Why Do People Hate USC?

PEALS-05 · June 15, 2005, 3:19pm

“it would’ve been more productive if you started a thread on the POSITIVES of USC.”

Expected response of the vast majority of CC members:

“Uh… I guess it’s got a good football team and film school… I think.”
“Well, its in CA… I guess that means good weather.”

Expected response of a select and loud-mouthed few CC members:

“Nothing is positive. Overpriced, inferior party/jock school.”
“Nothing. Vastly inferior to Berk, UCLA, UCSB, UCSC and basically every other school in California. USC sucks.”
“Hah hah. Your school is in the ghetto.”
etc, along the same vein as 1 and 2 and 3

zeusviolin · June 15, 2005, 5:57pm

“Oh wait— weren’t you the one that blew up at someone who said that Pitzer was a good school in comparison to Scripps? That Pitzer kids weren’t very smart or hard-working and that you were insulted that they would be compared to Scripps? I think it was you. So you get over it.”

If you’d read the post on the Pitzer board, and the ones following, you would have noticed that my roommate made that comment, not myself. I have met some amazing kids from Pitzer and have a lot of respect for the vast majority of them (just like I have a lot of respect for the vast majority of Scripps students, though not all of them).

“Since you’re from a Claremont --Scripps-- I doubt you know what it’s like to have people always criticizing and deriding your school-- to your face. So maybe it’s harder to “get over it” than you are able to imagine.”

On the contrary. Do you know what it’s like to have no one know your school? Or to think that you are studying marine biology at the Scripps Institute in San Diego? People often look down on me for turning down more “elite” colleges to attend Scripps. They think that Scripps is either a community college or a haven for rich daddy’s girls. They don’t think it has a strong academic program, or see it as a competitive liberal arts college comparable to top women’s colleges on the east coast (even though it is). None of the assumptions are true, yet that’s the reality of the situation. I don’t particularly like it but I get over it.

“Sure there are great and bad things about every school. But I don’t see any other school’s face getting repeatedly ground into all the “bad” like USC does.”

I think that as a soon-to-be USC student your radar only detects negative information about USC. If you looked around, everyone complains about bad parts of every school. It is quite possible that USC gets the short end of the stick because of the strong University of California system, but many, many schools get railed on for some reason or another.

“I didn’t know caring to inform people of a few of their misguided opinions was considered flaming. In fact, I thought it was rather grown-up of me to take the effort to explain why certain ignorant opinions were wrong.”

If that’s what you were really doing, then I would believe you. But you keep picking fights with people and almost demanding that they believe what you tell them. I think that some of the points you bring up are good, but many are just bait or off-the-wall enough to strike a nerve.

I don’t mean to be offensive or degrading or anti-USC or harsh. I’m just stating my opinion, just as you have been doing throughout the thread.

alwaysthere · June 15, 2005, 6:03pm

If I were you. But again, I am not young like you any more.

In real life (not cyber world), USC is respected to its appropriate level. I know that since a lot of my family memebrs are USC grads.

It is good to have a competitive rival, but it is unfortunate to have a nasty, mean spirited one. When you deal with them, you need to remember this, even though a lot of UCLA people are respectable, intelligent, such as KFC, UCLAri on this board. Later you will inevitably meet some of bitter, loserly ones, students or alumni. What you need to do is just to succeed, and ignore because they really do not matter, to your life and career.

UCLA is particularly bitter in the relationship of rivalry, which shows their insecurity. Look at other rivalry pairs, UMich & Ohio State, UVa & VTech, Duke & UNC, the academic discrepancies between those schools are significantly larger than between UCLA&USC, but you’ve hardly seen harsh bashing like UCLA people did. This really show how well a California public education is compared to other states.

Of course there will be people who know a little yet say so much. Again I guarantee you they won’t matter at all regarding any aspect of life.

GentlemanandScholar · June 15, 2005, 7:36pm

As a Cal student I can say that I think USC is an excellent school and haven’t really heard anyone say too many bad things about it. Maybe there are some overzealous berkeley people that feel the need to trash other schools to make themselves feel better, but don’t put us all in that boat.

IzzieBear · June 15, 2005, 8:54pm

This is going to sound sappy, but each and every one of us - whether a Harvard, Cal, UCLA, USC, or Claremont student - are all extremely lucky to be going to such well known, beloved universities. I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again: threads like these, while a popular outlet for bitter rivalry, general frustration and the need for an ego boost, are really not necessary.

PEAS - we first talked on the “Why Do People Revere UC Berk and UCLA So Much?”, and perhaps we didn’t get off to such a hot start. But we did exchange apologies, so I’m not trying to initiate a bickering argument again. But honestly, it seems like you are doing exactly what you accused me of doing when I tried to explain why I, along with many other people, revere Cal and UCLA to such an extensive degree.

“Fair enough. But obviously, as you ARE a Cal student, you’re in most probability to be biased towards it. Your enrollment there makes the credibility of your opinions somewhat open to questionability as well.”

I would have to say, this also applies to you in this situation. You are an incoming USC student, and while I don’t discourage school spirit and pride, I do think that your defense is on a somewhat personal level.

