<p>USC is smaller and private and therefore less impacted by the vagaries of the State of California budgeting process. UCLA is a large public institution behind only Berkeley is selectivity in the California system. All of the California state colleges are going through an upheaval due to economic/budgetary issues. While we can all speculate on the impacts, that’s all that it is, speculation. So it comes down to some basic questions:</p>
<p>Do you want a big environment or medium sized?
Do you want an in-city experience (USC) or a slightly more neighborhood feel (UCLA)?</p>
<p>The GPA/SAT differences between the two schools is trivial, so the size of the pond is irrelevant, everyone swimming beside you will be of equal caliber. You can’t get an answer on Viterbi v Samuelli because it’s very rare to find one person who has experienced both locations; it would be no different than asking someone to compare Tufts and BC. The people at each school could tell you about their experiences, but could only rely on hearsay about the other school. I suggest reading the Viterbi threads here and the Samuelli threads on the UCLA board. You might get some sense of the attitude differences from those discussions.</p>