<p>Vince your frustration is understandable because some people do adopt airs that they justify to themselves based upon silly categorizations. But I believe there is a legitimate point to be made concerning usc and its inability to recruit truly intellectually curious people as the rule not the exception. Having been a usc bamd before graduating from Columbia, I can say that Columbia’s student body as a whole is incomparable to usc’s in terms of intelligence, motivation, and academic seriousness. </p>
<p>That isn’t to say usc isn’t good for what it is: a brand with decent professional contacts for a few in southern California. </p>
<p>But being defensive and having a hard on telling a random high schooler how hard the film school is (I can almost feel your joy envisioning that this individual won’t be “good enough”) shows your insecurity over usc. Unfortunately your reaction is typical and makes me embarassed to tell ppl I went there. </p>