<p>How is USC financial aid? I can't afford to go unless I get a lot of aid, and considering I wasn't nominated for presidential or trustee scholarships....ehhh</p>
<p>Also, how <em>good</em> is USC's east asian languages and cultures program/studies thing? I know most schools don't really have EALC very well developed yet.</p>
<p>And, if I'm not a music major or minor, can I still take private lessons from professors all four years?</p>
<p>what is the gaming scene like on campus? ie. LAN parties, tournaments and the like. also, how does Internet work on campus? the brochure thingy said ethernet connections in every room but im not sure if they meant only the super nice suites or whatever.</p>
<p>They mean real high speed ethernet connections...about 10mbps, much faster than cable or dsl or such. I dunno if they have them absolutely everywhere, but they're most places.</p>
<p>I don't have any personal experience with EALC but I know one guy who is double-major in computer science and east asian languages and cultures (he's white, non-asian) and he really loves it...he spent a year overseas in China and everything.</p>
<p>internet connections in every room means internet connections is every room. i'm also pretty sure there's wifi throughout the campus. from what i've heard, gaming is widely accepted by usc students. i'm not sure how intense it is though. most gamers at usc are casual gamers. while i was at explore usc, my host's roommate played final fantasy the whole time and nobody liked him simply because he was so absorbed in his video games. there were also some guys who were getting really into a game of nhl 06. so yeah, there are alot of guys (even girls) who'd play competitively and maybe even some who'll hook up a LAN, but i doubt you'll get a bunch of people eager to get an official tournament going.</p>
<p>i'll be bringing my xbox 360 along with a couple party games (and halo, of course).</p>
<p>i am going to marshall, but want to double major at the college, are there restrictions?</p>
<p>No restrictions about doubling with marshall and the college. Although for most majors you'll be needing an extra semester or 2 to complete it. I have 9 elective classes which is more than enough for most minors but not nearly enough for most major reqs.</p>
<p>is it REALLY all that difficult to get to know your professors? if i put forth the effort, will i be able to take advantage of the school's resources as an undergrad... or do most of the faculty put students on the back burner?</p>
<p>also, what's the deal with grading? my mother is forever telling me about how horrible the bell curve was and how it's going to kill my gpa... is it still like that?</p>
<p>"is it REALLY all that difficult to get to know your professors? if i put forth the effort, will i be able to take advantage of the school's resources as an undergrad... or do most of the faculty put students on the back burner?"</p>
<p>My daughter had one of the big intro classes in geology, and she got to know the professor quite well despite it being a big class. He has been very proactive trying to recruit her for the department and making her aware of opportunities she can take advantage of as a freshman. </p>
<p>She's had similar good experiences with a couple other professors. If you make the effort to sit up front, visit during office hours, etc., you should have no problem getting to know them.</p>
<p>
[quote]
you'll find that even the beautiful, standoffish-looking ones can be very nice and "normal."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes indeed. Very nicely put.</p>
<p>I think stressed4college and margaritasalt pretty much nailed the question about diversity. Coming from San Francisco, I felt a little out of place initially because it was more conservative that what I was used to. However, I soon realized that people are highly tolerant and open-minded. I've already enjoyed quite a few philosophical conversations with my roommate, who falls on the opposite end of the political spectrum as me. I think it's great to have people around me who have different ideas. We learn from each other.</p>
<p>There are a few courses with "true" bell curves at USC, I've taken one...GE courses moreso than major courses, and for some reason the bio department seems to like them...</p>
<p>"True" bell curves tend to only work well when there's a large number of students in the class...so many professors choose to draw their own lines where the grade cutoffs are. Sometimes they end up normally distributed, sometimes they don't (my EE301 midterm that I just got back, the grades were roughly evenly distributed - didn't look like a bell at all)</p>
<p>Most professors don't really "aim" to give so-and-so percent A's, so-and so percent B's, etc - and some even go so far as to say that if everyone does well, everyone gets an A. But of course, easier said than done. :)</p>
<p>Ok, so what are the girls and parties like?</p>
<p>Someone HAD to ask it</p>
<p>
[quote]
Ok, so what are the girls and parties like?</p>
<p>Someone HAD to ask it
[/quote]
USC lives up to its reputation. :D</p>
<p>
