Where is this CC ranking you speak of, @WWWard?
@WWWard That’s far from a ranking though. Put zero weight on that. It is a very old list and is static and unchanging. On the LAC side, something I followed more closely due to my kids’ interest in smaller schools, there are schools that are on the top LAC list that are much less selective than some not making the list. Again, zero correlation to any kind of ranking at all.
@doschicos Well… whether it is technically a ranking or only a list that they call CC’s Top Universities, I have noticed the question or concern being posted scores of times over the past years. Clearly, it upsets people who respect USC. It may be a static and unchanging list too, but they should update it… or not have one.
Any top university list that includes UCLA and UC-Berkeley while leaving off USC is asking to be scrutinized lol 
Again… 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. So to USC supporters, students and alumni, it certainly looks like a ranking.
Either way, I would add USC to such a list of Top Universities. I would add UTexas as well.
USC athletics is known more for cheating than for prowess…
@WISdad23 Really? Reggie Bush took $ on the side without USC knowing about it. That was his decision. and it should not have otherwise tainted a legacy that no other university can claim. The NCAA then chose to punish kids who were in elementary school and middle school while Bush was at USC. That’s really fair.
But to be clear by what I mean by athletic prowess…
USC has won 125 team national championships… more than any other university.
USC men athletes have won more individual NCAA titles (302) than those from any other school in the nation and USC women have brought home another 55 individual NCAA titles for a combined 357 individual NCAA championships.
466 USC Trojans have competed in the Olympics, more than from any other university in history… winning more Golds than any other university, more total medals than any other university, etc., etc.
You may not consider such a list of accomplishments as descriptive of athletic prowess, but I do not know how else to define it. #1 is usually considered a good thing…
Why is this turning into a USC thread??
Good point. It should not. Best of luck to those applying this year. Remember to apply to reach schools, match schools and safety schools. Assume nothing and make sure you cover your bases. And most of all, tour the schools you are considering before deciding. The college visit is the key thing to making an informed decision.
Good luck…
^^^ This. It may be impractical to visit all of them before applying, but definitely visit the top contenders before deciding – if you possibly can. There’s so much you can learn on the ground that’s not evident from any brochure or video. (Though you can get some pretty strong and generally useful impressions from the virtual stuff – nothing was TRULY a surprise for us, just somethings were more pronounced one way or another than expected.)
@youcee admitted students day. We actually went to 2 events. The first one was local in our area on the East Coast at a hotel lobby and function room; the second was admitted students day in LA on the campus. Go Bruins!
My folks both graduated from USC. It was the only college my dad said he would pay for, apart from state universities. And I basically said “gross! Why on earth would I want to go to college where YOU went?” Haha! What a ninny I was. I turned my nose up and went to CSULB. Anyway, I would take USC over UCLA any day. Now, back to our regular schedule…
Regarding bad neighborhoods, I agree very much that beauty is in the eye… I don’t want to say negative things about any neighborhoods with a good college, because there are people who will take what they read here as truth. Clark University is often in these types of conversations, and Worcester in general. My D would have been fine attending Clark (she was accepted) and I had no problem with it. The surrounding area wasn’t prisitine, but she liked it a thousand times better than the uber-manicured and fancy shmancy area around Boston College, which totally fell off the list after visiting.
My 2 cents on this topic: a lot depends on which gate you entered when you onboarded the university. When we were visiting prep schools, we came into Andover through a “back door,” and was not impressed. Then, later, when we revisited through another entrance to campus, thought it was lovely!
We live across the river from UPenn in a nicer area but if you go a few blocks South then the word ‘dodgy’ comes to mind if you’re British. My D regular encounters homeless and panhandlers throughout the city. A couple of months ago we were walking back home from an evening out at the local yummy pie shop and passed by a hospital and there was an escaped mental patient naked in the bushes with several security/police trying to catch him. So a couple of weeks ago my D tells me she’s taking Yale off the list because she doesn’t like New Haven. She says its got all the bad stuff of a large city without all the good stuff.
The idea of sending my kids to a place they’ve never visited for four years is inconceivable to me! It’s like getting married without meeting the person.
We had a whole list of places to visit to see if she wanted to apply (almost done, one more to visit) and a whole list of places to visit if she gets accepted and it’s viable financially.
Even if she thinks she doesn’t want to go to a school that accepts her and throws money her way, we’re going to push her to look at all of them in person just so she can make an informed yes or no decision.
I foresee a lot of road trips in our future 
To that point, my D’s best friend described this morning her own change of heart after visiting her wish list of colleges. Pre-visits, her list or rank was: 1) Emory 2) Duke 3) Vanderbilt 4) Wake Forest and 5) UNC. After her recent summer road trip and in-person visits/tours, her refined list is 1) Vanderbilt 2) UNC 3) Wake Forest 4) Duke 5) Emory. That is a major conversion and all apparently driven by the feel or atmosphere experienced there in-person. She now has decided to apply to Vandy early decision in hopes of getting in there…
Northeastern University:
First off, I was accepted in the 80’s as a student, visited campus, thought it was kind of dumpy and next to a few bad neighborhoods and had crappy dorm options. Did not attend, although I did like the idea of the co-op. I just didn’t like it enough to attend.
