<p>I don’t think you’ll have any problem in terms of peers at USC. If anything else, you’ll be around plenty other trustee/presidential scholars (most of whom will have turned down highly ranked schools as well)</p>
<p>If you are a trustee scholar, you will not have any trouble maintaining that 3.0, as long as you don’t totally slack off. Even in engineering, they are only asking you to be slightly above average.</p>
<p>And in engineering, having an “ivy league” degree is fairly meaningless. Cornell is one of the better ivy’s for engineering, but still - even though it may be somewhat better ranked/regarded, I certainly don’t think it’s $60,000 better. </p>
<p>If I were you, I’d stop worrying so much about rankings. You’ll be successful with a degree from either place.</p>