Current opinions of USC

Parents Forum
101

<p>TheDad - I'm getting a big chuckle from your post, and it's made my day!</p>

<p>As a graduate from that-horrible-second-rate-school-in-the-better-part-of-town-who-kicked-them-out-of-the-BCS :D , most of my opinions are 20+ years old, but I have noticed that the Trojans are creeping up in the USNews poll, which many take as the Oracle. Not necessarily sure why this is, but there are already threads out here on schools that are considered somewhat "overranked," so I won't add to this....</p>

<p>All kidding aside, my biggest concern would be safety and security, since when I lived in SoCal, there were many times when we had to go in the general vicinity of the 'SC campus, and it's not the best neighborhood in the world, to say the least. In the mid-80's they had a card-key system for their dorms, which we didn't have at that other place. Hopefully, that has changed, but I can't see how that neighborhood could be considered desirable for the calibre of school it is.</p>

<p>I will, however, give them props where due: they have an absolutely fantastic film school. Mr. Lucas has helped with that, but, they've had that reputation for quite awhile.</p>

<p>And, TheDad, we really can't fault them so much for the gung-ho football stuff....I'm married to a UF grad, so just imagine.....</p>

102

<p>what it sounds like to me is TheDad seems a bit annoyed by all the Trojan pride....and since when was having pride a bad thing? there is a huge difference between having pride and being "pompous." And you cant judge USC's outstanding educational programs off whether you liked the personalities of the USC alum that you have worked with. i dont know...but i just dont understand your reasoning. all im getting from this is that u dont like USC....which is by all means fine with me.</p>

<p>btw, like lovetocamp said, Marshall was ranked 9 by US news so how can u still say that "USC's grad business program is widely respected. It's undergrad program is a joke."</p>

<p>cheers.</p>

103

<p>I will repeat that USNEWS ranked USC's "Undergraduate" Businss program as 9th in the country. I do realize that USNEWS is not the end all, be all, for rankings, but it does seem to be the most often quoted source for College Rankings. </p>

<p>I do find it so enjoyable that many people cite USNEWS when it suits their purpose (when Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, CalTech, etc. end up in the National Top 10 List). Yet, when USNEWS ranks USC in the top-10 for Business Undergraduate Schools, then suddenly USNEWS becomes irrelevant. </p>

<p>I enjoyed the comment (earlier) by one of the USC detracters who mentioned the "group of 15 or so blonde USC girls standing in front of one of the hotels". Yep, it is amazing how all female students at USC are blonde. When i was down at USC for Orientation, Move-In Week, and Explore-USC, I guess that USC must have bussed in all the females who were brunettes, redheads, and African American. And they must have flown in the many females from different countries (India, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, etc.). It really makes me believe the story, when someone has to resort to such exaggeration.</p>

<p>And, for college flags flying in the yards? What kind of straw-man argument is that? Someone is proud of their college, and still roots for their team, and you have to denigrate them? What's that all about? Maybe you never went to your high school or college reunions, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us who did have some problem. My sister graduated from USC, and her husband graduated from Michigan. They both still root for their teams. They will be watching the Rose Bowl in separate rooms, but they will still (in their 50's) be rooting for their teams. </p>

<p>As for knowing x number of Profs, and x numbers of CEOs, give me a break. My father was a well known economist for many years. He was the keynote speaker at many Economic conventions back in Washington. You could easily do a google on him, and find many hits. He also was directly involved in hiring Business Grads for his Department. He has always held USC Business gradutes in high esteem (both undergrad and graduate). He received his MBA from Stanford - but never looked down his nose at a USC Grad. (Do you think my father would have paid for my sister to get her Undergraduate Business degree from USC if he thought their program was awful?).</p>