i can help clarify some of this since i just went through it no more than 3 months ago...i'm not saying you're wrong! just that there's a few subtle differences in my experience. one intro engineering class is ENGR102: Engineering Academy. all engineers of all majors, including undeclared engineers, take the class. part of the class was indeed identifying what each engineering major did, though most of it dealt with the ethics and social issues of engineering. some people thought it was a boring class, but i thought the class was interesting...it made sure to tell USC's engineers that despite their brains, they are NOT number crunching machines, but rather human beings dealing with human issues that happen to use science and math to deal with those issues. i loved that aspect of it.</p>
<p>on top of that, most/all freshman engineers will take an introductory class to their declared major. my intro to EE class was EE105 (we built robots! haha, it was actually a bit harder than i make it sound.) undeclared engineers don't take the same intro classes, but instead take ENGR101...i think it's called the principles of engineering or something, and that's the class that goes in depth into all the engineering majors, as well as starting engineering math and problem solving. that might be the class that counts regardless of which major you end up declaring. i'm not sure if other universities do this, but i think it's a great idea that USC even allows undeclared engineering majors, and on top of that gives them the chance to explore all the different fields. after my freshman engineering classes, i'm genuinely excited to get deeper into engineering at USC, no doubt.</p>
<p>Regardless, USC engineering is extremely flexible with 100 level classes as individually required, and sometimes you can substitute similar courses for lower-div requirements if you want. </p>
<p>Plus, these 100 level courses are (unlike some other universities) not intended to "weed out" people, the opposite actually, they're there to bring everyone up to speed and make sure people are sufficiently prepared for 200/300 level courses in engineering.</p>
<p>
won't argue with you there :p. if you need an example, one notable party i went to had in excess of 400 students there. after 4 or 5 DPS cruisers got there, LAPD sent a police helicopter--all while every student chanted "U-S-C!" over and over again. my goodness that was epic haha.</p>
<p>anyways, on to academics! haha...yeah, i got the feeling that none of my classes--neither math, science, or engineering--were weeder classes, which was nice to know. competition was little to nonexistent, and if anything it felt like students were supportive of each other. it seems like even the hardest classes like honors physics, almost by choice (but also necessity haha), students work together all the time to get work done. compare that to my friend at Berkeley, who felt like the engineers in his calc II class were out for blood and those few elusive A's.</p>
<p>is it possible for a super achiever to double marshall and the college + a minor in music industry?</p>
<p>how's the area arround USC? i heard it wasn't very nice and kind of ghetto from some people but others say it is just fine.</p>
<p>nactor329: It might be possible, but it depends. I'm working on a double major at marshall and the college. This works because I'm able to place out of the college's language requirement, and because I'm coming in with some AP courses that exempt me from some of the GE courses. </p>
<p>Basically, it depends what majors you are looking at in the college (international relations, for instance, requires more units than, say, economics), what APs you've taken, and whether you can place out of the college's language requirement. </p>
<p>If not, you can always try to take some summer courses.</p>
<p>I always feel somewhat hypocritical answering these questions (regarding double majors in a professional school + the college) because I'm doing one, and frankly a particularly convoluted combo at that. But I'm a bit of a special case cause I'm staying 5 years anyway (regardless of getting the double or not) and got a bunch of waivers for lower-div courses on top of that.</p>
<p>My advice is that, career wise, your professional major (viterbi, marshall, cinema, etc) is the big one that's going to take most of your time/energy and the one that's going to benefit you in the end. Perhaps the combo is really "hot" like Business+East Asian Languages, etc., but mainly, you want to focus on your professional degree first.</p>
<p>Once your professional degree is in the bag for the next couple semesters (scheduling wise) try and fit a few courses from your other interests in. If they happen to overlap well with a minor or major in the college, then you can ask how many more courses different there is between "courses you want to take for fun" and "courses you need for the double major". If it's more than a few, reconsider. If it's just a couple, then that's when you should meet with an advisor to sketch it out more fully.</p>
<p>Area around USC: It's urban, working-to-middle class. It's not Westwood, but it's not the ghetto ether. Try finding some photos online, or better yet, try to visit, so you can see for yourself.</p>
<p>what is better new or north? are the rooms with sinks better than those without?</p>