Help!!!! Which university should I choose

dblgraddad
Sat, 30 Sep 2017 13:39:18 +0000

Sorry CADreamin - I know you have had 4 attend USC and are a big promoter of the school on this site… While mine has only been there a few months, I base my opinion in part on comparing it to the experience of our other child at a different non-Cali school - also a top 20 national university. While USC is no doubt a fine academic institution, the way student life is handled by these different schools has been night and day experience. I really hope the experience at USC improves. Emory - like most private schools - has a FAR smaller undergraduate population and, unusual even for private schools, no football program. It also has a robust Greek life. By contrast, USC has many of the attributes of a big state school, including the student population, but operates at far greater cost than comparably sized state schools. I was not personally calling USC by the derogatory moniker I noted above, but was pointing out that many people still see it that way. (especially Stanford and UCLA grads (smile)). USC’s meteoric rise in standing outside California has been relatively recent and its reputation appears to have not quite caught up yet in some places, like the East Coast. Many people’s only remark when we revealed our child was attending was about USC football. I would have thought this was just an unfair stereotype, but even the USC Class of 2021 Parents Facebook page is dominated by posts about football. Your own post above that I responded to raises it. With regard to Greek life at USC, recent articles in US News (11/9/2016) and even the Daily Trojan (1/19/2016) point out the significantly above average cost of participating in USC Greek organizations (1800-2500 a semester). Compare that to Emory (680-750). .The Daily Trojan article notes that this creates a barrier to participation for many student and decreases diversity in the Greek system at USC which reinforces the appearance that full participation in school sanctioned Greek social life is difficult for many students and available primarily for the well-off students. This is not an issue I am alone in raising.