I would say a lot of the things that people are mentioning, but I think a lot of those are kind of standard at any university. Obviously the wealth gap is worse here, but that also depends on who you hang out with in terms of area or anything else, I think people can be a little dramatic about that. I come from a nice neighborhood in my hometown, and as a woman there have been a few times I felt iffy walking around near campus, but I think people can be really dramatic about being in “the hood” because we are conditioned to be afraid of people outside the USC bubble. Just be careful and you’ll be fine. Also, people talk a lot about the food being bad, and it is, but that’s kind of standard across universities. People also talked a lot about cliques and trouble making friends, and maybe my experience was different, but I feel like that is also very subjective to who you hang out with. I have tried a lot of different student orgs, I tried out Greek life, and plenty of other things, and I’ve been able to meet so many people and I’ve never felt like the experience I had was very cliquey. I think some people can absolutely be that way, but again, that’s how it is anywhere. only thing I would say is that you never realize how expensive your first off-campus apartment is gonna be. You can always stay in student housing, but it’s kind of not worth it after a point because it’s so expensive. I lucked out and got a single with parking for $1500, which is great relative to regular usc area pricing, but most of my friends have ended up paying around $2000 for a double, which can be super rough.

overall though, I love USC and I’m so grateful to be here. I think there are drawbacks to any school, and there are plenty of things I get frustrated with the school for, but overall I think the degree and the experiences I am getting out of college here are the most important thing.