<p>To over generalize so completely, shows that one has never really learned one of life's biggest lessons. This lesson can only be learned over time (many years), and with experience (real life business experience). It is the "individual" who is interviewed and hired. It is not the "school". It is the individual who ends up working for a company (not the college that they went to). Good grief, if someone hired completely based on what college they went to, they would quickly be in a world of hurt. Anyone who has sat in on an interview, knows that you hire the individual. You listen to them, you look at them, you ask them questions and see how they respond. It is the thinking process, and communication process, that typically gets someone hired. Not the college that he/she went to. At best, the college that someone graduates from may "help" them get "to the interview" process. In the end, whether they are hired (or not) is dependant upon how they come across in the interview, and not the school that they graduated from. </p>

<p>I, personally, work in IT. I have 32 years with my company, and over 20 years in IT. I have seen college grads with Computer Science degrees come into our department from every imaginable school (Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Sacramento State, Chico State, UC Davis, Cal Poly, to name a few). I have yet to see any strong coorelation between the college that they graduated from, and how well they peformed their job. One of our weakest programmers was a graduate from Stanford. She was a great gal, but could never come down from the clouds to actually code anything that met the requirements. Complete waste of code. She eventually went elsewhere. On the other side, a grad from Sacramento State's Computer Science Department is one of our best programmers. He applies himself, he understands the users requirements, and he is a bright guy. I am not knocking Stanford's Computer Science program, not at all. They are known for having an awesome C/S program. My point is, it is the indivual, and not the school.</p>

104

<p>^^^^very well said.</p>

105

<p>First, don’t waste your time responding to TheDad’s rants. He clearly has strong UCLA connections so that explains about 95% of his rambling tirade. He sounds like the typical underemployed, self-proclaimed intellectual who is jealous because he can’t help but notice on a daily basis that there are so many “lowly USC” grads that are more successful than he. Must also explain his disdain for the flags. </p>

<p>Funny too how these “intellectuals” criticize the “football culture” but when they finally win a game they are the first ones on here trumpeting their victory (TheDad included).</p>

<p>More amusing to me if it wasn’t so tragic is meloparkmom. She now agrees with TheDad and is very critical of USC when just a month ago she was on this forum promoting USC to high school seniors! It seems that her son isn’t satisfied with the academic rigor and the USC “attitude”. He seems like a very bright kid but socially a better fit for a smaller LAC like Pomona, Macalester, etc. For someone who has obviously spent a lot of time on this forum I am shocked that she did not see this coming. Also, I see nothing wrong with USC being proud of the employment opportunities they can provide undergrads. Grad school is always an option, good jobs are another story.</p>

106

<p>For sure at USC there are lots of priveledged kids. What's so bad about that? It's a good thing when it comes to alumni contacts. </p>

<p>Neither of my kids are at USC but their HS is a huge feeder school for USC every year. The kids we know that go there are high achievers and their parents happen to be successful. The students work hard and have a lot of pride in the school.</p>

<p>I come from a UCLA family but even my Dad (UCLA grad) says that USC is a wonderful school now vs in the 60's when he had nothing but bad things to say about it. He would give his blessing if DS chose to apply which he may.</p>

<p>Bottom line, students we know who are attending in all class levels (frosh, soph, junior, senior), are loving the school and are getting a great education.</p>

<p>I'm a little taken aback by TheDad's statements. What's wrong with a "connected" student body? It will only help your child in the job search after graduation IMO. BTW most of the kids we know at USC are Armenian or Persian. Not blond wasps.</p>

107

<p>Old USC: Waspy rich slackers of LA go there, don't do anything, graduate with family jobs. Today they are 40-50 year old obnoxious immature "adults" who are more obsessed with the school than current students.</p>

<p>New USC: I have some friends there who are genuinely intelligent kids who do their work. But these friends tell me that the vast majority of kids they know never do any work, putting their social lives first, and even during finals week there was a lot of horseplay going on (in contrast to UCLA, where it was dead finals week). They also say the work is very easy. USC is better than what it used to be, but it's still the rich playboy's school, and a few scholarship geniuses isn't going to change that.</p>

