hi! need some help deciding between (mainly) USC and UCB for comparative literature (with consideration to other options like uiowa, hamilton, UCSB, UCD, and UCI and waiting for waitlist results from columbia, middlebury, UCLA, umich)
ACT 36 and SAT 1590 (not sure the relevance but following the pinned post here)
college costs are fully covered
USC: presidential scholarship, would major in comparative lit (literature/media/critical thought track), hopefully eventually double major in business administration, and minor in creative writing OR narrative studies. parents’ second choice.
UC Berkeley: no scholarship, major in comparative lit, simultaneous degree with another major in business. my highest ranked acceptance and my parents’ first choice.
UIowa: english and creative writing major, merit scholarship money… around ~20/30k extra beyond tuition. honors program, would most likely also apply for a double major in business administration or a similar focus but haven’t done my research yet
UCSB: comparative literature major and creative writing (writing & literature) in the CCS
UCD: majoring in comparative literature, with honors
UCI: majoring in comparative literature, with honors (30k merit)
hamilton: the only east coast school. english/literature or creative writing. again, not much research done with dual degree/double majoring.
WAITLISTS:
of my waitlisted schools, mainly just waiting to see if i can hear back from columbia or UCLA, but i applied to comparative literature for both.
i won’t be able to visit campuses aside from the ones i visited last summer (middlebury, hamilton) and prior to this application season, i have always been a much bigger fan of the east coast weather-wise and in terms of the general atmosphere/experience.
from experience, definitely loved brown’s campus and prefer more rural, quiet campuses that are closed-off. most likely will live off-campus after freshman year if i go to LA, so nice housing is not a super big concern but still a normal-sized one. really enjoy rainy weather and can’t function well in heat beyond maybe 25+ degrees celsius. so, for non-academics, all my california schools are kinda on the same playing field, though USC is slightly more preferably just because i have visited before 3ish years ago.
my current plan is to overload in courses in my second (or first) semester of freshman year depending on how i take the workload while i see how i like the school i end up going to. if i absolutely do not click with california, will definitely attempt transferring.
any advice is welcome, thank you all for your help! if more detailed info on stats would be helpful, i have a previous thread on my profile (?) with almost all of my major-relevant ECs.