I understand the agony of this final choice–which school to attend. When I look back on all of the young people I’ve come to know through my children, I can only point to a very small number who were unhappy with their school choice and transferred. Most kids are happy with whatever school they attend–even if they attend schools they perceive as less prestigious than their first choices. I concur with all who suggest families factor in the financial realities very heavily. A dream school won’t remain that way if your child graduates with a heavy burden of student loans.
My only regret (and it’s an unserious one) is allowing my kids to attend colleges far from home. They loved their schools and landed jobs in those cities when they graduated. What was I thinking?
For all of you who choose USC, you will love your time as a Trojan. My son graduates next month and has loved every minute of every day at SC.
@cookie16, maybe it’s a little like the lottery. If you are a happy person to begin with, the odds are that you’ll find happiness at whatever college you attend, but if the other way around, one can always look at the glass as half empty if one chooses to.
@cookie16 I get the far from home thing, that was in the back of our mind having raised all of our kids with no extended family near by, they never really knew their grandparents, just from a distance/occasional visit/cards in the mail kind of relationship. We had a couple tempted to go across the country, but luckily the pull of USC was too much for them and now they are beginning to settle here as well. It is hard being a parent with all the letting go!
My bff sent a D across the country and she did end up transferring back and it was sad and stressful, but all worked out after the transfer. Her unhappiness was due to getting into the wrong social group and activities when she started, and somehow then couldn’t recover and get into another one as the clicks were already formed. Being a girl can be harder sometimes I think!
Congrats on the upcoming graduation - if you want any tips, pm me, one of my Trojans graduated last May so I just went through it.
@CADREAMIN, that was a great commencement speech by Will Ferrell last year. Still can see it on YouTube.
@WWWard, undeniably, we have entered a new phase. The long wait for admission notices is over, although S is still waitlisted at one of his other top choices. Fortunately we can make the finances work for S to attend USC (factoring in the scholarship), so there would not be debt at the end of four years. However, we must decide whether it is “worth” the extra $$$ compared to other offers that are significantly less overall cost to attend. Still not sure whether S will be one of the 5000 who do not attend USC or one of the approximately 3000 who do matriculate!
As for the issue of distance… it did not really phase us. FL to L.A. is far… but still only 4.5 hrs via a non-stop to LAX. By comparison… driving to Duke or Vandy would have been a 9 hr drive one-way. You can justify it or reason against it as you choose to do so. For us… we simply embraced it for what it was.
@Nomorelurker Ya it was a fantastic graduation ceremony and after we got home I re-watched Ferrel a couple times. Their grad set up is phenomenal. We also enjoyed the bubbly Cooper Nelson, totally a California girl, totally. She was adorable. Her laugh is the sweetest darn thing.
Regarding the topic of distance, the flight from Atlanta to LAX is also 4.5 hours, as @WWWard suggested is about the same from his Florida location. However, when you factor in being at the airport one to two hours in advance of the flight, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to drive or take public transportation to the airport, shuttle to rental cars is a bit of a hassle in L.A… (although some may use Uber), then drive to hotel or wherever one is staying in L.A., it can easily be 8 or 9 hours door to door each way. I’ve flown Atlanta to L.A. and back at least 25 times for business and pleasure. The flight back can sometimes be a little shorter due to tailwinds. That being said, it would not be a significant con for us in making a final decision. However, as @cookie16 mentioned, especially if coming from the East Coast, the distance from home may be worth considering for some.
My son is planning on “committing” when we go to the admitted student day on Thursday. We live in South Florida. His first visit was a few years ago, but I didn’t go on that trip with him and my husband. This will be my first trip there and I’m excited to see what has always been his #1 choice. I thought he would change his mind about going all the way to California, and choose either UF Honors, or go to Michigan where a lot of kids from So Fla and his high school attend. I am getting a lot of questions from other parents about how can I let him go all the way to California, but I agree with @WWWard in that no matter where he attended, it would be a long drive, or a flight. What’s most important to me is that he is happy. And I love the idea of visiting LA as regularly as he will allow (I think we agreed to once every 3 weeks) and everything I have seen from the school has impressed me, as well as the conversations I’ve seen here. It has been interesting for me to compare the conversations for the schools that he has considered.
What he is struggling with now though is McCarthy Honors (Presidential Scholar) or New North as he is meeting a lot of kids that are doing New North, and while he really wants a single suite and non communal bathroom, he is worried about sacrificing meeting all the kids who will also go greek.
Thank you to everyone who has provided so much great information on this site.
During the roughly 1370 days from start to finish in a typical 4 year college span (Aug of freshman year to May of senior year), 32 days (8 per year) will be travel days if you actually choose to return home for thanksgiving, winter break and spring break each year. Those 32 days though should not really be the deciding factor in my opinion.
In our case, they were either going to involve trips to and from Tampa to Atlanta or Houston or L.A. or New Jersey. They each take up a good part of a day.
