<p>I'm a senior and getting ready to select my college. My college choice is going to come down to probably a school in Los Angeles or a school in Boston. I visited Boston and LOVED it, but I haven't visited LA.</p>
<p>I want to be a doctor someday and from what I've read both schools are good for that, but then again I was getting that from the booklets and information each school provided. I want a good education, and I think both schools can provide it.</p>
<p>I want to have fun at college, have the option to go to parties or relax when I want. I want a school that has a sports connection. I'm an obsessed baseball fan, so I want that to be around me. However, I like many other sports and just love watching sporting events. </p>
<p>I'm just looking for opinions on these schools since many here provide good information. I've been reading the threads for both schools, but I want to see how people think these compare. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>If you want that sports connection GO TO USC.
Unless you are a huge hockey fan (The beanpot tournament and the BU/BC rivalry are intense), you can't beat SC football. Also, men's basketball is coming along nicely with a sweet sixteen berth this year. Trojan pride is pretty ridiculous. Academically I think the schools are about equal, and even there I might give SC a slight edge.</p>
<p>Uh, look at ferrisbueller's comments which are good. The final thing, and I think this is big is:</p>
<p>Which city do you like better? You have to visit LA to see.</p>
<p>When you visited Boston, what time of year was it?
Boston is one of my favorite cities, but it varies so much from winter to spring to summer in terms of mood.</p>
<p>Because of the weather, Boston defaults to being a better place to study intensively.</p>
<p>I am a Californian and I would wager that the friendships you make at BU would be better and stronger than those you would make at USC. My people are more easy come, easy go than Bostonians and East Coasters in general. That's one thing I like a lot better about the East Coast.</p>
<p>I think you'll be able to have alot more fun at USC. Boston is a great city indeed but it can be very difficult to manage and BU really doesn't have a campus as opposed to USC's beautiful one. I'd suggest visiting it though before making a final decision if it's really close.</p>
<p>I visited Boston at the beginning of November. I don't like the cold much, but that isn't much a factor. I live in the Chicago area, so I go through a lot of cold weather. I'm not sure if I can visit LA that's why I'm trying to get more information from as many people as I can. Thanks to those of you that have responded.</p>
<p>I know BU doesn't have the great campus, but it's in the middle of the city and I absolutely love that so I'm not too concerned about the pretty campus. As I mentioned, I'm a huge baseball fan and Fenway is in my backyard. I also love to watch football(Go Bears!), and the Patriots are a fun team to watch. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how much people pay attention to pro sports in LA, but it doesn't seem like much to me. However, as one of you mentioned USC has a TON of school spirit so I'm sure rooting for the Trojans would be just awesome as having the Red Sox so close to me.</p>
<p>I want to make good friends, but I think that's mostly up to me unless the people there just won't make friends. Another thing to consider is that I probably will come back and live in Chicago unless something changes my mind. If I stay on track and go to med school, I want to do it in Chicago unless another really good option comes up. Therefore I'm not sure how much I care about the connections I can get at either city. If they are too good to pass up I certainly will take advantage, but I will eventually come back to Chicago. I just want to have the chance to live elsewhere before I live the rest of my life here.</p>
<p>Academically this is more of Keck School of Medicine at USC or Sargent at BU. </p>
<p>dahe24, what do you mean when you say Boston can be difficult to manage?</p>
<p>from what ive heard, BU's medical program is quite difficult to get into. someone i know got accepted there a couple of years ago and he says he has no social life whatsoever. but i guess that's the case for most pre-meds. boston also has a ton of great hospitals so you'll have a lot of choices for your residency (sorry if the lingo is incorrect- im not exactly medically literate).</p>
You do realize that being "pre-med" at a particular school has nothing to do with the actual medical school, right? I mean, you are not going to be taking general and organic chem with the med students or researching with the medical school profs. The undergrad institutions are completely separate and apart from the respective medical schools.</p>
<p>I think what 38721 was talking about was the premed programs at both schools. BU has the 7-year Accelerated Liberal Arts/Medical Education program, and USC has the Baccalaureate/M.D. program (8 years), and both of them guarantee a seat in the medical school as long as you fulfill all the prereqs.</p>
<p>[Shoot, I just realized you're already a senior. Dunno if you applied to these programs or not.]</p>
<p>Trojans have an insanely awesome alumni network, that's spread all over the U.S. and the world, including in Chicago and Boston. I mean, there's USC Alumni Organizations in both those cities. That's something to keep in mind. I don't know about BU, though. </p>
<p>As for Socal weather -- you don't know what you're missing!!! The coldest we get is like, low 40s in at 5 a.m. in February. Or like, the torrents of sporadic rain in Jan/Feb, but we didn't have any this year.</p>
<p>Well, it's obvious I'm going to pick USC because I'm biased :)</p>
<p>But it's not really comparing med schools between USC and BU. That's what you'll be doing in 4 years. USC's med school is not even on the main campus. You're picking undergrad schools right now. </p>
<p>BTW, then what's your prospective major? If it's not bio, (if you do say bio, ask yourself if it's because you really like bio, or if it's just because you're pre-med, but that's another issue) then that's another consideration - which undergrad program would you feel comfortable in the most, not considering the pre-med part, as many people decide not to go to med school after all...</p>
<p>Sorry about all the confusion. I'm not talking about med school right now really, I just mentioned that I would like to do med school in Chicago unless something happens.</p>
<p>At BU I got accepted to the Human Physiology Program of Sargent College, and at USC I got accepted to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies at Keck School of Medicine. USC just happens to put my major under their med school. I don't expect to be in the same classes as med students or professors. I expect maybe more research opportunities, and I'm not sure what else.</p>
<p>I didn't pick a bio major because I'm not really into some of the topics. I don't want to learn about plants and animals that aren't humans. I can deal with some of it, but I wanted to avoid making it my major. I wanted to focus on humans and their health and function. Thankfully these schools have more health specific major options.</p>
<p>Just to clear up again, I'm just talking about undergrad here. I'm still very far from being a med student.</p>
<p>I'm biased toward SC (that's where I'm headed), but I wanted to let you know that the research opportunities for undergrads there are incredible. Even freshman are given opportunities to work alongside professors doing research and then presenting the results... I really don't know very much obout it, but talking to someone who does might help you. </p>
<p>It just seems that at many schools, undergrads are left out & all the good research & internships go to grad students... it's not the case @ SC and that could be a big factor.</p>
<p>"USC has a TON of school spirit"
this may be so but you haven't seen school spirit until you have been to a BU vs BC hockey game. INTENSE! Plus if you want to study medicine Boston is the place to be, Mass General and etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
this may be so but you haven't seen school spirit until you have been to a BU vs BC hockey game. INTENSE! Plus if you want to study medicine Boston is the place to be, Mass General and etc.
[/quote]
you haven't seen school spirit till you've seen USC on homecoming weekend :p. you can't even move from one place to another on campus without 1) getting packed into a crowd of riled up Trojans both past and present, and 2) doing a So Cal spellout.</p>