USC vs Dartmouth

College Search & Lists
1

Need some help deciding between the two. A few things are factoring into my decision and making it rather difficult.

  1. Financial Aid
    I’m a high financial need student with an EFC of 0. Basically I can’t pay for college and am completely reliant on FinAid. At USC I’ll have about 30k in debt after 4 years. At Dartmouth, I’ll have none. Since I’m poor, I also wouldn’t be able to take advantage of almost anything with extra cost at USC, like outings.

  2. Study Abroad
    This is something that is extremely important to me, but I am worried that at USC my opportunities will be limited, and from what I’ve seen the study abroad programs seem competitive. Conversely what I’ve heard about Dartmouth is that its very easy to study abroad, even if your financial need is high.

  3. Quality of Education
    I’ve heard Dartmouth has a more demanding workload than USC. I like having more free time but I actually prefer the system of studying a few courses very intensely for a shorter period of time. That being said, I am worried about being overworked, as I am very sensitive to sleep deprivation. I like that Dartmouth seems to have smaller class sizes, as I’d like to have a good working relationship with my professor. I’ve heard from both Dartmouth and USC students that the professors are fantastic and really know their subjects, but I’d like to get the best education for my time.

  4. Quality of Life
    As I mentioned before, I don’t have money to spend on extra things, so I’m worried I’ll suffer for this at USC as it tends to be a rich kids school. Don’t know how much that would be the case at Dartmouth. I’d also want a place with a good social scene. I’ve heard good things about USC in that regard, and controversial things about Dartmouth. The impression I get is that at USC there’s lots of fairly mainstream socializing with lots of friendly people, while at Dartmouth, the same is true, but the frats can get way too extreme with their partying.

  5. Summer
    Dartmouth seems to have a lot of support for undergraduate summer research, while at USC seems comparatively obscure and difficult to get into. Dartmouth also seems to be better about getting students summer internships, or alternatively letting them study during the summer. On the other hand, USC reportedly does a good job of helping students get summer jobs.

  6. Interests
    I’m interested in social sciences and business, but my passion is in digital arts, specifically game development. I’ve heard USC has the best program for this, and I’d love to take it. That said, I’d have to build a portfolio during and transfer into the School of Cinematic Arts, or otherwise just settle for taking the classes and a minor. I know Dartmouth is building its own digital arts program, but it seems much smaller and to have far fewer resources and classes. I’ve heard that the Marshall School of Business at USC is really great school for international business. Haven’t heard much about Dartmouth’s business program, but they do have a business incubator which I may want to use.

  7. Graduate School Placement and Life after College
    I want to go to graduate school and get an MBA, hopefully from a prestigious grad school like Harvard or Princeton. Dartmouth has one of the highest graduate school placement rates in the country. No idea what USC’s is. I know Dartmouth has very strong establishment ties on the east coast, whereas USC degrees are hard to argue with in California. I don’t particularly care where I end up, but the west coast has a lot more game development going on. At the same time I know that getting into that industry can be a crapshoot and I’d like to have a backup career. In that, median salaries of Dartmouth graduates after 10 years are about three times those of USC graduates. Both have really strong alumni networks. Both have strong ties to established businesses and families.

Anyone have any knowledge/experience with these fields?

2

I’m afraid you lost me after I read this assertion. My sense is that you’re overthinking the decision. I very much question each of your assertions.

3

I may be overthinking it. If you’ve heard otherwise, that’s part of why I made this thread. What I read in terms of salaries was that at Dartmouth, the median after 10 years is 330k, whereas at USC its 130k. Not sure if those numbers are accurate, but its what I’ve heard.

4

I’d choose Dartmouth, with the finances a heavy hitter for the decision. Lots of kids don’t have money to spend on luxuries and frivolous things. Economic inequality exists. Looking at median salaries would be pure speculation. There’s a lot that goes into one’s successes, financial or not.

5

My sense is that the 30k difference over 4 years is relatively minor since you are aspiring for a relatively high paying profession. Also it seems from your description of your likely major and possible coursework that to a large extent you’re “undecided”. That’s very common for incoming freshmen. My advise is that you step back and figure out where you’d like to spend the next 4 years – in urban LA or in rural New England. Both universities are exceptional. It’ll be up to you to take advantage of what the universities offer. As I said earlier your post reads like a long list of misconceptions. I encourage you to put them aside and focus on the pragmatics of starting college. Neither college is likely to limit you in a meaningful way.

6

Thanks for the replies. I may indeed have a lot of misconceptions, what I know is limited to what I can find on the college’s websites and what news articles I can find that discuss USC and Dartmouth… Something I forgot to mention is that Dartmouth has a digital humanities program, which I personally find very interesting as I’ve long thought games and interactive media could be used to push for social reform. Still not sure though.

7

$330K is an absurd figure.

I have very little faith in salary surveys. People tend to overstate what they make (except to the IRS.)

Still, according to what Payscale says, USC’s median salary after 10-19 years is about $103K, which to me is within reason. Dartmouth’s is supposedly $117K. but its sample size is very low, which makes it questionable.

It would make more sense to try to figure out what the median income is on a per major basis rather than on a school-wide basis.