I started a thread on surrounding areas oh so long ago but I found people’s comments very helpful.
@phoenixmomof2 Yes - the University of Southern California. We too had heard comments about what surrounds USC, but we really did not find that to be the case. Clearly, most major cities have parts that you need to avoid. L.A. clearly has some bad neighborhoods and a few are near USC too. But students quickly learn the areas to avoid. Plus - USC’s campus security extends beyond the campus for many blocks. They have campus cruisers that escort students when they want to leave campus. There is even free Uber available at night within a defined area near campus. The campus itself is beautiful. Their buildings and growth is phenomenal, including a $700M+ expansion called USC Village that will open next fall. Expo Park to the south of USC has museums, parks, the stadium and olympic area, etc. USC Village is expanding the campus northward.
You should check-out this link: https://village.usc.edu/
I am not aware of any major university with such new expansion plans underway.
But the main thing about USC is the global alumni network and all that is accessible to USC within a 20-30 minute car ride… from LAX to Downtown L.A. to Santa Monica to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, etc. You can literally get to the beach or up a mountain all within a 20-30 trip from campus.
When you compare all that to what Durham, N.C. offers… well, there really was no comparison in our opinion. But Duke only dropped on the list. It was not taken off as Penn and Columbia were. My younger D is still considering Duke, but USC is her top choice too.
@citymama9 To us three, L.A. and all that it offers was far superior to Philly and Manhattan. We all 3 really disliked Philly and the area around Penn. And Manhattan was not appealing for different reasons. My kids grew up in the suburbs of FL. They felt uncomfortable and uneasy in NYC… both the area around Columbia and down in the Village near NYU too. Clearly, there are those who will love that urban scenario far more. But it was not for my girls.
@citymama9 I can speak firsthand on NY and LA, and USC’s neighborhood is worse than Columbia’s (by a lot). When I went to UCLA, Westwood (it’s neighborhood) often had a lot of USC students at the bars and theaters on Thurs-Sat because they commuted over to us instead of staying local. When I last lived in LA a decade ago it was still a bad neighborhood. But they were starting to revitalize downtown so not sure if that’s improved it. I would think even if it has, south of the college is still not a place to walk alone or hang out.
On second thought… with USC applications at over 54K last year and with the acceptance rate falling to only 16.5%, anyone considering applying this year for Fall 2017 freshman admission should take the advice of UCLA grads or anyone else willing to badmouth USC… lol.
My D already applied, so I really do not need to make it harder on her getting into her dream school. Look elsewhere 
Or - as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say… “This is not the college you are looking for…”
To my older D, she would have only maybe chosen Stanford, Yale, Princeton or Brown over USC. Those schools made her decision easy. To my younger D, USC is now her top choice… and by a wide margin.
LOL. I wasn’t “bad mouthing” USC and was transparent about being a UCLA grad. I think USC is a fantastic school. I considered going there at the time and would agree that it’s alumni network is worked far more effectively than UCLA’s. I was answering a specific question honestly. For all it’s strengths it’s hard to objectively argue that neighborhood is one of USC’s. And UCLA is doing just fine on applicants so it hardly needs anyone selling it…
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So @citivas , the neighborhood surrounding UCLA is safe then?
@citivas Just kidding. But it does seem to be getting much better around USC than it may have been a # of years ago.
I would have to agree on that key point you’ve made though… Where USC is situated and its surrounding neighborhood is likely its biggest weakness. The area surrounding UCLA is far better in terms of appearance and possibly safety overall. UCLA wins in terms of location.
When I went to Johns Hopkins U., no one warned me about its area or safety concerns, and it turned out to be really bad. It is likely better now. But the point is, you never really know. The key is to be diligent and aware at all times.
Luckily, there are 100s of quality college options out there. My older D found 17 to consider and apply to… my younger D is considering 13. I am not exactly sure why neither considered UCLA specifically… but they seem to favor private vs public universities, with UVa being the only public school on both their lists.
Durham is changing fast. Many young adults finding the Southeast older towns low cost and low pressure. Old tobacco warehouses make great loft apts.
@citymama9 My D17 did her “summer internship” (have to call it volunteering now since it’s unpaid) at the LA Museum of Natural History – basically next to USC. The neighborhood is more urban than is our part of Los Angeles (LA is very big) and has more payday loan storefronts, but during the day, at least, it felt safe enough to her that she walked around every lunchtime. There were USC students there doing what she did as college volunteers, and they were so lovely to her. They sort of adopted her, it sounded cute.
@HarvestMoon1 “Safe” is relative, everywhere. And UCLA is still in LA so like any urban area, exercise judgment. But UCLA is in a fortunate part of town. It’s bordered on the north (literally across the street) by Bel Air and Beverly Hills starts a short distance to the East of the campus. The West and South sides are part of West Los Angeles which borders Santa Monica. Directly south of campus is the village of Westwood, which is where they often do movie red carpet premieres, etc. When I was there we felt totally secure walking in Westwood at night. I still know people who work there and with my work I visit occasionally but can’t speak as a resident student any more.
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@HarvestMoon1 I live west of Westwood by a few miles; Westwood is great. It’s lively and fun with a mix of the usual chain stores and really funky unique shops. We go there all the time.
Oh, and the Playboy Mansion (recently sold!) is in the neighborhood next to the campus… Do a Zillow search of homes in 90024 (UCLA’s zip). Most are several million and up. Try the same exercise for USC.
