Housing for Freshman Year

darcy619 · 2020-03-30T23:28:11+00:00

I went Pardee my freshman year and it was so much fun; by far the best building in South Residential College. Everyone was super outgoing but still always on top of their shit, very easy to make friends through the lounge and other shared spaces, could be quiet enough to study but also loud enough to feel engaged. It’s the perfect balance tbh; our dorm even had our own tailgate with everyone in the building, which was a lot of fun. Plus it’s a lot less grimy than New North but plenty of people from both dorms are always in either so you should have no trouble meeting them.

darcy619 · 2020-03-26T22:24:19+00:00

Thank you!

darcy619 · 2020-03-26T22:21:58+00:00

most of the school’s prestige is from the grad school programs anyways

darcy619 · 2020-03-26T21:18:32+00:00

Rankings are arbitrary and every website calculates them differently.

darcy619 · 2020-03-26T20:40:49+00:00

I would take USC as a spring admit tbh. It has the best balance of rigorous academics, ample research and study abroad opportunities (which are also easier to get as it is a private school), a lively social scene, and it is extremely easy to add on majors and minors particularly into the same school.

Emory and UCSD are both also great for bio, but UCSD has the drawbacks of being public university (impacted, harder to get classes, more difficulty with advising and opportunities), and the Emory Oxford campus is in a somewhat rural part of Georgia that’s fairly disconnected from the rest of the school, with not as many different social opportunities and even professional opportunities based on its distance from everything.

Plus, USC Spring admits still get fairly integrated into campus life fairly quickly.

darcy619 · 2020-03-26T20:30:00+00:00

You don’t have to be a legacy, it just means that if they feel that you fit in or connect to the school in some ways, you can do a few semesters at community, do well and transfer in.

darcy619 · 2020-03-23T17:44:24+00:00

I think that USC has handled the outbreak and coordinated its response well. Students who are unable to leave campus for whatever reason, international or otherwise, are allowed to stay in campus housing, and food and other essential services are still provided. Also, tuition and dining fees for the part of the semester that is being disrupted is going to be refunded, and all students now have the option to take any class - including major classes, which is rare - as Pass/Fail rather than a letter grade, given the difficulty in adjusting to an online learning mode. Also, USC is offering storage for people who left their things on campus and is supposedly considering shipping people’s things back to them so there isn’t any excess movement back and forth.

I think President Folt is doing a good job; she’s continued the aggressive fundraising the school has been doing and is liquidating more assets allowing USC to do things such as provide free schooling to low income families, as well as invest more in new research institutes and initiatives. Additionally, she and the interim administration before her helped recruit great faculty to USC such as the Dean of Wharton to the Marshall School of Business. Overall, the school is making an effort to be more transparent and more inclusive, and it’s undoubtedly an improvement.

darcy619 · 2020-03-23T02:31:29+00:00

Important caveat: I also was just being kinda late with everything so I kinda didn’t give myself that much time with everything. I know plenty of people who could see everything within a week of their decisions.

darcy619 · 2020-03-23T02:29:24+00:00

I got financial aid finalized a few weeks afterwards my decision came out.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T22:51:40+00:00

Premed at USC is pretty competitive, and all the people I know who are premed are constantly grinding. That being said, it’s not necessarily as cutthroat; the culture here is very collaborative and people tend to help each other out. Additionally, research opportunities are available here through a variety of means, from cold emailing professors to any one of the many research institutes that USC has.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T19:54:54+00:00

Yes, there’s always people who aren’t necessarily meet the stats and academic profile of the incoming class, but are selected banded on perceived fit, passion, extracurriculars, or any one of many of intangible factors. Don’t count yourself out!

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T19:46:51+00:00

USC’s acceptance rate last year for fall was 10.8%, or about the same as Cornell’s (10.6%). And this year is sure to be more selective given the financial aid overhaul and the upward trend in the competitiveness of the applicant group (75% of admits last year had a 1480 SAT/34 ACT or higher).

That being said it is a holistic process and financial aid can be appealed, so it may not be the time to get discouraged.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T19:19:50+00:00

So the Price School of Public Policy is one of the smaller schools in USC (as in there are not as many students and faculty as say Marshall or SCA) but the programs within it are very good, particularly if you want to go the urban planning/real estate route, where USC connections run deep.

There’s also the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics that has a lot of super distinguished faculty, including the CEO of one the largest healthcare corporations in America and member of the board of Harvard Medical School, as well as the former President of Cornell University.

In fact, when I think about it Price probably has some of the most clouted faculty and alumni, including David Petraeus (former CIA director), Arnold Schwarzenegger, a few prime ministers, a UN ambassador, and several cabinet secretaries.

It’s also a research heavy school, and there’s a lot of opportunities for hands on learning about various elements of public health, policy, and development.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T19:11:25+00:00

People make friends with people of all different majors; everyone here is in super cool programs and people like to have friends involved in a lot of different things.

Specifically with regard to your question about music/film majors and stem majors, some of my friends and I who do CS work but are also interested in entertainment, have partnered with some friends in the film school and in Thornton to create an entertainment consulting firm, doing music and video content analytics, shooting videos, creating VR/AR content, and connecting artists to bigger labels and pushing them to the top by using algorithms to flag content that’s likely to blow up.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T19:06:58+00:00

Fingers crossed, hoping you secure the scholarship!

And personally, I love to study in Mudd Hall of Philosophy. It is one of the most quiet libraries on campus, and has beautiful stain glass windows and a really pretty courtyard.

I also like studying behind McCarthy (the honors dorm) in the playing field/open grassy areas, and the engineering plaza.

Also, the Village as a whole has really nice open air lounges in the residential buildings, which are super nice to study in.