108

<p>Drive through the USC campus and it is diverse. The UCLA campus is primarily Asian. That may be the difference of behavior during finals week IMO. Students need to breath and not go completely nutso over finals week. It's only school! Not life or death. :-D</p>

109

<p>Not sure if USC is diverse.. it has the highest number of internationals, but meet the ruling classes of countries like India and Turkey and you'll find that rich kids are rich kids wherever they're from. Also whites are majority at USC while Asians are only plurality at UCLA.</p>

110

<p>They don't call it University of Spoiled Children for nothing..........
My d. went through private K-8 and a really good west coast public HS that sends top 25 to selective schools. USC has a rep for specific programs (film and broadcast journalism) but beyond that has a rep as a place where you can sell your stats for merit aid. </p>

<p>If your child is passionate about film and TV then look seriously. Anything else evaluate the merit aid and your child's fit for SoCal. Do not pay up for USC.</p>

111

<p>
[quote]
TheDad - I'm getting a big chuckle from your post, and it's made my day!</p>

<p>As a graduate from that-horrible-second-rate-school-in-the-better-part-of-town-who-kicked-them-out-of-the-BCS , most of my opinions are 20+ years old, but I have noticed that the Trojans are creeping up in the USNews poll, which many take as the Oracle. Not necessarily sure why this is, but there are already threads out here on schools that are considered somewhat "overranked," so I won't add to this....</p>

<p>All kidding aside, my biggest concern would be safety and security, since when I lived in SoCal, there were many times when we had to go in the general vicinity of the 'SC campus, and it's not the best neighborhood in the world, to say the least. In the mid-80's they had a card-key system for their dorms, which we didn't have at that other place. Hopefully, that has changed, but I can't see how that neighborhood could be considered desirable for the calibre of school it is.</p>

<p>I will, however, give them props where due: they have an absolutely fantastic film school. Mr. Lucas has helped with that, but, they've had that reputation for quite awhile.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>When someone just pumped up UCLA, there comes this gem:)</p>

112

<p>namaste, please talk something you have an ounce of clue.</p>

<p>I have been growing much disdain recently towards some (not everyone) UCLA people . Mostly it is because the people like TheDad and namaste tend to badmouth a school they don't have much personal knowledge of. They even ventured to make up some weird stuff. </p>

<p>Well I heard a story a couple of days ago which gave me a clue on how most of bruins learn to defame USC. I know a guy from China coming to USC for his PhD degree. He also applied to UCLA and got the admission. One of the professors at UCLA expressed interest in him and invited him to join his lab. It was some good conversation, but when it came down to decision time, the guy chose USC and wrote to the UCLA professor very politely to say sorry. But he got an email reply from the professor, who told him that USC stands for "University of Second Choice", and asked him to reconsider his decision. </p>

<p>It was a funny story but also a sad one. Can this moron professor understand you are the second choice in this case? What kind of character can you learn from him as a student? I guess hating USC is the UCLA 101.</p>

113

<p>First a couple of notes on things posted already:</p>

<p>The Business Week list put USC at #20 in undergraduate business. However, in their following week's issue they noted that USC sent in the wrong statistics for the school's SAT scores, and therefore should have been rated higher. They didn't say how high, but my guess is USC would be somewhere between 12th and 14th based upon the information supplied. Business Week said they would not reissue the rankings since to do so would take up too much space (and because it was USC that had made the mistake, not them). Too bad that the school should have the wrong (lower) ranking because of some admin assistant's mistake--but that's life, I guess.</p>

<p>The list that shows the top 11 undergraduate business schools per USNW should have also included Indiana University at Bloomington at #11 (tied with Cornell). (I had to throw that in since my son is at Indiana University).</p>

