My daughter and I visited USC and while she loved the school, the surrounding downtown L.A area is a little sketchy and she is worried about not feeling safe if she decides to go there. Does anyone have any insight?
As a campus, USC is actually very safe. I don’t ever recall hearing students fear for their safety on campus. I personally have never felt unsafe at the USC campus.
Downtown LA on the other hand depends. I don’t know how familiar you are with pockets of LA, but for the most part, they may look sketchy, but I would say with some common sense, its no more dangerous than anywhere else.
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The students I know at USC feel safe on campus, but you do not leave campus and the immediate village surrounding. There is no where around that area students should be walking to or hanging out.
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Except —- USC does not guarantee housing after sophomore year. And while there is private student housing close by, it is very expensive and fills up quickly.
So a lot of students are living a 10-20 minute walk away from campus as of junior year (and sometimes earlier). That pretty much necessitates being “in the neighborhood”.
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Wife had a friend who lived the 10 min walking distance from campus which I always thought was insane… She didn’t have any problems the two years she lived there, but I would have felt unsafe. Most of my “rich” friends lived in the DT high rises; the not so rich friends drive in from places in Pasadena, K town, mid Wilshire, arcadia / Alhambra or as far as Torrance / long beach.
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Probably one of the most unsafe situations on or near any college campus is getting drunk at a large party that includes people you do not know well.
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There is quite a bit of student housing within the DPS zone. In the past 3-4 years, several new private student housing complexes have been built. Like other schools, students start looking for apartments around winter break the previous year.
Housing around USC is not cheap, but I don’t hear of students having a difficult time finding it like at other schools. Shoot, Lorenzo houses 3600 students by itself! My guess is that students commuting from Torrance, Alhambra, etc. probably do so because they are living with family or friends in those areas. My USC senior doesn’t know anyone living in downtown high rises.
There is plenty of crime within the DPS zone. USC is in a very urban setting. As a parent, I receive frequent emergency alerts. Most don’t involve students, but are alerts to advise students to avoid certain areas.
Many crimes are crimes of opportunity. Students are taught about safety at orientation. Don’t walk alone. Don’t walk at night. Eyes up. Don’t look at your phone while you walk/bike/scooter. Lock your doors. Don’t leave valuables unattended.
USC has a Lyft program that is affectionally calle Fryft for “free lyft.” It isn’t free, as the cost is included in your mandatory fees. Basically from 6 pm - 2 am, Lyft rides are covered within a region around campus. Students use Fryft to get home from evening classes, to go grocery shopping, to visit friends, etc.
USC has a very active parent FB group. Have you joined it?
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Thank you. That is very helpful information. I haven’t joined the FB group since my daughter has not committed yet. She is deciding between USC and Syracuse Newhouse for communications. I think she has to sit and think about how she felt when she was on campus. Growing up in the suburbs, it was definitely a culture shock for her and she was certainly uneasy about some things we saw regarding the homeless mostly and some stragglers on campus. The campus is beautiful and the school has many pros. Can’t wait to see what she decides.
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The area between Figueroa & Vermont from Jefferson to Adams is predominantly student housing, including Greek row.
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Is USC security also patrolling those residential areas or just within the actual campus and the village?
DPS is USC security. In the DPS zone, there are security ambassadors (unarmed security officers wearing yellow and red jackets) on every corner. Their job is to be seen and report suspicious activity to DPS. You can read more about the different types of security officers here.
This page might be helpful. https://www.usc.edu/campus-safety/
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Apology in advance for the length!