But don’t we all get like that? When someone disses UCLA, doesn’t a crowd of Bruins come to it’s defense? Say Berkeley is overrated and there will be a slew of Cal enthusiasts that will come up with one hundred reasons why it’s not. It’s a great thing to love your school, and an even better thing when you know what your school has to offer.

Just try to see where everyone is coming from. Your thread asked “Why do people hate USC?” No one who responded gave reasons why they PERSONALLY disliked USC, but perhaps why the general public occasionally looks down upon it. But hey! I am a Cal student, and enough people look down upon my school just as much. On the other thread you started regarding Cal and UCLA, when I claimed there were many threads that questioned the excellence of UCB and UCLA, you asked to see those threads because you implied you had never seen such a thing. Well, personally, I don’t see the many threads bashing USC…the very same threads you claim exist here on CC. But you know what? I believe you - they probably do exist, but you can’t let it get to you. The point is, according to statistics and rankings, Stanford is better than Cal, Cal is better than UCLA, and UCLA is better than USC. USC is better than a whole slew of schools, so sit back and take comfort in that fact. You’re going to a great school.

You picked 'SC for a reason, and most likely a very good, educated, and well thought out reason. It’s a great time to be at USC, for it is, as many other posters stated, a school on the rise. Congrats for being able to be a part of the Trojan class at a time when the university is finally starting to get the recognition it needs. The point is, it doesn’t matter “Why people Hate USC”. What matters is Why you LOVE USC.

aim78 · June 15, 2005, 9:15pm

Well said. USC is a top notch university and we’re all lucky to be going to any university at all.

However, the Explore USC program sucked.

themegastud · June 15, 2005, 9:33pm

Peals,

To answer your original question that’s the subject of this thread… it’s so easy to subscribe to stereotypes (which have become outdated) and accept hearsay instead of actually conducting objective observation and forming one’s own opinion.

I know, because I once subscribed to the whole “Spoiled Children” thing? Why? Because in HS I was a dead-set on UCLA. I was on Jeopardy’s Teen Tournament and in my interview with Alex Trebek, I even talked about how great UCLA was. And in being so pro-UCLA, naturally it followed that I should be anti-USC, even though I knew nothing at all about the school. It was just the cool thing to do… especially for a UCLA, or in his own mind, future UCLA student (notable exceptions and kudos go to UCLAri and kfc4u for keeping open minds).

On a whim one day after visiting UCLA while still in HS, I thought I’d stop by USC on the way home – and was impressed. I gradually read more and more about the school, did research, etc., and eventually came to the conclusion that USC was better for me. I gave all my UCLA shirts to Goodwill and that was that.

Whenever you debate someone about USC’s merits, you can always tell whether they really know anything about the school by what their arguments are. What’s a good anti-USC argument? It’s historically only focused on its preprofesisonal programs and not its core liberal arts curriculum. (Let me point out though that USC College is spedning upwards of $100 million on star faculty recruitment for the College, even earning high praise from the Journal of Higher Ed.). What’s a bad USC argument? It’s the U of spoiled children. No - more than half are on financial aid… much more than the likes of Duke, Stanford, and Vanderbilt (all around 47%) yet you never hear their students disparaged so.

You’ll find that when people take the time to objectively consider facts, they won’t subscribe to generalizations that are plain wrong. I’m convinced that if a Daily Bruin writer, as well as the Daily Bruin’s own Editorial Board, can accept that fact that USC is indeed an institution of considerable academic quality, anyone can… as long as they take the time to read a little bit instead of ignorantly waiving their keys about.

Overpriced? Another poor argument. A pro of USC’s many successful (coincidence?) and philanthropic alumni means USC has superb financial aid. Its admissions are need blind, and it meets 100% of need – which the UC’s don’t despite having a much smaller gap to overcome. I know plenty of kids who came here over 'LA and Berk because they received better fin. aid offers… and no, I’m not factoring in merit-aid. People see the price tag and figure that everyone pays $30something thousand a year to go here and fail to do the research that tells them that this isn’t how financial aid works. They’re probably the same people who can’t pick up a normal college guide and read about what’s great at USC.

As a former anti-USC student, I can sympathize with those who lived in the dark and would discredit our alma mater for downright misinformed reasons, Peals. That’s okay – I’ll just work the network for a job (of which, the largest USC network outside of CA is in NYC, Icarus, believe it or not - <a href=“http://www.nytrojans.org)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.nytrojans.org)</a>, enjoy an early January game at the Rose Bowl next year, watch USC become even more selective, watch the endowment grow, watch it steadily rise in the rankings (all of this is underway right now)… and ultimately, watch the public perception of USC change.

Perhaps in some years, a thread with your title would seem preposterous on CC.

system · June 15, 2005, 9:57pm

I’m an out-of-state rising senior, and my situation might help to illustrate why USC is not necessarily a second choice and probably will continue to rise in prestige.

I have pretty good stats (straight 800s, 1st in class, RSI, etc…), but I don’t have an unlimited amount of money, and I’m not sure that I’d be able to afford someplace like Harvard or MIT that doesn’t offer any merit scholarships. Naturally, I’ll be applying to places like Caltech, UChicago, and Duke, that do offer merit aid. However, I have no illusions about the competitiveness of these awards, and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t get any substantial money from a “top-tier”.

