Harvard vs. USC Trustee (full tuition)

juillet
Sat, 07 Apr 2018 22:43:46 +0000

Really, you can’t go wrong. Seriously.

When you’re talking to people who are immersed in thinking about college prestige on a regular basis, Harvard seems like it’s such a big jump above USC because of the Ivy League mystique and stuff.

But if you look at the big picture, USC and Harvard both occupy a tiny slice of American universities - super selective, very prestigious, with great resources, opportunities, and career connections. (For example - Harvard has produced the second largest number of billionaire alumni in the world, but USC also has produced the fourth-largest.) You can do very well coming out of either of them.

So I think your choice should be based on the environment and atmosphere you want to find yourself in for the next four years.

If you want to do theater, both colleges will have excellent theater programs and both cities will have great theater scenes - but USC is pretty well known for the dramatic arts, and LA is an excellent city for someone with an interest in theater.

I have a (black) friend from grad school who went to Harvard for undergrad, and she said their black student community, with which she was heavily involved, is very tight-knit and strong. Both have similar levels of racial/ethnic diversity and of international students. USC has a bit more socioeconomic diversity - 17% of USC students are first-generation college students, and 24% are Pell Grant eligible. However, 16% of Harvard’s students were Pell Grant recipients and 15% were first-generation college students, meaning that they’re coming pretty close and not bad on socioeconomic diversity as far as elite schools go. (Numbers obtained from Harvard and USC’s own institutional data.) Harvard has more OOS students - 65% of USC’s students are from California (although only around 40% of the Fall 2017 admits were), whereas only 16% of Harvard’s students are from Massachusetts.

So basically, you can get great diversity at both schools.

I agree that I wouldn’t worry too much about graduate school. You may not go, and it’s common for students to pay their own way. (It’s not true, though, that graduate schools usually are free anyway. hD programs are usually covered by funding, but master’s programs - especially professional ones - and professional schools are typically not free and actually quite expensive).

I am skeptical about claims that Greek life isn’t dominant at USC. By all objective accounts, it is; ~20% of the student body being involved means that one out of every five students is in a Greek org - that’s a large chunk of the student population. There are 60 fraternities and sororities with over 3500 members, the oldest going back to just a few years after the university was founded. (However, I will also say that Greek life is more diverse and varied than most people give it credit for.)