I’m a senior and I’m down to deciding between two schools: USC and Cornell. Any input would be appreciated! Both schools are affordable for my family.
USC Pros
Generous financial aid
Great student life
Great weather
Great location (LA metro area )
Guaranteed McCarthy dorm because NMF
More of a big fish in a little pond situation?
USC Cons
So I got admitted for Journalism in Annenberg, but now I’m not as enthusiastic about journalism as I was when I was applying. I was thinking I might apply to transfer to Marshall or Viterbi, which is not a guarantee, so I might be stuck with journalism for more time than I want.
I got a journalism department scholarship (which I haven’t accepted yet) which is an award of $19k/year (I did not factor this into my tuition), but I have to maintain my journalism major to keep it. I’m not sure if I could double degree in business and some Annenberg major to keep it, but transferring out of journalism feels like a waste of the scholarship.
Expensive housing
Not as prestigious as Cornell
Potentially unsafe area?
Cornell Pros
Even more generous financial aid (cheaper than USC for first year)
Being in CAS affords me more time to explore my interests before declaring a major, although I am looking at Cognitive Science or CS
Gorgeous campus
Prestige factor obviously
I feel like I could adjust to its culture
Cornell Cons
Not great weather (I’m from Texas so would the cold be a shock?)
Secluded location–hard to get to and from Cornell
More of a small fish in a big pond situation?
Sad students
Competitive environment, not as relaxed as USC
So basically, I’m not sure if the prestige and probably better job placement Cornell offers is enough to offset the student life, weather, and general enjoyment of the college experience I think I’ll have at USC. But while I think I’d really enjoy myself at USC, I don’t think I’d be miserable at Cornell–I think I could adjust to it. Me and my family are visiting Cornell on 4/21 on the Admitted Students Day to explore further. What do y’all think?
First, decide how wedded are you to journalism? Annenberg is a far cry from cog or comp sci. Job placement is a function of your major, with j-school grads not as employable vs. Cog Sci grads.
'SC is big on football in the fall. Is that of interest?
Cornell used to run shuttles to the airports for school breaks. Ask if they still do. Ithaca can be a fun college town.
Personally, I wouldn’t let cold weather be the deciding factor. People move from warm climates to cold climates all the time and do fine. Think of it as an adventure!
I would wait for the admitted students day before trying to make a decision about where you would be happiest. Until then, don’t overthink it!
Cornell and USC have about the same size of 20K undergraduates, and there are plenty of big fish in both of those big ponds. I see it as a decision between the prestige of Cornell - Ivy duh, but also more remote - versus the lifestyle of LA which is great, but USC is simply not as prestigious (University of Second Choice still rings true in comparison to an Ivy)
The discussion of prestige is kinda silly, IMO. Cornell is top 10 in CS, while USC is top 20. No employer is gonna care. If OP decides to go into Academia, the Cornell degree will not yield a better result than a degree from 'SC. Both are world-class institutions.
btw: Cornell has 16k undergrads and 10k grads (not all in Ithaca). USC is nearly twice as large with 21k & 28k, respectively. Based on the ratios alone, Big Red is a tad more undergrad focused.
One other consideration, you can easily double major between colleges as USC but this is harder at Cornell. My kid is down to the same two options but visiting Cornell in winter made them realize that weather and lifestyle was a huge factor for them.
Do you want to end up on the east or west coast after school? Honestly you are going to get a good job out of either place, most likely with similar salaries, id focus more on what your life will be like at each school and making sure your particular area of interest are covered at the school
I think this comes down to major - what can you study?
I’m guessing you can double major at Dornsife at USC, similar to being in CAS at Cornell. Journalism is a tough major to be its own. When I studied journalism, a double was required. And I see at USC they do have it - so if you go there, you might start with journalism, with a double. It’s a top school - you might decide you love it but if not you can transition out.
I wouldn’t say Cornell has better job placement. They may but I would formally check that. If you check the Cornell career outcomes, most kids are getting jobs like at other schools today - linkedin, indeed, company websites. Less from Cornell itself. Of course, this is major dependent. And a Neuro major doesn’t set you up for much.
For the last two years in CAS, Linkedin was the top source of jobs followed by internet posting - so likely indeed or companies followed by personal contact and thenhandshake, which is a schools indeed. Much much lower is the career fair and alumni - and really low is on campus interviewing but likely similar at many schools today. Most schools don’t give you the source so it’s hard to compare but you might get outcomes from USC - I wouldn’t necessarily say Cornell is outpacing them - hard to know.
But if you have a desired major, I would go to where I had the best chance to study. But like you’ve changed once already, you are likely to change again.
Not sure what you mean by this. S23 is at Cornell (Engineering) and has had the opposite experience. The work is certainly a grind, but he enjoys being able to balance it with an active social life. He continually tells me that students there know how to take breaks and have fun, and there is a lot of collaboration in his engineering classes. “Work hard, play hard,” seems to fit the student body.
That said, if you have concerns about weather, then Cornell is not the place to be. Although there wasn’t a lot of snow this winter, there were a lot of gray, drab, rainy days.
My daughter is a freshmen at USC in Annenberg, majoring in PR. She is leaning towards adding two minors in two different schools instead of adding a double major. (She could double major at Marshall and graduate in 4 years, but unsure about the requirements at Viterbi.)
Most of her freshman classes have been gen ed classes so if you decide on USC, you should have time to sort it out and decide what makes the most sense.