Again, I have zero interest in selling UCLA or dissing USC. USC is a fantastic school and has gotten consistently better over the years. For some things it’s better than UCLA. Location just isn’t one of them.
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For those that want a lot of in-depth opinions from current students and recent graduates via a variety of surveys, I recommend the Niche Rankings and Survey results at:
https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-colleges/
Of all the ranking sources that I have seen, they seem to focus on the things that are actually more important to prospective students/applicants. And their collective opinions seem to best mirror my own and the students that I have known that have been touring colleges during the past 5 yrs or so.
For example… you can see what kids at each college or university actually think about their own schools in terms of… Academics, Administration, Athletics, Campus Food, Campus Housing, Campus Quality, Diversity, Drug Safety, Greek Life, Guys & Girls, Health & Safety, Local Area, Off-Campus Dining, Off-Campus Housing, Parking, Party Scene, Technology, Transportation, Weather
And for what it is worth… their overall top ten schools are: 1) Stanford University 2) Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3) Yale University 4) Harvard University 5) Rice University 6) University of Pennsylvania 7) Duke University 8) Brown University 9)California Institute of Technology 10) University of Southern California
Agree, UCLA in Westwood–can’t beat the neighborhood. JHU’s Homestead Campus, on the other hand is in an undesirable neighborhood. We loved the school despite this, but many friends we know crossed it off the list because of appearance of JHU’s neighborhood and freshman quad and migrated over to Georgetown–one of the many colleges described as being on “the Hilltop.” Beautiful. Key Bridge, View of the Washington Monument, Go Grey & Blue, Go Hoyas!
correction: Homewood Campus
@redbluegoldgreen Times have changed so much. Back in my day, pre-Internet, etc., much of the decision-making process was simply based on word-of-mouth and general reputation. Back then, I ranked JHU 3rd in my mind, after Harvard and Yale. We could not afford to go see schools. I got into Hopkins, and not Harvard or Yale, so JHU was where I went. JHU was considered a top-ten school then. US News still ranks it as 10th. But as an alum, I would consider the Niche rankings at 39 to be much closer to reality - especially in terms of the overall college experience / quality of life. Hopkins will always be an A+ academic institution, and likely a top-25 school, but when my Ds mentioned it or asked about it… my immediate response was, “No… look elsewhere”.
Ironically, I had ranked Georgetown 4th back then… and likely would have enjoyed attending there much more…
Speaking of neighborhoods. I had always heard that Schenectady, NY was awful. We saw Union College awhile back and thought the campus was beautiful and the surrounding area was perfectly fine. Everyone has a different idea of what is a bad neighborhood, so one needs to see it for themselves. On other hand, people say Poughkeepsie, NY where Vassar is is okay, but we really disliked it as a town and found it seedy. People have said that the towns where Lehigh and Lafayette are located are seedy, but I thought they were perfectly fine. Not fancy, but seemed safe. However, I think there is nothing more important than safety when choosing a college, so people just really need to do their research and decide what they are comfortable with
The biggest irony to me though is how College Confidential itself seems to have an unnatural bias against the University of Southern California. Or… if it is not a bias per se, it has to be some form of selective ignorance.
While USC is ranked 10th nationally via Niche and 23rd nationally via US News, it never seems to make even the top 27 as CC sees it… (8 Ivies + 19 on their Top University / non-Ivy list).
These are those 19 universities who do make the cut… superior universities to USC in the eyes of CC… and how they rank…
California Institute of Technology (Niche: 9 USN: 10 ), Carnegie Mellon University (Niche: 26, USN: 23 ), Duke University (Niche: 7, USN: 8 ), Emory University (Niche: 32, USN: 21 ), Georgetown University (Niche: 18, USN: 21 ), Johns Hopkins University (Niche: 29, USN: 10 ), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Niche: 2, USN: 7 ), Northwestern University (Niche: 30, USN: 12 ), Rice University (Niche: 5, USN: 18 ), Stanford University (Niche: 1, USN: 4 ), University of California - Berkeley (Niche: 28, USN: 20 ), University of California - Los Angeles (Niche: 26, USN: 23 ), University of Chicago (Niche: 20, USN: 4 ), University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (Niche: 21, USN: 29 ), University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (Niche: 31, USN: 30 ), University of Notre Dame (Niche: 13, USN: 18 ), University of Virginia (Niche: 25, USN: 26 ), Vanderbilt University (Niche: 17, USN: 15 ), Washington University in St. Louis (Niche: 12, USN: 16 )
So why no CC love and respect toward USC? I know this question has been asked before on these forums, but until it changes, the questions needs to be repeated over time…
This might sound politically incorrect, and I can’t speak for “CC”, but maybe demographics come into play. USC is 32% white according to stats. Maybe that’s a factor for some. I have no idea. I didn’t even know that USC wasn’t popular here.
And to be more specific, there is only one university ranked in US News rankings of the top 26 national universities that is also not among CC’s top 27… USC.
My only thought may be a lingering notion that any university that is also so well-regarded in terms of athletic prowess over many decades should also not be considered a top university overall. If so… that is a silly slight. There are quite simply a # of universities that CC lists as Top Universities / Non-Ivy that do not rank well against USC. I am not suggesting down-grading any other university. But I would add USC and make it a list of 20 vs just 19.