<p>Now my comments:</p>

<p>I lived in southern California for over 30 years and have many friends at both UCLA and USC (I have my MBA from UCLA). While I'd love to put down USC, everybody knows that it's a very good school, with the film school, business school, and communication schools being among the very best. In fact, most people would probably agree that the film school is the best in the country (maybe NYU is as good), but USC's film school has been fantastic for over 15 years. </p>

<p>I remember having someone from the school come speak at a program I gave in 1991. They discussed how the film school already had high speed DSL lines installed throughout the entire film school for this "new" thing called the internet that was loaned to local directors to use to do casting and review film locations online in mere minutes. A quick demonstration was provided of this at the time (via a slow phone line since the program was in Utah at the time). Even as slow as this was, it seemed like magic at the time. When we were told that the speed at USC was 200 times faster to do these searches, we knew the school was way ahead of everybody else in this regard. (Remember, I said this was in 1991).</p>

<p>It's true that many people at the school party hard, some are preppy, and (like most of southern California), there are many young healthy blondes (men and women) at the school. That's L.A. Get used to it.-You'll find the same thing at UCLA, although there are a few more brunettes because of the greater number of Asians.</p>

<p>My only complaint about the school is that the area around the school (mostly on the south side) is very run down and dangerous. But if you are smart enough to stay away from there, then there are no problems. The school itself is beautiful and the academics and the city is great--especially for a 20- to 30-year-old. Really fun, great social scene, and lots to do. </p>

<p>Your daughter will love it there. You'll see.</p>

<p>P.S. I hope that QW553 will realize that most stories like the one he posted are urban legends--or told by others to put down another school--which is almost as bad as what namaste posted. Neither his story nor namaste's comments helps us get to the truth of what UCLA and USC are really like.</p>

114

<p>Calcruzer, my story is true. I know the student since we both came from China. And I know the professor, and listened to him personally once (not the trash talk, in a seminar). </p>

<p>I have to add that I know too many UCLA students, not all on personal basis, just because I am a Chinese and living in an asian neighbourhood. Most of them know a lot of mean jokes about USC. I didn't know where you can learn those.</p>

115

<p>Kinda agree with you on some "intellectuals" such as TheDaD. I'd like to call them fake intellectualls because you gotta have a way of logical thinking to be qualified as intellectuals, not some hatred you hold dearly no matter how ridiculous the truth makes you to sound like. I happened to have a former advisor who is an execellent scientist but prefers to be regarded as an intellectual. He has the kind of hatred towards GOP and GW. And every time he met a guy from Orange Country, he jokingly said the guy must be a republican and love SUVs. Sometimes the jokes just got really old. The TheDad share his hatred to OC and newport beach. And his 2 USC professor stories is getting old to me. Frankly, I don't believe it considering how many professors I know personally doing my Ph.D at USC. Those kind of professors lack in ethics, and should be teaching at UCLA (joke, apparently. And I know several great professors from UCLA).</p>

<p>Also this rivalry thing really buffles me. The first taste I got was 3 years ago when I first got here. A bunch of blue shirts on our campus shouted me moron and sucker. American probably thinks hatred towards to each other is warranted in the rivalry. I kinda found this rivalry culture in most of sports, and the influence america's domestic and international policies. I don't know if it's good or bad thing.</p>

<p>Some of my opinion of USC.
I don't think it's fair to trash USC's academic past. It's not as glorious a tradition as its football program, but it did its best to produce numerous scientists, scholars and professionals along some self-made billionares. In its ranking history, the worst year it's still in the top 50 nationally, and it's from at least a decade ago. The conservative alumni and football tradition are all part of our history and legacy. We will take it and move our school forward. This is what our administration is doing, and I applaud them for that. I personally don't think those are liability for our academics ambitions, except for in the eyes of fake intellectuals.</p>

<p>As a private school, surviving in California is tough facing the competition from UCs. But USC has indeed made strides and still moves in the right direction. All our professional schools are solid. The weak link is in the liberal arts and some of the science programs. But those programs offer some really good opportunities comparing with other peer universities. If you only point to this small part of USC academic community to tell others how bad USC is, then you have some learning to do. </p>

