<p>My D is Asian, a serious student, shy and (by her own admission) “nerdy,” loves art and East Asian languages, hates drinking and parties, hates the winter, wants to go to a school with a high percentage of Asian-American students. Where would she be happier?</p>
<p>I believe she would be much happier at the more academically-oriented Washington U. in St. Louis. There is a huge Asian population there, and the focus is more on academics. USC is a good school for film and drama majors, but it is HUGE party/drinking school. Both schools have sizable Asian-American populations–however, if your daughter hates partying, I’d strongly suggest Washington U. in St. Louis. The atmosphere at WUSTL would make her much happier. </p>
<p>That’s my 2 cents. Good luck and best wishes whatever your daughter chooses. It’s ultimately her decision. :)</p>
<p>I think WashU wins for “academic nerds” and USC wins for warm weather. You should be able to do some research on-line to find out the % of Asian students at both schools. I would probably send her to WashU because I think the fit of the student body will be more important that the weather, but both are excellent schools, so you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>According to the National Center for Education Statistics the population breakdowns for those two schools are:</p>
<p>Wash U :
58% White
14% Asian
7% Black
5% Hispanic</p>
<p>USC:
43% White
22% Asian
14% Hispanic
11% International</p>
<p>Who’s ‘nerdier’? WashU’s, average ACT is 33 USC’s is 32 with a 3.8 average admitted GPA (WashU to my knowledge does not publish that statistic). As for partying, USC does have a ‘bigger’ reputation on that front. But I can tell you unequivocally that there are plenty of students who don’t limit their social life to drinking especially given the seemingly limitless entertainment options that Los Angeles has to offer.</p>
<p>Has she visited both schools? When you say she hates winter, where has she lived in and experienced winter in? Of course WashU’s winter will be much colder than USC’s. </p>
<p>My S attends WashU, and we’re from NJ. The St. Louis winter is noticeably shorter than the NJ winter, but otherwise similar in terms of how cold it gets. St. Louis summers are hotter than NJ summers. My S says that the St. Louis weather is more changeable.</p>
<p>If you, say, live in upstate NY and wants to avoid winter, St. Louis would seem mild, but if, say you live in southern California, St. Louis winters would seem harsh. It’s all relative.</p>
<p>S says that there is a large Asian population at Wash U - both Asian-Americans and internationals; at least there is among his circle of friends (he is white). USC has a larger Asian population, but WashU’s is large enough that your D wouldn’t feel at all like she was the only one…</p>
<p>I think WashU has a more nerdy, less partying population than USC, but there is drinking and partying at every college, and WashU is no exception. </p>
<p>She’s got two great choices. She should visit both if she hasn’t yet, to help her decide which fit is better. Based on your description, I would lean towards WashU being the better fit, but I am biased since my S is very happy there.</p>
<p>If she can face the winter, Wash U should be a better fit. If she can’t, you may want to ditch both and look at Pomona and Rice.</p>
<p>vinceh,</p>
<p>Don’t use admitted stats from one schools to compare enrolled stats from another school. </p>
<p>WashU
1400-1540
32 - 34</p>
<p>USC
1280-1490
29 - 33</p>
<p>If you’re looking for an environment with Asians, California cannot be beat; because it’s the “landing” for a large portion of Asian immigrants, Los Angeles has an extremely vibrant Asian community. The Midwest, and in particular St. Louis, is not diverse in that respect. (California is 13% Asian, whereas Missouri is 3%.) The proportion of Asians at USC is not very relevant here; what matters is that LA is very much a hub for Asians. I would go with USC, especially since your D hates the winter.</p>
<p>^ pretty much what phantasmagoric said. LA has a ton of virbrant asian communities like little tokyo, thai town, korea town, china town, etc. She’ll find plenty of asians at both schools. However, i think she’ll be much more limited in finding asians outside of school in WashU, and a harder time finding a vibrant asian culture/community, than she would in LA. And LA also has warm weather.</p>
<p>As far as partying goes, there are plenty of studious students at USC who either don’t party at all, or party in moderation/very little (i was actually one of the, surprisingly many, students who came to USC to study when the superbowl was going on; i thought no one was going to be there.)</p>
<p>Thanks very much to all who replied - is anyone familiar with the East Asian languages program at USC or WashU?</p>
<p>Also, I say think really hard about where your daughter wants to be post-graduation. For me, I knew I wanted to be in California. I was a shy engineering asian male student who went to USC. I did consider UCLA (but didn’t have the program that I wanted to study) and Berkeley (did not apply). I was able to use USC’s on-campus recruiting to land a six figure job in finance in Cali. Sure, Berkeley has more prestige and I REALLY don’t like the image of USC being some party school full of rich jocks (I was on a pell grant = poorest household income), but the perception is slowly changing. I landed a dream job that I love so I can’t say anything bad about the opportunity USC provided for me.</p>
<p>sam lee thank you for pointing out that USC’s average enrolled ACT should have read 31 instead of 32.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, you are so off on USC’s freshman enrollment statistics.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011v4.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1112/USCFreshmanProfile2011v4.pdf</a></p>
<p>Fall 2010 was
SAT: 1970-2180
ACT: 29-33</p>
<p>@ModernMan - Sam Lee gave the SAT scores out of 1600. You probably notice that the ACT scores are the same.</p>
<p>^dfree124 got it right.</p>