California native and uc grad. 10000% I'd go with ucla over USC. USC is a great school but at least in California I know some of the ucs (Berkeley la sd Davis) are regarded differently and better. Ucla def |
They started giving full rides to really smart kids, as I understand it, and this had a trickle down effect. Still, I don't know why a Californian would go there over UCLA. |
USC student was beaten to death with a bat a few months ago - there is unsafe and then there is USC. Stay away.
The other private schools in California are weird or just not worth it. The UC system is the way to go. If DC is set on California, you can apply to all the UC schools with a single application and see which ones you get into. |
And UVA has apparently had a number of sexual assaults of women by strangers they encountered on the street recently, as well as at least one highly-publicized alleged abduction of a young woman. At USC, the extraordinarily high level of security and electronic vigilance -- not only throughout the campus, but also on every adjacent neighborhood street -- made it possible to capture the alleged perpetrators of the aforementioned crime, by image, vehicle and license plate identification, the very next day. All colleges have crimes, and many colleges experience terrible violence, USC is no exception, but they work above-and-beyond to keep their students safe. |
I suppose it's reassuring to some that you can watch the video of the assault on your DC, but I'd prefer a campus where such crimes are prevented, not recorded -- and there are hundreds of them - but not USC or UVA. |
The school is in the 'hood. South Central LA, people. Gang members and crack houses on the streets surrounding the campus. |
South Los Angeles is not a dangerous place because of the black and Hispanic population. It’s a dangerous place because it’s filled with gang activity and people who feel as if they have no choice but to steal and kill to survive. There is nothing USC can do other than relocate the campus, which won't happen. There was a similar incident in 2012 where two students were killed in a failed car jacking. |
CA has the most desired private school in the nation (stanford) and by many counts the best SLAC in the nation (pomona....yes, better than AWS because it is as good as those three without the stress and shitty weather). So no, the other private schools in CA are not 'weird'. |
Have you been to Claremont? nice weather only goes so far. No quibble with Stanford, if your DC can get in go for it! |
Claremont is an extremely nice town. |
this - claremont is one of the nicest towns in the country. The only reason why I would tell a student to go to williams or amherst is if he/she wants to work in finance in new york post graduation. Otherwise pomona is just as good of a slac without negatives of the aws schools. |
Isn't Cal Tech a private school? Yeah, I'd go there over UC-Irvine, Santa Cruz, Davis, or those other campuses for UCLA or Cal rejects. |
haha yeah i forgot that as well. so not only does CA have the most desired school, it has the overall best slac IMO, and it has the most elite tech school (yes caltech is more elite than MIT - MIT has more affirmative action and 'soft' major kids. caltech has no AA and it requries a rigorous proprietary entrance exam if you want to apply as a transfer. Oh and Harvey Mudd is the best tech-SLAC. CA between privates and publics has the best education of any state. |
They also have one of the best or best public schools, Cal. UCLA's not bad either. |
True story. We used to live in California. Every year there was a big sporting event held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum complex area of the USC campus. I would always drive my children there in the morning -- girls and boy ranging from age 8 to 13 -- take a morning run through the campus and adjacent streets, and return home. I would come back to pick up my children in the late afternoon or early evening, at which time I might take an afternoon walk through the campus if they were not yet done. Oh, and my children were given money so that they could walk to the main commercial street of South Figueroa just past the museums at Expo Park for lunch with their friends and their parents. My point is that once you have lived in Los Angeles you know that you need to be careful and aware of your surroundings at USC, but that it deserves nowhere near the levels of hysteria that many posters here attribute to it. I left my children there unattended by me (but as part of a larger sports group which included other adults and coaches) many times over the years. The campus also hosts families picnicking, soccer tournaments, farmer's markets, weddings, and wonderful outdoor concerts most summer weekends. |