Fast forward, I went to the newly refreshed campus with my son for a Business Day and I have a much better impression. The head of the dept met with a group of us and went over the ins and outs of the biz program, how the co-ops work, study abroad options, masters degree options, majors/minors etc. It was very enlightening and the dept head was a nice lady, down to earth and very enthusiastic on where the program has come since she had worked their for 25 years or so! She sad the co-op program was the strongest it’s ever been, referring to the era as the Disney Land of C-ops. 700 or more companies have opportunities listed with them right now, from start ups to mega corps. They have started a start up incubator of sorts, that seemed interesting. They had a recent student give a nice presentation on his years at Northeastern and he did a nice job explaining on how the co-op worked and why he thought it was very valuable. They also talked a lot about the value of their academic advisors and how they help the kids pick co-ops and find jobs. Seemed very helpful.
The school looks totally different from the last time I had really checked it out. I’ve driven by a few times, but had not seen the quad zone before. It was nice. The campus seems kind of separated or shielded from the city due to new dorms/buildings/walls/landscaping. It was really nicely done. The new buildings were nice and it seemed like a safe,fun little campus.
I can see why the school has risen on rankings lists. It’s a nice school with decent programs in a major city. I have a better feeling about the school after seeing it.
My son liked it. He was attentive the entire time of the presentation and he liked the co-op concept and the idea of going overseas for a summer. But, he didn’t like the overall vibe compared to BU. I think the BU tour wowed him with a fancy presentation in a really nice room with views overlooking the Charles River and the city. The room where Northeastern gave us the presentation was like a classroom hall, no windows-very standard/no frills. He also liked the locale of BU better, but NU is only about a mile away. He also thought that he could accomplish a lot of what NU was trying to accomplish at a smaller school, with smaller classes, by pursuing internships and working more closely with professors, and finish in 4 years vs the 5 at NU . He said he might prefer a suburban environment too.
So, in the end NU will stay on my sons short list of schools, which includes NU,BU,Babson,Bentley. I don’t think NU is the top choice, but I could see my son succeeding if he chose to go there.
Having just returned from S18’s first non-local college tours, I’ll chime in. We visited three colleges that participate in the Ohio Six College Tour. As a result, lovely refreshments and lunch after the morning visits were served. We’re used to hot SoCal summers, but the heat/humidity combo really sapped our energy, so cold refreshments were really welcome.
Went up:
College of Wooster
Great academics, lovely campus, great people, good food. He went in thinking “meh,” came out thinking “this is the kind of place for me.” COW was the only college we visited that my rising college sophomore said she regretted taking it off her list without researching it further. She’s extremely happy where she is, so there’s no regret about her choice. I used that statement with both of my kids to demonstrate that there really can be more than one right college for a student.
Stayed the same:
Denison University
Nice community, nice campus (maybe a little too pristine). The most memorable experience was the free t-shirt for having traveled the farthest to visit. Came away feeling like it would be fine, but nothing special. Does at least want to visit again with students on campus (which can happen because he definitely wants to revisit COW and Earlham for the same purpose).
Went down:
Earlham College
Loved the school, loved the facilities, hated the town (especially since we arrived on a Sunday afternoon and no local restaurants were open after 5 pm: ended up at Chili’s, adequate but not our fave). Though he loves the program offered for one of his major interests, College of Wooster has come out on top.
Off the list:
Case Western Reserve University
Too big, too urban. Confusing campus layout…couldn’t figure out where the campus ended and the city began. Stronger focus on areas outside of S18’s interests. We were in Cleveland anyway, so we went mostly because he’d already rejected USC and we wanted to see whether a mid-size school might be more to his liking. He hated it even more than USC.
Oberlin College
His words were: “this place is for Ivy-League wannabes.” Not bashing the Ivy League schools, it’s just that it was too intense for him. I didn’t like it for him because much of the focus of the tour was on their loud social and environmental activism rather than the academics. My son is not a loud activist, so he would not find his peeps there. Also, their freshman seminar program and capstone program are not required (90% and 60% of students participate, respectively). I sat there and thought “if it’s not required, he won’t do it.” In discussing things afterward, he said (without me mentioning my thought) “I think I should go to a place that requires the freshman seminar and capstone because if it’s not required, I won’t do it.” I was so happy that he knows himself so well and that he also sees the value of participating in those types of programs.
Oh, we also made a short detour to Gambier on our way from Granville to Wooster just to see Kenyon and the town because we’ve heard so much about how there’s nothing there. Both of my kids took one look at the place and said “no way!” They have a really great athletic facility, though.
@1518mom Wow. Why would your kids take one look at Kenyon and say ‘no way’? Just curious. On paper, the school looks beautiful.
1 Like
Regarding USC and UCLA, we live within a 45 min drive of both. My kids have been to both for various activities and camps multiple times.
USC is buying up property in the surrounding community which is creating a larger campus and a larger area that they have control of. However, in my opinion, once you get off of the USC campus, it is very unsafe.
UCLA used to have a very charming walking neighborhood of Westwood. Over the years, it has become run down but by saying “run down,” I mean vacant buildings, not gangs. If LA can get the 2024 Olympics, I think it will help revitalize Westwood.
UCB - Speaking as an alum, you get used to the homeless. It has become a very intense school with respect to competition. I’ve heard of a lot of kids who were brilliant in high school but had a difficult time being average at Cal.
Just my opinion.
Kenyon IS beautiful, but it has a teeny tiny movie-set town, and feels very precious. I’d love to spend a week on a retreat there, but my kid couldn’t see himself there at all. It’s the kind of place one would either love or hate … kids looking for something with a little more grit and edge might well be turned off, as my kid was.