Amherst vs. USC?

<p>Hey all, I really need some help!</p>

<p>I’m trying to decide which school is best for me, USC, or Amherst. I visited Amherst last September as part of the DIVOH program, and I really liked it. The campus, the dorms, and the professors impressed me so much. However, since I live in LA, CA, and I’ve never been away from home for more than a month, I’m kind of worried about that. I don’t have anything against USC. I mean, I could see myself there, being content and (hopefully) happy, but it didn’t impress me as much as Amherst.
One problem is the cost difference. I’ve received nice finaid packages from both schools, but USC’s offer makes attending that school cheaper, plus the fact that there would be virtually no traveling costs. Another argument my parents make for USC is that though I applied as an English major, I may change my mind and USC might provide more broad opportunities should I do that. I’ve been accepted into the USC thematic option program, so my Core courses would be in smaller classes than the usual SC size.</p>

<p>Any thoughts or advice anyone could give me would be SO greatly appreciated. I’m having an extremely difficult time making a decision, since my parents are rooting for USC, while most of my teachers and counselors are siding with Amherst. No one seems to be able to advise me while taking in the whole situation. A (fairly) objective opinion would be awesome. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Amherst is one of the top colleges in the country. USC <em>wants</em> to be one of the top colleges in the country.</p>

<p>Amherst is an LAC that offers superior undergrad education. USC is a fairly typical large university...lots of opportunities but much more pot-luck on the actual undergraduate education.</p>

<p>Amherst has a rigorous intellectual atmosphere and your peers will be mostly top students. USC has waaay too much of its identity wrapped up in its football team and Parrrrr-teeee tiiiiime.</p>

<p>If you were comparing Amherst to U/Chicago, you'd have a difficult choice. In this case, if you're a serious student, it's a slam dunk...unless you're into music, film/television, or theater, in which case by all means, USC is superior.</p>

<p>I don't want to hijack the thread, but TheDad, will you compare amherst to uchicago? those are my top two choices....</p>

<p>Twinkle2 (this is strange...the "original" Twinkle was one of my best student friends on the "old" board...the "Twinkle" threads had over a thousand messages....), </p>

<p>that's an <em>extremely</em> difficult call. Both are excellent schools. Very different kinds of locations but each is great in its own way (my D is at Smith, in the same Five College Consortium as Amherst...Amherst itself is a bit sleepy but Northampton is only a few minutes away). I like Chicago as a city very much, having lived in Evanston for a number of pre-teen and teen years myself.</p>

<p>It might come down to visiting both schools and just going by your gut feel. My D chose Smith over Wellesley, another pairing hard to split on paper, and while she had some objective reasons for doing so, there was just a gut-feel difference that she felt after visiting both.</p>

<p>I don't think you can make a bad choice there, so going where you're comfortable is probably completely reasonable. </p>

<p>Which fields are you interested in for possible majors?</p>

<p>TheDad, I might hijack part of this thread too. How would Swarthmore vs. Amherst compare? I'm going in as an English and art major. Amherst is giving me a slightly better financial aid package.</p>

<p>thanks so much for your answer. i'm one of those kids who has interests all over the place: i'm caught between biology and english right now, but as a whole, i'm very much a humanities/writing focused person. i'm also interested in public policy, and eventually, i want to end up in a career that deals with bioethics in policy and whatnot. so yeah..i'm still a little fuzzy on what i want to focus on in my undergraduate years, although i do have (somewhat) of a longterm vision. also, the music program at each place is somewhat important to me, given the amount of time i've spent practicing the violin and piano =)</p>

<p>i did visit chicago last weekend and will be heading over to amherst next weekend. hopefully that'll help a bit.</p>

<p>Twinkle2, I'm tight for time but your latest post would incline me in the direction of Amherst, where I think the absence of Chicago's more structured curriculum would be to your advantage in exploring different things. Btw, I don't know what the situation is at Amherst with its own orchestra but Amherst students can and do play with the Smith Orchestra.</p>

<p>Allure, sorry, you've got another great choice. There are many comparisons where I can see objective criteria that might point one way or the other but Swat vs. Amherst isn't one of them. Another comfort choice, I'm afraid. But even if I'm paying the freight, I would never let a moderate difference in cost to me sway the decision...I'd find out where my D or S was comfortable, all other things being roughly equal.</p>

<p>Amherst has more "athletics in the atmosphere" than Swat does and Swat does have a grueling academic rep...but overall, both school are so similar that I don't think you can make a mistake <em>if</em> you feel comfortable at one, the other, or both.</p>

<p>Thanks, TheDad. I liked Swat a bit better than Amherst when I overnighted over the fall. Yet I know that those visits depend on time and circumstance, possibly even the weather. The problem is that they're similar enough that to call a distinction between the two comes down to splitting hairs and pulling out my own. Hopefully I'll be able to make some sort of a resolution before May 1st.</p>