<p>You seem more worried about “prestige” than if you can obtain a fine education. USC is not a safety school these days. </p>
<p>In the U.S. News ranking (Yes, I know there are many rankings) it is #23. That is not 56 or 82. In U.S. News academic reputation index by their peers SC was ranked tied with Notre Dame and Emory. It was only ONE point below Rice and Washington Univ. at St. Louis. That is not a chasm.</p>
<p>You will be studying neuroscience in the school that just received a $200,000,000 gift. Some time ago SC recruited the Honda Prize winner, Dr. Antonio Damasio along with his brilliant wife, Dr. Hanna Damasio. Drs. Damasio are known acoss the nation for their work. Dr. Nikias at a recent speech commented neuroscience is going to be one of the featured programs at SC. That means there will be generous funds for research, new labs, star professors added. Already, the David Dornsife Imaging Center is helping to provide new research capabilities. You may be working with Professor Maja Mataric. She is a professor of neuroscience who has received the National Science Foundation Career Award. She was also featured in a documentary about seven of the the world’s leading scientists.</p>
<p>If you visit the Facebook group of admitted students you will find seniors who are planning to attend SC over highly ranked universities. Not all of these received merit scholarships.</p>
<p>SC does not "throw money in your face’. They have offered you a great opportunity which will save your family thousands and thousands of dollars. These dollars are not from the government. Alumni, friends of SC or foundationss have provided you with these funds to help gifted students attend a fine university at a much lower cost.</p>
<p>If you already live in California keep in mind these will not be the same students you knew in high school. SC has the largest number of international students of any university. There were 1,397 high schools represented in the 2010 freshmen class. Your classmates will be from all over the world. Due to top notch art schools your peers will be many of the most creative, talented, imaginative and inventive freshmen students, in my opinion.</p>