For me personally, I was nervous (maybe terrified) about it with my first one, even though he is a 6’2" athlete. But the more I personally spent time there (and I have been there a lot) the worry subsided greatly to where I didn’t worry about safety, just the other regular stuff when they leave home. The neighborhood surrounding USC, if not students, is working class families, but primarily students, and it is bustling all the time. The bad element tends to be from other areas, not the surrounding area. Would I want my daughter there in the summer walking blocks from school at night by herself? No, but that is because there is way less people and security around then. But during the school year I don’t worry about it. They had campus cruiser and free Lyft to ensure they aren’t walking a lot outside of campus alone. Having said this, we did choose to house our girls close to campus when they didn’t live on it, (paying more of course) and one did stay through the summers with no problem. When you get out to the border streets outside of campus (Figeuroa/Adams/Vermont/Exposition), there can certainly be some colorful characters and not the great kind, but mine didn’t ever feel threatened by them. It’s the usual caution required when off campus - don’t walk blindly staring at your phone, don’t leave your laptop on the table when you get up to get your food, lock your bike, common sense stuff.
The one thing I can add is that I see great benefit in learning how to navigate a city area surrounded by 40,000 other students doing the same thing. You want to know if they take a business trip solo after graduation, they know how to handle themselves. One of mine spent their very first weekend with a new friend at USC catching buses and trains and a subway thing (didn’t know they had them) to get to Disneyland. Glad I didn’t know, but they figured it out and had a ball doing so. It’s a time for them to grow, we have to let them.
My students left USC fully adult capable and are now able to travel the world (and I mean the world) without me worrying about them in new potentially sketchy situations. If they never leave Mayberry, they may not need these skills, but most are likely to go places unfamiliar and we want them to be confident handling themselves when they do. College is a great time to get these skills.
Sometimes I wished they could have been at the campus set like Hallmark movie, in the pretty story book town, and not in such a grungy urban setting, but that thought was fleeting, and USC gave them a lot of skills they wouldn’t have gotten in storybook land. And let’s face it, USC campus is insanely beautiful and SoCal is a gorgeous playground - there are so many great things to see and do over their four years there.
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This ^^^
Many upperclassmen are a 10-20 minute walk off campus. And there’s a lot of options that are 5 minute walk as well. It is absolutely fine to be off campus if you are situationally aware. Just go to Ralph’s - now that is a multi-everything experience!
After sending several there for more than 10 years, I found the bigger challenge was to find a nice housing situation with good property management, safety wasn’t the concern at all.
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My USC student loves shopping at Ralphs! 
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Ironically on campus crime is higher at UCLA, likely because they dont have a large private police force. At the end of the day, USC is in a city. Chicago, Yale, Johns Hopkins all are in a similar situation. U Mich actually has the highest violent crime rate and it seems idyllic. As has been said before, anyone in a city needs to learn to be street smart, and all kids should be wary of the “college” scene and the threats that can pose. USC has done an amazing job ensuring students have the resources needed to be safe…the students just have to use them.
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https://dps.usc.edu/about-dps/types-of-officers/ describes the various kinds of DPS personnel. One category is actual police officers, while there are also several categories of non-police.
Re: The 27 most dangerous college campuses 2023 - Degreechoices.com
According to that page, sex offenses make up a very large portion of the crimes in question. On or near college campuses, this type of thing may have less to do with being in a “dangerous neighborhood” than getting drunk (or involuntarily drugged) at a large party and being chosen as an easy victim by a sexual predator, or sexual activity while drunk with disagreements of cloudy memory about whether it was consensual.
Some years ago, there were long threads about how difficult it was for third parties (college disciplinary boards or police and courts) to figure out what really happened and come up with the correct uncontroversial decision.
Correct. I linked to that at the end of this paragraph.
The area, described by @lkg4answers, between Figueroa & Vermont from Jefferson to Adams, is fairly safe. This area is well patrolled with a security person at many locations. The three years my USC son (graduated 2021) lived in that area; he did not ever feel unsafe. He felt very comfortable walking at night to and from the campus/library. Like everyone else, he still had to be vigilant and be aware of his surroundings. This was very important as he ventured outside the area, especially in a large urban city like LA. However, one should be very careful when venturing into some of the fast-food places, on Vermont or Figueroa, because nonstudents also patron at those places.
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