what's the reputation of USC?

[Dear Summer]

Back in the days, it was known as a big party school

Now, they are known for their football program. How is the reputation of their academics? It has risen quite a bit in the past few years, hasn't it?

Is it on par with UCLA?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Toga! Toga! Toga!

 

[dudeman007]

Academically they're pretty strong (not as good as UCLA mind you )

What school isn't a party school anyways? That classification is such a joke.

 

[chorb]

Living in So Cal all my life, USC has a pretty good reputation for academics around here.

 

[uclaLabrat]

bwahaha....USC is ok. I guess. I am not at all biased.

 

[DayLaPaul]

USC is a private school that costs some $30k+ a year to attend. In addition to that, they have top notch athletic programs. You do the math.

 

[zinfamous]

Wait, so how does the "party school" reputation differ from the "football school" reputation?

 

[JS80]

I went to UCLA, I can say I regret choosing UCLA over USC half scholarship. If you are math/science UCLA is the way to go, but USC is much better for non-science majors. Their network is very strong not to mention their football program...

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: dudeman007

What school isn't a party school anyways? That classification is such a joke.

Compare FSU to Duke.

....
.
...
.....

 

[Fayd]

university of spoiled children.

 

[mxyzptlk]

I always assumed it was a place for rich white kids to go get mugged by the low income, inner city dwellers that reside in the all the areas directly adjacent to the school.

 

[Dear Summer]

Originally posted by: JS80
I went to UCLA, I can say I regret choosing UCLA over USC half scholarship. If you are math/science UCLA is the way to go, but USC is much better for non-science majors. Their network is very strong not to mention their football program...

I hear about this "legendary" Trojan network. Can you describe why it's so strong and how it's so much different from any other alumni networks? I am not familiar with it since I don't live in California.

 

[her209]

USC is know mostly for its cinema program. You know, Lucas, Howard, Spielberg, and Zemeckis.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer

Originally posted by: JS80
I went to UCLA, I can say I regret choosing UCLA over USC half scholarship. If you are math/science UCLA is the way to go, but USC is much better for non-science majors. Their network is very strong not to mention their football program...

I hear about this "legendary" Trojan network. Can you describe why it's so strong and how it's so much different from any other alumni networks? I am not familiar with it since I don't live in California.

My theory is that UCLA is full of very smart and very asian students. And asians are consequently very introverted or very cliquish. And let me tell you the networking value of asians as a whole is very low. This pumps up (artificially inflates) the academic reputation. Then you have a bunch of non-asian liberal arts major idiots amongst them who don't stay in LA and go back to the cow town they came from. That's just my personal experience.

Then you have the USC grads, often from upper and upper middle class families, and/or extra motivated because they have a huge ass tuition loan to pay off. And even the asian grads from USC are extroverted.

I think the Trojan network is especially strong because many of them are from LA and stay in LA after graduation. Plus the awesome football team they can all worship together.

 

[Dear Summer]

bump

it looks like a well rounded school

#20 in business, #17 in law, #27 in national ranking, #7 in graduate engineering

 

[JS80]

what major you thinking about?

 

[Ns1]

<---- alumni


Great for business, music, cinema, football, hot girls, frat life, network

Bad for bank account, live in ghetto

 

[Dear Summer]

Originally posted by: JS80
what major you thinking about?

graduate level engineering

 

[Dear Summer]

Originally posted by: Ns1
<---- alumni


Great for business, music, cinema, football, hot girls, frat life, network

Bad for bank account, live in ghetto

so did the trojan network help you get a job? are you able to contact a USC alum at top companies and that person will bring you in for an interview without question? That's the kind of network that I thought it was

 

[ed21x]

USC is largely a backup school for asian students who didn't get into UCLA or UC Berkeley. With the right amount of $$, you should be able to compensate for a weak transcript. Added to that, some ditsy suburban girls enjoy having the snob appeal of equating any private schools with quality. Believe me on this, I grew up in the heart of Orange County (Laguna Hills) where most well-funded students that slacked off in HS end up going to USC while the best students get in elsewhere, be it Cal, UCLA, Stanford, or some of the upper-tier east coast private schools.

USC however, doesn't completely suck. Because the students are well-funded and come from upper-middle class backgrounds, they largely come from rich public schools and/or private schools and have had a decent education growing up. They also have several notable progams as described above. However, if you go there, nobody is going to say "holy shit! you go to USC! You must be soooo smart!" It'll be a more subdued "ok, USC is adequate for the job."

