The other label, back in the day, was the “University of Second Choice” (to UCLA).
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Maybe back in the day.
When cost is not an issue, USC is now a preferred undergrad choice to UCLA. Lots of data to support this, including Harvard Westlake’s granular matriculation stats.
That may or may not be true, but I would submit that there is only anecdotes to support your thesis, and HW is just one (anecdote) data point. It should be no surprise that families paying to attend a private HS would prefer a private Uni. Not to mention, how many of the HW applicants are also legacy to USC?
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I’ve spoken to enough college counselors and AOs on this to get a sense of preferences between the schools. Same with East Coast prep schools: USC>UCLA. Same with Poly and Flintridge.
Not taking anything away from UCLA. It’s a great school and in state bargain. But USC isn’t a definitive second choice anymore. It more than holds its own with full pays, or when FA equalizes.
Both great schools.
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HW’s granular stats indicate that UCLA gets significantly more unhooked applicants as compared to USC, both overall and from the top of the HW class. Curious how you believe this supports your conjecture that USC is preferred? HW matriculations include legacy admits, which significantly skew USC’s results. Many USC legacy admits would be long shots for admission to UCLA (as are most HW students).
If your general premise is that there is a subset of rich prep school kids who would prefer the USC experience to the UCLA experience, that’s not necessarily new or particularly surprising.
The schools are very different. Students don’t view them as offering a similar experience, so thinking of one or another as the “second choice” seems like an odd way of looking at it. Anecdotally, I know a number of students who turned down UCLA to go to schools they thought were a better fit, but none of these kids ended up at USC.
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H-W students may not necessarily be representative of all college bound students who get into both. High end private school students may generally have a greater preference for private colleges than public school students.
Also, cost is an issue for lots of students.
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Sure, and personally I’d recommend an excellent private over the instate public to nearly every OOS applicant. (Better value, IMO, other than a few programs.).
UCLA is $82k for OOS, adn USC is $99k. Yet, 'SC still offer merit money, and up until a few years ago, an auto discount for NM scholars, bringing down the price to that of UCLA OOS.
Correct. But not being 2nd choice does not mean its always first choice.
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Number of apps tells us little and certainly not ultimate preference. Many kids apply to 4 or more UCs. UCSD and UCSB get a ton of apps too. Apples to oranges.
I’m referring to kids who have an offer from UCLA and USC and are choosing between the two, where cost is not the deciding factor. USC yields very well vs. UCLA. Lopsided? No, I’m not suggesting that.
Again, rivalry chants and nicknames are exaggerated insults. They are not meant to be taken literally.
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Where students apply tells us quite a lot about preferences. For example if a top HW student, who arguably is competitive anywhere, applies to UCLA but not USC, then it is reasonable to believe that the student prefers UCLA over USC.
In the most recent 3 year report, unhooked HW students were over 45% more likely to apply to UCLA than USC. HW students from the top GPA grouping were 54% more likely to apply to UCLA than USC. UCLA also gets significantly more applicants than do UCSB and UCSD. Only UCB has a comparable number of applicants. IMO, in a status and prestige hungry atmosphere like HW, UCLA is widely considered the better school, except among USC alums, legacies, and perhaps Trojan football fans. USC is also considered a very good school, but one of many very good private schools below the tippy top level, so not necessarily a top target of the top students. (UCLA isn’t a top target either, but it more likely to be on the list.)
USC doesn’t even pull as many unhooked HW applicants as University of Michigan.
I wasn’t aware that HW kept and distributed stats tracking students who applied to both USC and UCLA, got accepted to both, then chose one or another. Could you please provide us a link to such statistics? Thanks.
I am aware top HW students who were accepted to UCLA but ended up choosing (arguably) more prestigious tippy top schools to which they were also admitted. I am not aware of any students who passed on an admit to UCLA for USC.
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I just needed Lori Laughlin to support the claim 
That’s fair. But so does this:
Seems like you would have needed to have spoken to a lot of people to be able to generalize. The idea that HW may not be representative of the larger applicant pool makes a lot of sense, and it looks like another poster has data to suggest that, even at HW, UCLA may still be the choice.
I will admit that, based on my own anecdata, USC has become a popular destination for a lot of good students.
USC probably wins on average class size though both are big schools. Each has distinction in various programs, so I suppose it depends on what you’re studying. UCLA has a better location IMO.
We like both schools out here (representing the east coast prep schools), but I would not agree that prep schools prefer USC. We perceive the average student at USC to be slightly less competitive.
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And you forgot - UCLA doesn’t even pull as many unhooked HW applicants as University of Michigan.
What that means or implies? I have no idea.
I have a kid who was accepted to both Berkeley and UCLA but chose to attend USC.
In our case, USC was the cheaper option, but that wasn’t the only factor that went into our decision. Students who are interested in SCA, Thornton, Annenberg, or even Marshall might choose USC over other options. A couple of years ago, a very active parent shared their student’s decision to attend USC over UCLA.
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I’m not sure one high school speaks for all. Nor am I sure what it has to do with USC legacy admissions.
No doubt some would pick USC over UCLA and Michigan, UCLA over USC and Michigan and Michigan over UCLA and USC.
I think this is consistent with the perception locally. But it seems a strange comparison, because the two schools are very different and potentially provide significantly different experiences. I imagine that a knowledgeable college counselor would recommend one for some students and the other for other students. My own family and friends have applied to one or the other, but not both.
Except this isn’t true. During the last reported three year period. 261 HW unhooked students applied to UCLA, 234 applied to U of M, 171 applied to USC. As for what it means as far as popularity of the schools among the students, it seems pretty self-explanatory. I’ve tried to explain the respective reputations to you from a a local perspective, and I’ll leave it at that.
Makes sense. Those are excellent programs; I’ve recommended them to friends and relatives. USC is an excellent school. Some kids, though, apply to UCLA but have no interest in even applying to USC. To each their own. To state, unequivocally, that for prep school kids “USC > UCLA” seems far fetched to me, as does the supposed support offered for said claim.
USC’s refusal to follow California Law so that it can continue to advantage legacy students extends USC’s reputation as a school which caters to rich, entitled, and connected applicants. Supported by facts or not, so does the claim that USC is the choice in Los Angeles for rich prep school kids who don’t care about cost.
IMO, one narrative isn’t necessarily true and both are unfortunate, as there is an awful lot to like about USC that isn’t related to the way it treats the most privileged among us.
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As a Northern California person, the claim that UCLA is second choice to USC if price is not a factor just reads absurd to me. If someone wants to argue that each draws as first choice to a significant number of kids, fine. But, lots of folks here have UCLA and pricey privates on their list with no USC to be found. No shade on USC, but the the assertion that UCLA is now second choice to it if price is even doesn’t pass the smell test.
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If one plugs in “StanfordRejects.com” into your browser, then one will be led to the Cal’s (UC Berkeley’s) website.
Kids these days. 
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depends on your criteria. if you are from new england - high academics, west coast, LA and what it offers, large, big time sports. Although most kids won’t go that far, overlap is somewhat logical and happens pretty often.
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