<p>Hi, I'm a prospective applicant of USC (specifically SCA) next year. As I'm sure you all know, attending USC is a huge financial investment. Although I haven't even applied yet, I like to begin to outline plans for each college on my list. Thus, I have a question. I am from out of state (NYC). Is a car necessary for a freshman to have at USC? Do the majority of freshman have cars? How is the transportation at USC and in LA for that matter? If you could elaborate, I'd appreciate it. Thanks</p>
<p>I’m a freshman here and I don’t know any freshman or even sophomores who brought cars. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it because parking can be very expensive on campus and you usually won’t need to go far off campus anyways, not to mention the insane traffic in LA. A car might be worth the investment if you have an internship or a job that’s in a different part of LA. </p>
<p>The metro lines are the cheapest way to get around LA. I think an unlimited month-long pass is something like $40 and you can take the metro pretty much anywhere in LA.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>@scdude37</p>
<p>Thanks for the response</p>
<p>What would you say is/arethe most popular/common destination(s) that USC kids travel to offcampus in LA?</p>
<p>Parking will run you around $100 a month (average) and traffic is insane if you are not used to high traffic areas (downtown city driving is much different than suburban or rural driving). There are Zip cars available to rent by the hour for once in awhile trips here and there. D took her car her soph year but didn’t want her car junior year.</p>
<p>Platinum - you’ll have much more need for a bike freshman year than a car. As far as off campus destinations, Santa Monica (zip car or bike) and LA Live (metro).</p>
<p>I live off campus and commute via the Expo Line, which drops you off right in front of campus. From the Expo line you can hit up LA Live, Hollywood, Universal Studios, Culver City, etc. I’d like to echo the last poster’s sentiment and advise you to invest in a bike. Save the money and go out and have fun.</p>
<p>^Just don’t invest any emotion into the bike (or much money, for that matter) as they tend to disappear or be stripped of essential bits and pieces on a regular basis…</p>
<p>I concur. Bike theft can be problematic and due to the sheer number of cyclists on campus, it can get lost in the hustle and bustle of campus life. Getting to the food court or the Student Union is like navigating of labyrinth of wheels and metal.</p>
<p>That said, the cost of maintaining a car on or around campus can get outrageous. And considering the sheer number of places within walking distance or via Metro, it seems like an extraneous expense. If you need to get to LAX to fly home, USC can provide transportation at a discount. The only thing out of striking distance is Santa Monica, but that place is best explored with friends - preferably one willing to waste money on keeping a car at USC.</p>
<p>ahaha Cars aren’t all bad I promise guys.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman, and I’ve been dependent on the metro (bus, subway, and rail), zip cars, taxis, friends with cars, a rental car (for when my mother visited for parent weekend), and a shuttle (to the airport!) this semester. So I’ll present a different viewpoint, because although I don’t have a car on campus (and I am sorta iffy about the idea of anyone bringing a car to ANY college campus their freshman year), I do believe the importance of considering the pros and cons. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Metro isn’t available 24/7. Say you take the metro to sunny Santa Monica for a friends’ night out, then decide to head back to USC at around 3 am. Good luck finding a way back. (But hey, I hear the lyft’s pretty neat? Though that’s another discussion right there…)</p></li>
<li><p>Ok, so you opt to use the metro monthly pass, because you’ll be heavily dependent on it throughout the semester. Monthly metro passes are $75, so, a semester, that’s $375. depending on the permit, that’s about $75 less than parking your car for a semester at usc. </p></li>
<li><p>Then again:
cost of gas and parking in LA + USC parking permit per semester > cost of metro monthly pass per semester</p></li>
<li><p>Of course traffic is crazy on the freeway during the day. That’s why all students know not to take the freeway during the day. There’s a heavier reliance on surface streets that, while aren’t all smooth riding, certainly do speed up the trip, especially for destinations outside of downtown LA. </p></li>
<li><p>And as it relates to traffic on busier streets such as downtown, avoid navigating through rush hour, and you should be fine? Nighttime is usually less busier. Now, nighttime on weekends is a different story! The metro for weekend outings in downtown will probably be much more reliable.</p></li>
<li><p>Go ahead and buy a bike. just know you’ll probably go through several. I, personally, don’t own a bike and prefer to walk my daily several miles to class and work, because I think the campus is congested enough already what with the skateboards and bikes and electric cars rolling around. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Just my two cents! (:</p>
<p>oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info! Happy New Years to Everybody!</p>
<p>I just have one final question . In order to help pay for general living costs/savings/aid tuition, I an interested in getting a job while at USC. The thing is however that I also want to either double major or major-minor. Do you know of many USC students that manage this lifestyle? What are their schedules like? Additionally, what are common jobs that USC students have?</p>
<p>My kids both had part time on campus jobs. Neither were work study. It’s easier to get a campus job if you’re work study. One worked for SCA helping film accounting lectures. One worked in a research lab in his field of engineering. My friend’s S who was a premed chem major worked at the student health center and lab. He is now a pediatrician. One is now a EE.</p>
