a buzzkill.
Thanks everyone for the responses, It seems livable, though I'll still have to have my own experiences. Having the rivalry stay in sports is the best for me, but a little bit of messing around with pranks and such as long as it's in good spirits.
I wonder how admissions views transfers from UCLA or the other way around. I know they're probably not biased, but at least some part of them is thinking about it, and I only perceive it two ways.
Either he/she is excited that even some UCLA students recognize USC's superiority and welcomes them with open arms
-or-
thinking "who wants a dirty stinking Bruin in our school anyways?" as s/he throws out the application lol.
What makes you say that UCLA has superior academics, lakerforever? I'm wondering how different people measure it. I know the US News rankings put an emphasis on how many professors have won awards in their field, et cetera, but I think that's a flawed way of measuring superior academics.
