USC (Southern Cal not South Carolina) - What has really changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont see how this translates into Wall Street, Consulting, Big 4, FAANG employers. Nor have I seen the increased selectivity trickle through to law, medical / b schools. Dont see USC people in the seats of power other than entertainment.

Maybe this will change over the years, but still think of it as a rich kids school for those who want to rub elbows with other USC alumns.

I hire for an elite Finance firm - not on our radar screen. Peer schools are Tulane and Miami. Fine schools but serious students don't choose to go there for undergrad unless they want fun, sun and football. Exception is Cinematic Arts.

Maybe one day this will change.

OMG, you are SUCH a douche. Go away!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Los Angeles. To attend USC you either have to be extremely rich or extremely poor. Nothing in between.

That's same for most private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dont see how this translates into Wall Street, Consulting, Big 4, FAANG employers. Nor have I seen the increased selectivity trickle through to law, medical / b schools. Dont see USC people in the seats of power other than entertainment.

Maybe this will change over the years, but still think of it as a rich kids school for those who want to rub elbows with other USC alumns.

I hire for an elite Finance firm - not on our radar screen. Peer schools are Tulane and Miami. Fine schools but serious students don't choose to go there for undergrad unless they want fun, sun and football. Exception is Cinematic Arts.

Maybe one day this will change.

I think that is an east coast centric way of looking at it. Most USC grads are going to be staying in California.

Very true. Place to make connections in southern CA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still remember when this school had an 80% admit rate in the 80s. I had no idea how selective it got until the Varsity Blues scandal and celebrities were paying $500,000.00 to bribe their way in. At first, I was I was like, "they are doing all of this for USC?!" Because I still had the mindset of the 80s, I felt like it was synonymous to someone bribing their way into Mason or JMU.

Same. My friend went to USC and in hindsight, we both had undiagnosed/untreated ADHD and were C students. But her family had money and mine did not so I went to a school like Mason.

[Anonymous]

Stop with this jealous hate. USC's admission rate is well into the low single digits. Let that sink in for you. This isn't the 1980's. It gets the best of the best.

Only on DCUM to we continually read about these highly selective privates as being trash schools. Usually from the same jealous crowd of anti UChicago haters.

STOP THE HATE.

[Anonymous]

We will look at USC for undergrad business. But I suspect the better education can be found at Claremont McKenna. Yet, both are excellent!

Do you think the alumni network is that strong? Pick the bigger school. Do you want to a rockstar undergrad experience on your cv? Pick the smaller one.

Graduate school? USC.
Going for film? CM
Going for PPE? The CM 20 person track is about as elite as it gets.

Pick any two selective schools in a similar geographic location and compare them. Almost never will one win out across the board.

These my-school-is-better-than-your-school threads are silly. The student needs to think about what they want/need.

I love the poster at the beginning who said he wanted one school, wife wanted the other, but kid picked USC. That, my friends, is parenting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So financial aid has improved
This and many other schools have become test optional
It is now "red hot" with over 80,000 applicants
3.9 GPA - average unweighted

But are the outcome different. Has this school really improved in the eye of employers and graduate schools?

Still seems like a place to party and the only elite school is Cinematic Arts.

Dont hear of graduates regularly getting elite consulting, banking and other jobs. Nor do you see them in the highest rank grad schools.

Tell me how I'm wrong?!?

For the love of all things decent, can the “elite finance” bros have their own forum? Most of us think it’s a douchey field and your posts here aren’t changing our minds.

[Anonymous]

I find it funny that whenever USC is brought up, the UCLA crowd gets triggered and has to throw up all over the thread. They are so insecure that USC is considered a competitive reach school equal to UCLA.

[Anonymous]

CA parent here - POV is obviously different for our family because UCLA is in-state tuition but USC is private. I don’t care enough about whatever else to get caught up in the rivalry.

Apart from that, they’re both great schools. Sure, I don’t love the surrounds of USC compared to Westwood but it’s not a deterrent because I’m not scared to leave my house like some people seem to be.

If I had my choice DC would get into Berkeley or UCLA. Grad school would be well taken care of after in-state tuition.

[Anonymous]

There are people who wnat to keep living in the 80s when it comes to talking about schools like USC, NYU, Northeastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are wrong. USC has an outstanding Journalism School and an excellent business school which many list as a semi-target school for IB. But, most importantly, USC is now part of the Big Ten Conference which means more money & greatly enhanced research opportunities.

Imagine paying $85k/year to become a journalist (average salary $48k). 😂😂😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are wrong. USC has an outstanding Journalism School and an excellent business school which many list as a semi-target school for IB. But, most importantly, USC is now part of the Big Ten Conference which means more money & greatly enhanced research opportunities.

Imagine paying $85k/year to become a journalist (average salary $48k). 😂😂😂

nothing unique about USC.
it's usually rich people majoring in easy stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop with this jealous hate. USC's admission rate is well into the low single digits. Let that sink in for you. This isn't the 1980's. It gets the best of the best.

Only on DCUM to we continually read about these highly selective privates as being trash schools. Usually from the same jealous crowd of anti UChicago haters.

STOP THE HATE.

Agree. It’s ridiculous but really it just screams insecurity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So financial aid has improved
This and many other schools have become test optional
It is now "red hot" with over 80,000 applicants
3.9 GPA - average unweighted

But are the outcome different. Has this school really improved in the eye of employers and graduate schools?

Still seems like a place to party and the only elite school is Cinematic Arts.

Dont hear of graduates regularly getting elite consulting, banking and other jobs. Nor do you see them in the highest rank grad schools.

Tell me how I'm wrong?!?

For the love of all things decent, can the “elite finance” bros have their own forum? Most of us think it’s a douchey field and your posts here aren’t changing our minds.

+1!

My kid is going to USC for music and the industry connections. Finance bros can keep chattering among themselves about “The Street” but that is not my kid’s desired path.

[Anonymous]

I graduated from USC in 2011 and was in both the business and political science programs. I think the folks in this forum that discount USC's finance connections are right - I only saw a handful of peers get offers to the Wall Street banks, and the banks didn't recruit at USC heavily (of course, in 2011, nobody was recruiting that much).

Many of the folks I was in school with have ended up at tech companies - lots of product managers and marketing execs. I also had friends in the engineering school, and a lot of them went to aerospace-related firms in LA - SpaceX is a big recruiter, plus JPL, Northrup, Lockheed, and Aerospace Corp.

In general, I've found that it's more important to focus on the program you want to be a part of than the school itself - USC has a very rigorous architecture school but a pedestrian sociology program, for instance - so it's good to know exactly what you want to do if you're spending that kind of money.

I've found this report on college major ROIs to be really clarifying - you can search for USC here, and also look for other colleges or majors to see what programs tend to have higher ROIs (if that's what you're looking for in college!).

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/7583742/