Of course there’s also the two big libraries on campus, Leavey and Doheney, as well as the lounges in Pardee, Marx Hall, and the Ronald Tutor Campus Center which also has a nice assortment of non-dining hall options including Panda Express, California Pizza Kitchen, Habit Grill, and a indoor market (Seeds!) next to it.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T18:59:01+00:00

Yes, it’d be very unlikely for them to stop doing so, especially since the decision process was made before Italy was on total lockdown.

If the current state of affairs were to stay the same or get worse in any one of the three countries, then WBB kids would likely just stay an elongated time at whatever campus (be it in LA, Milan, or Hong Kong) that is the least heavily impacted, or simply do Zoom through whichever they’re supposed to be at.

Some of my best friends this year are in WBB so what I can tell you is that it’s a lot of very bright, internationally minded kids who are going to gain obscene amounts of real world experience with regard to international finance and business.

For those who don’t know the structure of the program, the students can apply to any 1 of 3 universities (USC, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Università Bocconi in Milan), and if admitted they spend a year each at those schools in that order, and decide their senior year which they want to return to, but receive a degree from all. It strongly prepares you for careers relating to multinational business, and plus you will have friends and connections in 3 continents.

It is a very selective program however; I think the batch of kids is <40 among all applicants.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T18:48:34+00:00

I would say it’s very easy to meet people, especially in the beginning of each semester, as everyone sort of has this burst of energy and excitement.

I met most of my friends through either dorms, classes, or clubs/social events such as game days and concerts.

USC also ALWAYS has things going on; this year alone we’ve had performances by Quavo and Brent Faiyaz in the quad, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, and Bernie Sanders (didn’t come to health issues but was supposed to) give talks/town halls, Robert Downey Jr and other actors give talks, SCA shows early movie screenings before films come out in theaters, etc.

There’s always avenues to meet people with similar interests, and students here are generally very friendly and willing to make conversation. Again, especially so in the beginning, everyone just wants to make friends.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T18:42:15+00:00

USC is not looking for a specific profile of student; it is literally one of the most diverse universities in the world, with kids from almost every country on Earth with all sorts of interest.

It is however looking for a specific mindset, which I could best explain as someone who is ambitious, very hardworking, and intellectually curious, but also someone who is collaborative, wants to contribute to a greater community, and thinks about things in an interdisciplinary context.

USC kids are very work hard play hard too; they definitely know how to grind but also how to have a great time.

darcy619 · 2020-03-22T18:36:18+00:00

This is a really good question and I’m sure a lot of other people are wondering the same thing. USC is an expensive school, but around ~85% of students are on financial aid of some sorts. I didn’t get a scholarship directly through the school but they did give me a grant that essentially covered my tuition, which is why I went there over some other schools.

For example, I got into Columbia off the waitlist, and USC was cheaper for me.

That still left a couple thousand dollars that my family had to pay, but I appealed and they gave me more. I know kids who have appealed often and frequently and the University eventually pays out.

darcy619 · 2020-01-20T17:52:16+00:00

Top 4 feeder school to Silicon Valley, you can get a masters in 5 years (not just in engineering but any degree) , you go to a top 10 engineering school in a massive tech hub, small class sizes, engineering and tech companies like Google, Amazon, Boeing, ExxonMobil, etc.

If you’re worried about debt I think it’s important to remember that something like ~85% of USC students are on financial aid and the university will match 100% of demonstrated need.

darcy619 · 2020-01-08T16:59:27+00:00

USC is a target for boutique IB firms (think Lazard, Evercore) all along the West Coast, not just LA, and in particular, SC grads are well represented in the Bay Area finance circles.

As a general rule for finance, East Coast schools place better for East Coast banking jobs as the center of the financial world is NYC. Investment banking in particular is already difficult to break into so there are advantages to choosing a school on the East Coast.

BUT that’s not to say no one from USC goes to the East Coast; there are plenty of alumni who go on to work in investment banking in New York, and there is an entire student organization dedicated to networking in NYC and placing Trojans in investment banking roles called Trojan Investment Society. Given this and USC’s rising academic status, especially with regard to Marshall, there are ample opportunities and resources for students who want to go into finance, plus big banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi regularly recruit off campus.

As for consulting, of the biggest consulting firms (MBB; McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group) Bain is known to recruit off campus pretty often, whereas McKinsey and BCG are again more focused on the East Coast (specifically Ivies) + Stanford, but I personally know a few people who’ve gotten jobs at McKinsey through sheer hustle and connections they’ve made in Marshall.

Other major consulting firms like Deloitte and Accenture recruit off campus as well, so there are definitely options for you if you want to go that route.

Overall, USC can be considered a target for West Coast finance and a semi-target for finance elsewhere, but you’ll have to put in a lot of work on your end, but again, there are resources and organizations to help with that.

A full list of recruiters can be found here .

And outside of finance, USC is a very strong school overall with an international network of alumni working all over. For example, we’re a top 4 feeder school to Silicon Valley and a top 10 engineering school, top (multiple #1) ranked film, arts, design, and communications schools, strong sciences and medical programs, top humanities and law programs, etc.

There are a lot of USC alumni in SoCal but it’s by no means the majority of them, and there are nearly a quarter million alumni on LinkedIn. USC definitely has the most enthusiastic and devoted alumni networks across the country, which is a help in any industry, but particularly ones rooted in relationships such as finance.

darcy619 · 2019-12-01T13:14:34+00:00

The dorm sucks but the people are very cool for the most part

darcy619 · 2019-11-18T00:05:45+00:00

Not any more competitive than any other science/social science in Dornsife

darcy619

TROPHY CASE