<p>I don’t really know much about USC as I’m a junior applying there myself, but I know Stanford very well as both of my parents used to work there, I spent most of my life in Palo Alto, and my high school was across the street from the campus.</p>
<p>Stanford is ridiculously hard to get into. You could be a varsity captain, have a 4.0, an extremely good SAT score (over 2300), an intern at Lockheed Martin, and still not get in. I have a theory that they like to throw up all their applications and just accept which ever ones end on the table. However, I am positive that the majority of students are true geniuses who are passionate about everything they do.</p>
<p>That said, I love Stanford and Palo Alto a lot. The atmosphere is definitely different from other places (I moved recently, and hated it). Many people who reside in Palo Alto work for tech companies like Apple or Google, and are some of the most intelligent I know. The people aren’t very snobby even though most are very well off. It does get kind of boring being a suburban town, but I never found a lack of things to do. Most involve eating downtown :). San Francisco is pretty close (45 min by car or Caltrain) and there are no shortage of things to do. Palo Alto itself tends to have a lot of middle school and high school kids swarming around. Also, most people are forced to live on campus because Palo Alto real estate is ridiculous.</p>
<p>I haven’t spent much time at USC but I love LA. The weather is warmer than that of Northern California and it’s definitely a busy, city atmosphere. The public transportation sucks in LA but I’ve heard that USC is developing some sort of metro system. I know USC is a lot easier to get into than Stanford, but it’s also a really good school with many different majors and different types of students.</p>
<p>I think the main difference between the two schools is the different academic atmosphere (USC is probably a lot more lax) and the two cities surrounding the campuses. </p>
<p>I hope this helps! I am looking to get into USC myself 
and maybe we’ll be classmates one day! I’d love to go to Stanford but I doubt that I’d be able to get in and I’m a little sick of it. There’s a great shopping center on campus though! If you get a chance, you should take a trip visit both schools to get the feel of each one.</p>