I’m a junior from Dallas, TX and I’m considering UCLA and USC for engineering. My parents only want me to choose one of those to apply to since there are many other colleges I am interested in. Money is not a factor in our decision.
I know that USC has a better engineering program - which could mean that it is harder to get into than UCLA - but since USC is private, that could mean that I have a higher chance of getting in as an out of state student. Money is not a huge factor in this decision but if I could get financial aid that would be a plus.
So, which engineering school would I have a higher chance of getting in as an out of state resident?
I would pick USC. UCLA is obscenely expensive for OOS students. Only families that are either very rich, or able to pull together their collective resources (e.g. parents and grand parents) are able to afford the OOS costs. It can get very expensive very fast.
The obvious choice to apply to is Texas-Austin. That’s a great school and you’d get great financial aid there. It’s also in the same league as USC/UCLA.
You can use the net price calculator at each school to check cost and financial aid. USC has a higher list price than UCLA, but UCLA financial aid will be significantly worse for non-California residents (for California residents, UCLA financial aid tends to be better than USC financial aid).
In Texas, you have some excellent low cost choices in UT Austin and Texas A&M.
Small ranking differences are not really that significant.
However, one of your other posts indicates that you have a 3.9 weighted GPA (what is that unweighted? could be as low as around 3.0, depending on the weighting system) and a class rank below the top 25%. This makes admission to any of these schools much less likely.
One of the reasons I never listed any of my credentials was because I wasn’t looking for my chances of admission at these schools. My UW is 3.6 and my test scores have not come back yet. I only asked which school would give an OOS resident a better chance to get in because both would be considered a reach school.
UCLA is not a party school. I’m not saying that because it has a negative connotation, and because I went there. That just isn’t an accurate description of the university or its student body. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Many that attend the school commute, and are busy managing school, work, internships, friendships, relationships, etc. There simply isn’t that much time to party when you’re trying to juggle all that in a ten week quarter. That is, if you’re a serious and motivated student, which most of UCLA’s students are.
You have to go out of your way if you want to party a lot. Either you join a frat / sorority or a specific club that’s known to party a lot (e.g. snowboarding club.) Most of the parties that I saw were reserved for three day weekends or breaks, like spring break.
OOS probably makes little difference (USC is private, and UCLA is selective enough that the OOS higher baseline requirements won’t matter). Both are likely reaches for you.
Run the net price calculator on both to see if either can be affordable. There is no point applying if you cannot afford to attend (and if they are reaches for you, you probably won’t be getting any big merit scholarships).
Choose after running the NPC.
Since both are reaches, I’d go with USC, simply because being private it offers more comfort (dorms, class sizes, general quality of life vs. overcrowding) for the price, which is very similar for OOS applicants.