If distance alone or the travel time or the travel cost is that much of an issue, then that specific college or university itself has likely failed to persuade you enough. If so… simply choose elsewhere. Traveling for up to 32 days during a nearly 4 year period may be disruptive, but that will likely be the case for all travel to a college unless you live only within 2-3 hours of your destination.
Instead… the decision to commit to a college or university should be about all of the other days there. It should be about the overall college experience while there and what that college or university may be able to offer and afford you in terms of internships while there and job opportunities beyond college. It should be about the education you receive, the quality of life as a student and the alumni opportunities after graduation. These are not the type of decisions that should take convincing. If the answer is not readily apparent & obvious to you… it is likely the wrong decision. If so… simply choose elsewhere. Clearly, college needs to be affordable. But if you can afford to go there and you remain unconvinced and are instead discouraged by issues like getting to and from there, then the motivation to attend is simply insufficient. If so… follow your true passion elsewhere instead. And if no college or university moves you… simply pursue a simple and affordable solution.
@cm19992000 Ironically, many of the friends of my daughters who opted to stay close and attend college in FL have told them that they now wish they had gone somewhere outside of FL too. Even some of their parents now wish that they had sent their kids elsewhere. Basically what they are really suggesting is that they would have preferred to choose to go to a smaller elite private university vs one of the larger state/public universities here within FL. Unfortunately, the only real private options that may be deemed elite or at least top 50 in or near FL are UMiami and Emory.
My daughter is right behind (she’s a junior) and she won’t even apply in Florida. I’m secretly hoping that she falls in love with USC too, although she says it’s too big. She wants engineering and their program looks fantastic. My son will be at Marshall.
@cm19992000 It worked out that way for me… thankfully. My younger daughter originally wanted something smaller and cozier in the northeast. Ultimately, once she visited – especially after touring SCA – everything else (other than maybe Yale and Brown) was pushed down on her list. They are there together now as freshman and senior. And I of course prefer such to having them far apart. In reality, USC does not ever feel that big when you are there. I know it has 18K undergrads and also 18K grad students… but it seems much smaller. It simply seems more like a college with 10-15K in total when you are actually there in person. At least that has been my experience. Compared to colleges like USF, UF, FSU, UCF and even UMiami… it seems more like the size of Vandy or Duke while there.
Can anyone tell me if transferring major within a school in USC is easy? For example, I want to transfer from Dornsife political science to Dornsife economics.
Here goes with my first post…Many fellow northeast mom friends openly questioned my letting D apply to west coast schools, which really annoyed me. But now D is such an incredibly happy '19 Trojan, I realize it would have been madness if I hadn’t. Although with S just accepted to USC and very seriously considering it, the thought of them both 3k miles away is tough! Love the thought of them together, though…
well… just wanted to share the end of our USC saga. My son will not be attending Thursday’s USC Explore to make the decision whether USC is the place for him… we have been appealing our FA offer of nothing… spent days of work trying to help USC see that we do NOT have any assets to pull from – other than 401K and 529 which we plan to use plus loans, work, etc, etc… and the response to appeal today was anemic. So sad to cancel plans… since all prepaid hotels/airfares… will just hang out in LA until Bruins day on Sat… wish i could understand why the NPC estimated literally 10x what was offered
Sorry it did not work out. But Bruin day will draw you in and UCLA is an excellent option to have. It can be quite a surprise that one is expected to liquidate virtually everything they own toward paying for college. It makes one realize those getting aid really do have very little. Do you know what influenced the outcome most? Home equity perhaps?
@blueskies2day
Wish i knew what influenced the outcome… no idea. home equity is only $150K and we live in Bay area – in our 50s. i can only guess it might be our 401Ks… really only asset other than 529s. The biggest surprise is that USC was BY FAR the least generous of ALL acceptances/FA pkg. Our USC NPC indicated about $22-24K in aid. and yes, my son is very fortunate to have UCLA as option as well as other top choice UVA - Finance major. again… just sharing to help others as they seek FA info for USC next year. I would never have allowed son to do the intense work to apply to USC if NPC had indicated ZERO aid.
@WWWard, agree that USC has a similar size feel to Vandy. Duke seemed larger to me. USC also did not feel like it was a school with 18,000 students like UNC which seemed much larger as well. Perception is not always reality though :-).
@onlyamom1, Sorry to read that your journey with USC has come to an end. No doubt it is disappointing given that other schools offered more aid. With the caveat that I don’t know how financial aid is calculated by USC, I wonder if it is possible that USC expects you to use the 529 to pay for the first year tuition and expenses, and would reevaluate your aid status for sophomore year, based on how much is left in the 529. Maybe others have a better idea of how it works with the 529 contributions. Of course, many understandably might not want to gamble on being offered more/sufficient aid after the 529 has been used up. UCLA and UVA seem like some great options to have though. Best of luck to your son.