So, then, in that situation, what would I do? Consider, from my position, the appeal of different California schools. At UC Berkeley or UCLA, I’d be paying $40,000+. With that kind of cost, there is absolutely no reason for me to attend a UC instead of, say, Caltech.

USC, on the other hand, already guarantees a half-tuition scholarship for national merit finalists, and offers (according to its website) 100-120 FULL-tuition scholarships a year. Considering that USC’s applicant pool is a lot less competitive than top-tier schools’, and that it offers more merit awards than Caltech, Chicago, and Duke combined, those are some solid odds.

So, to all you USC haters: for out-of-state applicants, USC is by no means the “second choice”.

IzzieBear · June 15, 2005, 10:09pm

Ug…like I just said on my long, sappy post a few inches above…

I don’t really see anyone on this board distinguishing themselves as true “USC haters”.

If you’re out of state, and cash in an issue, then going to a school with a better financial aid package is certainly a smart idea.

Yes, You’re right. For out-of-staters, a UC education is close to $40,000. Although a UC education is probably worth it for anyone in the country (while I do understand that a hefty price tag isn’t too exciting for many people, including myself), the UC system was meant to serve the California population. The UC’s favor California residents and the majority of UC students are from California.

Also, why would you attend a UC if you could go to Caltech for a similair price? Well…some people aren’t thrilled with the environment at CalTech. And if you’re an English major like I am, I would much rather go to a UC then a school as science-oriented as Caltech. It’s called preference.

Once again, I will say: For out-of-staters, USC might seem like a better choice (financially, etc). But for those from California, we’re lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the occasionally academically favored UC’s at a much better price.

In closing, USC is awesome. Go there with a sense of accomplishment. No one is trying to bring you down here.

SusieQ2007 · June 15, 2005, 10:36pm

He did again with the Why people revere UCB and UCLA so much. It’s sad and he thinks he has time to do research blah blah blah, how about too much free time and please go do something useful for a change.

spincut · June 16, 2005, 8:29am

granted, i understand exactly what peals is saying, and is only exemplified by the rather “rude” UCLA people (well person) near the beggining (not KC), granted though i am a little miffed why this post was made, havent you been here for a while peals? why should this be new to you?

heck i posted about this but it was earlier on, before i knew better.

the answer is highly exepmplified by the sources of the contrary and negative posts you’ll see.

From what i’ve gathered though, most anybody outside the unecesarily equivable in state rivalry bubble of ignorance USC is increasingly respected, and contrary to what many say has a strong alumni network, one of the strongest actually.

still it is bothersome. plenty of schools have rivalrys and/or flaws, but no place does seem to have annoying little ticks milking them for everything they’ve got like in this situation, it becomes annoying after a while as USC is close to breaking the top 25 schools and likewise has people who work equally as hard as many of those schools to excell and achieve, and dont like their acheivements crapped on by people who think it’s funny to pretend they arent even in the top tier, regardless of how much of a stony skin they develop.

there indeed isnt much one can do about it, but it still is an unfortunate thing to witness.

tigerbalm2100 · April 24, 2011, 3:21pm

USC was my very last choice school after I got burned by the Ivy League. I am always bitter about this place I go to and I can never be happy here. It is a symbol of my hard work gone rotten. I’ve come to accept this and I don’t try to better the situation. I would love USC if I barely got into this school (which seems like a majority of my friends here). My sour bitterness has caused me to be anti-social and unmotivated at this campus. USC was Life smacking me in the face. I was popular, led some groups and played sports in one of the most competitive high schools on the east coast. I refuse to embrace the partying atmosphere because I don’t like partying and I have nothing to celebrate being at this school. Lots of my friends are foreign students who don’t really put an emphasis on grades because they are simply looking for an “American Education.” There are a few very very bright hard workers here-- I feel pity for them since it is clear USC was not their first choice school either. The professors here are really good. They care for students and sincerely enjoy helping. I am Sad, bitter, and lonely here, with lots of regrets and a painful memory of my past.

27dreams · April 24, 2011, 6:39pm

Are these the rankings you all are talking about? Looks like USC has surpassed UCLA.

[National</a> University Rankings | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+3]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/page+3)

Also, I feel that pre-professional/career-oriented programs are underrated in regard to overall strengths of schools. You’d think that people would have more respect for a university with some of the most renowned film, business, music, etc. schools/programs in the country. I doubt USC was the “university of second choice” for people who are already dead-set on certain career paths. It’s certainly my first choice, and I’m very glad to be attending in the fall.

“There are a few very very bright hard workers here-- I feel pity for them since it is clear USC was not their first choice school either.”

I’m sorry for your bitter experiences, tigerbalm, but don’t feel pity for me or any other bright and capable students within career-oriented programs, because many of us will be receiving an outstanding education in our chosen career paths. Sure, maybe some of the general “academic” population would have preferred to attend Ivies, but that’s certainly not everyone’s goal.

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