USC vs. UCLA competitive admissions

compoopers
Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:36:12 +0000

I got to a really competitive high school that sends a bunch of kids to top unis every year.

At my school, the ones going to UCLA (not the ones admitted, the ones attending), are quiet, moderately smart kids but nothing to write home about. There are many super smart kids that got in but got into much better schools such as Ivies or Berkeley or other places like that, so they’re not going.

The kids going to USC are divided. On one hand we have a handful of super smart kids who got great scholarships to USC, so they chose USC over other top schools (I know a girl going to USC over Harvard, and another going over U Chicago, and another going over Berkeley). However, there are also kids who aren’t super smart, but the very super social/outgoing type, and I wonder if USC somehow knew that they’d be good fits.

Anyway, the caliber of kids going to USC at my school is much higher, but I would point to the fact that UCLA admitted a very strange bag of students this year – a bunch of kids who barely deserved to get in, and a bunch of kids who are way overqualified… the ones in the middle got the boot for some reason.