<p>My kids were fine without a car until SR year. Most of their friends never got a car. One less hassle. They and most of their friends had bikes. Bought real clunkers and no one was interested in stealing or harming them.</p>
<p>Platinum… A lot of students manage that lifestyle. USC is full of hard workers. It’s definitely easier to get a campus gig with work study, but there are plenty of non-work study jobs if you can inquire early into the semester.</p>
<p>Agree with Random - USC students are a busy bunch. My student had part-time jobs all 4 years, internships for 3 years, and participated in research projects and making student films while maintaining a full schedule with a major and a minor - and I can assure you she was nowhere near the busiest student.</p>
<p>And since most posters mention their students did not have cars I thought I would add a bit more - my student DID have her car with her all 4 years. Yes, parking is $414 per semester on-campus ($301.50 at the convenient parking center) and gas is expensive. You will not be surprised to hear that lamefamily did careful calculations of the relative costs of airfare/airport shuttles for 4 trips home each school year vs driving (we are approximately 5 1/2 to 6 hours away) and found that it was a wash. We felt the benefits of having the car - she was able to accept wonderful internships and research projects that required travel off-campus, scout locations for student films and get home for Thanksgiving without the worry/hassle of airport travel - tipped the scales. As it worked out, she always had at least one (and sometimes 2 or 3) other student(s) who caught a ride home with her and paid for the gas/snacks, so it was less expensive than we anticipated.</p>
<p>About parking - though expensive, the on-campus lots are very convenient and safe. Even when she moved off-campus, we put her car in a parking structure on campus. At the parking center, shuttles are provided to and from campus and there is a USC gas station right there. The biggest issue she found was that if she exited the structure on GAME DAY, there was no getting back in until the game was over - the lots were full. So stay put on game day!</p>
<p>From all this please do not conclude that we sent an expensive vehicle - her car was used and VERY inexpensive. When she was offered & accepted amazing internships that she could not have managed without a car, we concluded that we made the right decision.</p>
<p>Our USC tour guide told us that the school’s abbreviated name stands for the ‘University of Stolen Cycles’.</p>
<p>Hey!
I don’t go to USC sadly, but I do attend a nearby university in Westchester called Loyola Marymount University. It’s close to Playa Del Rey.</p>
<p>I’m from Cincinnati, Ohio and I did bring my car to California. I would expect to pay a lot of $$$ for annual parking, but it is great to have your OWN source of transportation. You don’t have to work around other people’s schedules to get rides - you can go whenever you want. This is especially useful if you have an internship, work, or anything that requires you to go off campus, especially during the school week (some of your potential rides could be in class, EC’s, etc.)</p>
<p>Also, if you do the road trip (which I HIGHLY recommend) you will see so much of the US it is unbelievable. I went through 10 states with my sister and it was the best experience of my life.</p>
<p>A few precautions:
- Moochers. People will ask you for rides all the time - just be honest from the beginning.
- Gas Money. LA’s gas is not cheap, especially if you have to fill up near Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, or Century City. Make sure your friends chip in on for the fuel fund.
- Traffic is bad, but for me it is manageable. Just don’t drive on the 405 at 5pm on a Friday. I did once - took over an hour to travel 9 miles :/</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>My brother goes to USC and I’m still waiting for my decision (fingers crossed). My bro didn’t get a car till sophomore year because he did internships all the way at Pepperdine. From what I heard, LA public transportation is terrible. I don’t think there’s even a train to Pepperdine but I could be wrong. When I visited, my roommate parked her car in the parking garage under her apartment complex right across the street from the field. It’s a bit off campus but still USC owned. My brother was in a frat and lived at the house so he always parked behind the house in the driveway. As a freshman I don’t think a car is necessary. If you do want to drive around occasionally, you could always use the zip car service 
best of luck with senior year.</p>
<p>Pepperdine is over 30 miles away from USC in Malibu. There will never be a train to Pepperdine, nobody in Malibu wants mass transit running through there. You’ll be hard pressed to find many cities with <em>great</em> public transportation that stretches 30 miles in all directions. That’s just crazy.</p>
<p>Public transportation in the downtown area is actually pretty great (stops are convenient). The rail runs every 10 minutes and there are several bus options that extend stops. The Red Line will drop you off at Hollywood and in front of Universal City (it stretches up to the NoHo Arts District). The Expo Line extends all the way to Culver City. Times have been pretty consistent. As someone who had to commute via public transit in Washington D.C. over Christmas, I would rank Los Angeles’ public transit ahead of D.C. right now in terms of performance.</p>
<p>P.S. Most people confuse L.A. traffic with bad public transit - especially buses. There are no straight shots, so you often have to transfer and sit in crummy traffic. But let’s put it into perspective. It takes me 35 minutes to get to USC via public transit and it takes me 30 minutes to get to campus via car. I live 3.5 miles away from campus. That’s the reality of living in a city like Los Angeles.</p>