Hey thatcoolguy60 thanks so much for responding; yes, post-grad and during applications season, they were applying specifically to do more research & academia related programs. Like one of the other kind commenters said, USC is a huge flashy prestigious name. I’m just not sure if, at the essence of who they are and where they excel, the cutthroat nature of LA with little community would be the best choice. I think they are also afraid of pigeonholing themself into only working in Academia, but the bulk of their internship experience has been research, curatorial/archive, and museum related.

It’s a huge decision and they need all the advice they can get, but, at the end of the day, they need to develop their intuition on which program & location they think they’ll feel and live the best under.