Any Questions for a Current Freshman?

Applicant100
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 10:52:55 +0000

Hey Sullivan7,

1. Being a Presidential Scholar means that I pay half tuition, but USC does have the Trojan Scholars Society which is the group of scholarship winners. They host events for all of the kids that have been awarded a scholarship of some sort. I can’t pinpoint what helped me become a presidential scholar and the group is actually very diverse. My test scores were pretty good (high 2100’s) but so were those of a bunch of my friends who didn’t get scholarships. I’d say the number one factor I felt was important during my interview was my extracurricular involvement, especially in the area of my major. USC is a very active campus, so I imagine the administration is looking for students who were willing to put themselves out there during high school

2.The neighborhood isn’t really as bad as people make it out to be. I’m from the East Coast and I live in a suburb so the adjustment to urban life is definitely a change, but as long as you have street smarts, you shouldn’t have an issue. Yes, we do get some crime alerts from the Department of Public Safety, mostly about people getting stopped and robbed late at night. I can say that the walk from the Row back to campus late night isn’t bad and students really don’t walk many other places late night. You have to be careful, but I haven’t had any bad experiences even with walking back from places late night. On campus you’ll never have an issue. Getting onto campus after I think 8 PM requires that you show an ID, so you could walk alone from one end to the other and feel 100% safe.


I haven’t seen Miranda Cosgrove, unfortunately. I know she’s around SCA a lot, but I haven’t spent enough time there to see her. Maybe next semester though!