<p>During my short stay here, I have been taking some undergrade courses and have been TAs twice. I can testify that calling USC college-lite is a lie unless you are truly Caltech materials. Let's see, USC's federal grant ranks among top 15~20 national research universities. This means our faculty are nation-wide competitive. I don't think they will give anyone an easy pass by giving you easy class, or if they think you're stupid (they know a thing or two about academic integrity unlike TheDad's friends). I personally think most of undergraduates here are great, bright students. They are like this university, they learn doing, not talking.</p>

<p>Last word. This intellectual thing got overblown by some fakes. USC is building a new dorm called Humanity residential college (name may not be correct). The intellectual events here are abundant. You may have a larger intellectual community than at some small LAC. Besides, being intellectual is not forcible and should be a natural evolution. It's not like you seclude yourself from other kind of people and surround yourself with intellectuals then you get to be an intellectual. No, not that way. In Chinese, there is a saying like "you can be a hermit in a crowd" (I paraphrased). It's not like you are a intellectual as long as you go to Smith. It's about your ability, your intelligence, and the being of your mind.</p>

116

<p>African American 6%
Latino / Hispanic 13%
Native American / Pacific Islander 2%
Asian 21%
Caucasian 47%
International (student visa holders) 9%
Not indicated 2%</p>

<p>42% of the class, not including internationals, is not white. Seems pretty diverse to me.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/parents/images/profilefreshman2006.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/parents/images/profilefreshman2006.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

117

<p>
[quote]
UCLA, where it was dead finals week

[/quote]

I guess except for the 'undie run'. :)</p>

118

<p>Sorry, I haven't caught up, just read page 8. I'm a UCLA grad who years ago took every opportunity to bash anyone from USC. I did my share of hissing, booing, name-calling, and waving dollar bills at UCLA-USC football games at the Coliseum. You could have placed me high on the list of USC-haters and one who believed all that Spoiled Rich Kid stuff. A year after graduation, I met the love of my life, who WAS A USC GRAD! I must take extreme exception with namaste's post:
[quote]
Old USC: Waspy rich slackers of LA go there, don't do anything, graduate with family jobs. Today they are 40-50 year old obnoxious immature "adults" who are more obsessed with the school than current students.

[/quote]
My 50+ H (raised in NorCal) is nothing of the sort, nor are those with whom he has maintained his USC ties. His parents were divorced and low-middle income. USC gave him generous merit scholarships and need grants where UCLA offered only loans. He is forever grateful for the education he received there, graduating summa cum laude with an undergrad business degree that provided a firm foundation for his successful entrepreneurial enterprises. Our friends from both UCLA and USC do not fit any such stereotypes, and we laugh about all that ridiculousness we believed at the time.</p>

119

<p>Maize&Blue - Nice post. Seems to sum things up nicely. Congrats to you and your spouse. Wishes to you both for many more happy years together. :-)</p>

120

<p>Have I posted one inaccurate thing about USC? I'm born and raised in LA and have been to USC many times, know scores of USC students and alumni. Alumni from the graduate schools tend to be very professional upstanding people. The undergraduate alumni (age 40+) are blond loudmouths with pink peeling skin, a trust fund they still live off, and a bizarrely zealous devotion to a school they went to 30 years ago. Of course, Maizeandblue, your husband is one of their scholarship admits. He was not a typical student.</p>

<p>Nothing personal against USC - it is a fine institution. However, the fact remains that it's the school of the elite in Los Angeles, while UCLA is the school of the common people. The elite tend to slack off more (or the true geniuses go to Stanford), while the common man has to work hard to attend flagship state university. It is fair to say many who attend and have attended USC are backed up by their money and don't really work that hard, the culture there is based on play, not rigorous academics.</p>

<p>Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you are white, wealthy, into group bonding and don't want to work that hard, I couldn't think of a better school.</p>