Hi guys, I am a transfer aerospace engineering student and I was accepted as a transfer student at USC and ISU, I got my tuition cost covered at both institutions, just trying to decide where to attend.
Based on my understanding, USC is a much better school. (I don’t attend either of them though)
Is it USC (SoCal) or Southern Carolina? If the former, the Viterbi school is pretty good.
I’ve heard that there are multiple ISU (Iowa state, idaho state, etc). Also fit is important.
Which one are you more comfortable at?
Your tuition is covered but what about housing, meals, transportation to & from, etc?
Do you have preliminary evaluations for your transfer credits yet?
What have you heard so far about the way each of these places handled the lock-down this spring, and what can you find out about plans for the fall? If you end up studying from home on a laptop, which place seems to be handling online instruction better?
Thank you @mczchl @Diaz42 it is Iowa State University and University of Southern California. I am comfortable at both, but USC has a lower student teacher ratio, but I will have to move to LA. ( or take fall semester online, which I don’t mind)
@happymomof1 housing and all the other expenses are not covered. So far ISU is accepting 65 credits and I haven’t received USC’s, USC is planing on having both on campus and online classes. ISU is planing on opening in the fall too.
Sorry for the late response!!
You need to find out more about living expenses, and consider how you would cover those. I expect that Ames will be less expensive than LA. That might end up being a deciding factor for you.
The overall student teacher ratio doesn’t matter. What can matter is the student teacher ratio for the classes you will be taking. See what you can find out about that.
Right now there are a lot of places that are hoping to have on-campus classes this fall. But dig a little deeper into what they are saying. They have several scenarios that will be put into place depending on the progression of the pandemic. Some institutions are putting that information right on their websites, others are holding the alternate plans in reserve for now.
If you can afford the extra costs, take USC. USC Viterbi is well respected in comparison to ISU. Viterbi is also ABET accredited whereas ISU is not. ABET accreditation really matters for engineering. Also, if you look at the majors for ISU there is no aerospace engineering whereas at USC there is. In addition, there are many nearby companies in the area like SpaceX, Northrop Grumman etc. IMHO I think USC is much better in comparison to ISU for engineering, so unless the cost disparity is huge I would definitely take USC. Also, could you share the overall net cost so we can compare? Thanks!