I currently am a grad student at NYU, and it is VERY USC'ish in the regards that I have listed above. Have a decent chunk of money, and you'll be able to float through and get a degree that doesn't suck

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
Back in the days, it was known as a big party school

Now, they are known for their football program. How is the reputation of their academics? It has risen quite a bit in the past few years, hasn't it?

Is it on par with UCLA?

Still a tad behind UCLA in academics, but very comparable (though not in price).

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: ed21x
USC is largely a backup school for asian students who didn't get into UCLA or UC Berkeley. With the right amount of $$, you should be able to compensate for a weak transcript. Added to that, some ditsy suburban girls enjoy having the snob appeal of equating any private schools with quality. Believe me on this, I grew up in the heart of Orange County (Laguna Hills) where most well-funded students that slacked off in HS end up going to USC while the best students get in elsewhere, be it Cal, UCLA, Stanford, or some of the upper-tier east coast private schools.

USC however, doesn't completely suck. Because the students are well-funded and come from upper-middle class backgrounds, they largely come from rich public schools and/or private schools and have had a decent education growing up. They also have several notable progams as described above. However, if you go there, nobody is going to say "holy shit! you go to USC! You must be soooo smart!" It'll be a more subdued "ok, USC is adequate for the job."

I currently am a grad student at NYU, and it is VERY USC'ish in the regards that I have listed above. Have a decent chunk of money, and you'll be able to float through and get a degree that doesn't suck

If I recall correctly, in my graduating year (2004), the SAT/GPA stats for incoming USC students were higher than UCLA.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: Dear Summer

Originally posted by: JS80
I went to UCLA, I can say I regret choosing UCLA over USC half scholarship. If you are math/science UCLA is the way to go, but USC is much better for non-science majors. Their network is very strong not to mention their football program...

I hear about this "legendary" Trojan network. Can you describe why it's so strong and how it's so much different from any other alumni networks? I am not familiar with it since I don't live in California.

My theory is that UCLA is full of very smart and very asian students. And asians are consequently very introverted or very cliquish. And let me tell you the networking value of asians as a whole is very low. This pumps up (artificially inflates) the academic reputation. Then you have a bunch of non-asian liberal arts major idiots amongst them who don't stay in LA and go back to the cow town they came from. That's just my personal experience.

Then you have the USC grads, often from upper and upper middle class families, and/or extra motivated because they have a huge ass tuition loan to pay off. And even the asian grads from USC are extroverted.

I think the Trojan network is especially strong because many of them are from LA and stay in LA after graduation. Plus the awesome football team they can all worship together.

It's not really the people that make that bif of a difference. StanFUrd vs. Cal is the same argument. Something about USC just stands out more. It's not even that good of a school. Honestly, fUCLA is better if you want to just talk academics. It's big enough that there are nerds but there are plenty of extroverted people. That's not why USC has a stronger alum network though. Take ANY public school and you will see that they don't have the money, dedication, etc to their alums that a private school has.

BTW, the networking I've seen amongst the Asians I hang out with is very useful actually. It's mainly the business/finance/econ people that I see really networking it up. I see the same with my friends at UCLA. It really depends what field though. Maybe you're referring to engineering. I don't see as much hooking up for friends in engineering as I do as I see with my econ friends, but that might lead to the conclusion that Asians are very introverted, etc. You just gotta refer to the right crowd. It's not like the SC engineers are all partiers with 4.0s and got hookups with Mr. Obama. I'm sure they're quite similar. It's the rich folk who already have power that flock to SC with their scholarships and get good connections. It's the same when you look at StanFUrd.

Additionally, you probably have more pre-med, and engineers at your UC system than SC which lowers the hookups. When you talk about alums and connections it's usually the business/marketing/finance/econ world.

If you work with the right group of people, you will have the right hookups. Just look harder if you go to UCLA. I found it harder to find my connections from Cal but once I found them, I got a helping hand quite nicely to the job I have today.

 

[TridenT]

I think they call it University of Spoiled Children or something, right?

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer

Originally posted by: Ns1
<---- alumni


Great for business, music, cinema, football, hot girls, frat life, network

Bad for bank account, live in ghetto

so did the trojan network help you get a job? are you able to contact a USC alum at top companies and that person will bring you in for an interview without question? That's the kind of network that I thought it was

Everyone I know that went to USC got a job because of somebody they met at USC

Nobody I know has been out of work for > 3 months (unless they were in a bullshit major)


Of course, the network isn't just gonna get jobs for you, you still gotta work.