My daughter is work hard / play hard type of person. 4.3 GPA and 35 ACT. Although she is smart and motivated in school, she also is mainstream and well adjusted and favors having a social life in addtion to being surrounded by smart people. Can you help compare these schools and help guide decision. TY.
Is she a senior and has she applied and been accepted to any of those?
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yes, she is senior⊠Accepted Chicago UVA and SC. Awaiting WUSTL.
I know a couple kids who just finished at USC who sound exactly like your kid and they absolutely loved it. (Iâm talking about the one in California, not South Carolina).
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Has she visited all four ?
What major?
Does cost matter? Is she going to interview for a merit scholarship at USC?
No. She Has not. Not sure has the time / resources to visit. Was hoping to get other peopleâs experiences and insightsâŠ
Cost does not matter. She will study environmental science / studies and business (or business adjacent stuff).
UVA she has to apply for the business program for sophomore year. Is she ok gambling that she can get in?
UChicago is pretty academic in tone. This doesnât quite sound like her.
Iâd go visit USC. You really need to visit the campus so she can figure it out.
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Can you get to any ? It sounds like you are full pay.
Iâve been to all four. Maybe Chicago wouldnât meet your need -if any. The others would. WUSTL and USC are more contained with USC being much bigger.
UVA has secondary admission for business of that ended up the path.
USC will be âwarmestâ.
UVA will be most âcharmingâ but also hardest to get to.
Environmental science and policy are very different - but if she seeks smaller, WUSTL. Bigger USC âŠif were me.
Looking at WUSTL - they donât have an Env Science major but an analysts major which looks like a combo of the two. You can look at the curriculum.
USC has a Env Science and Health.
If she doesnât want to be in the big city - and UVA is near a national park - then UVA.
All are great. But you might want to look at curriculums to ensure they each have what she wants - ie look beyond the major. Again science has studies - very different.
Thereâs no wrong answer but to me Chicago might be the easiest to prune.
Good luck.
If OPâs daughter was admitted to USC EA, she is probably interviewing for a merit scholarship. If she is a NMF, she is guaranteed a half-tuition scholarship and would be interviewing for the full-tuition scholarship.
Hasnât answered. All meet need. Says doesnât have the resources to visit so maybe has need ?
Guess weâll hear soon.
Obviously an accomplished student.
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USC also has an environmental studies major with four concentrations.
- Sustainability, Energy and Society
- Oceans, Life and People
- Climate, Earth and Environment
- Environmental Public Policy
For USC, was she accepted into Dornslife (Env Sci) or Marshall (Business)?
If she enters in Dornslife, she has the option to complete a progressive degree. She could complete her undergrad in env sci (Dornslife) and a masters in business (Marshall) or a masters in public policy (Price).
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Off hand this sounds like a really strong case for USC.
Chicago seems like entirely the wrong culture/vibe, WUSTL closer, but UVA and USC are spot on.
My understanding is USC and UVA then both have Business minors available for non-Business students (I am reading that as the OPâs intention), but it sure seems to me like the USC possibilities are much more potentially interesting to an ES core person than the UVA ones:
USC
Business
Business Economics
Business Finance
Business Law
Business Technology Fusion
Biology and Business
History and Culture of Business
Risk Management
. . . and even more.
UVA
Entrepreneurship
General Business
Leadership
Real Estate
Not saying that couldnât work at UVA, but I would personally be more excited by USCâs approach.
Can someone pls describe the difference in social scenes? TY
So it is important to understand these are large(ish) communities, and people will tend to find other people like them.
But one obvious difference is UVA and USC are significant D1 sports colleges, and Chicago and WUSTL are D3. And then there is a whole campus culture that tends to go along with that, including certain sorts of big parties and other events. And of course UVA and USC are simply bigger in generalâaround 18,000 and 21,000 respectively, versus 7,700 for Chicago and 7,600 for WUSTL.
Then âwork hard/play hardâ tends to go along with all that too, at least in the traditional sense. Chicago is more of a work hard/and we love it! school (although that is maybe a little less true than it used to be). WUSTL is more what I like to call a âwork medium/play mediumâ school. UVA and USC, though, I think would at least fit the more traditional sense of that term.
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The vibe sheâs looking for and her combination of interests sound like USC indeed, with WUSTL second.
Uchic has the wrong vibe and Iâd be wary of UVAâs secondary selection process for business since Environmental science will be her focus.
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Going by your description of your daughter, UChicago seems like the outlier. Itâs a fantastic school but I donât think anyone would describe it as a work hard/play hard atmosphere. More like work hard and then work harder . . . in all seriousness a friendâs son just graduated from Chicago and had a good experience (it wasnât work all the time) but he wasnât a play hard type.
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I have a slightly different read - but I think it comes down to what you mean by play hard. We visited all the listed schools except USC and my Dâs have several close friends/cousins who went to UVA and WUSTL. My younger D is a recent UC grad and absolutely loved it - I would say she is more of a âplay hardâ than either of my girlsâ friends/cousin who went to UVA or WUSTL. I would describe her in a similar way as you describe your D - def mainstream (student/athlete with lots of interests) and plays hard. But her idea of play is not the Greek scene although several of her roommates were in a sorority nor is it clubbing until 4 am on a regular basis - again, did on occasion and some of her friends did more frequently nor tailgating for huge sporting events (if thatâs your daughters thing than def D1 sports over D3). She has diverse social interests - includes clubs but would pick more intimate bars and interesting events - concerts, shows, comedy clubs etc. - loved the vibrance/offerings of a city. That is a huge difference in the feel, to me, of these schools - access to Chicago and the frequency with which she and her friends went into the city for fun. I would highly recommend that if you cannot visit she try to speak with current students or recent grads. Chicago is def a work hard school - but my D and her friends def also had a lot of fun. Double majoring in environmental science and - at Chicago - Econ, not business (but there is a major called Business Economics which is mostly Booth classes so def a strong business option) is very doable. I, too, would encourage visits. Accepted student days can be very illuminating and give a much better sense of the social scene. That said, I do think Chicago is perfect for a certain kind of kid and a bad fit for many others - your D needs to figure which kid she is. Good luck!
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There is no way for anyone to really compare them in detail given that no one has attended all of them for undergraduate. All we can do is give you impressions from visiting or from folks we know at each. If at all possible, consider visiting at least 2.
People we know currently at Chicago go out almost every weekend either on campus or into the city or both. They socialize and they work hard. However, there is no big sports culture on campus like the USC and UVA social lives revolve around. The âsceneâ at chicago (and WashU) is not the same as a big football school, at all. But these kids would not describe themselves as work-hard and harder.
The more âsocialâ kids at UVA say it is common to be out Thurs-Fri-SAT every week, and claim everyone has a fake ID and it is ânecessaryâ to have fun (which is not at all true at my kidsâ schools or at UChicago). But we know some serious academics who are all about the intellectual parts of UVA and hanging with small groups /no drinking parties at all, do not care one iota about UVA basketball or football, and have found their people.
Bottom line, these schools can all âfitâ a variety of social personalities. She needs to go visit and decide for herself.
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