Electrical Engineering at USC

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>What do you all think of the undergraduate electrical engineering program at the University of Southern California? I've heard that it is continually improving, and they've been getting a lot of endowments lately, not to mention the new building for engineering undergraduates; but granted this information all comes from USC themselves (which is not exactly unbiased). So I was wondering what people that are familiar with their program think of it, in terms of academic quality, job outlook, etc?...</p>

<p>Also, i'm considering their 5-year combined BS/MS program, (which you are guranteed addmission to, as long as you keep up a 3.2 gpa, removing the need for gre's etc.), is this a worthwhile program? And does USC, have a reputable grad school for EE? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance......</p>

2

<p>I am an EE major in USC
Yes, USC's undergrad engineering is improving. And we got lots of endowments, at least 74 millions from last yr. Yea, the new engineering building just opend this semester. It looks just beautiful. </p>

<p>However, for the quality of eduction. It sux for freshman and sophomore. But until you reach junior and senior, you get to take all your technical classes, it should be fun. </p>

<p>Job outlook is good, no doubt about that</p>

<p>The reason I chose USC is because of the 5yr BS.MS program. I thknk it is worth it. Well, about USC's grad school. the school of engieering is ranked 6th in the nation aling with CalTech.</p>

3

<p>USC's graduate engineering school is good, but it isn't on par with CalTech. I'm not sure what pushes up USC's rankings so much, but look at the two best indicators of academic excellence: peer and recruiter assessment scores. USC has 3.5/5.0 and 3.4/5.0. CalTech has 4.8 and 4.6. Ohio State at around #30 has the same scores as USC.</p>

4

<p>" I'm not sure what pushes up USC's rankings so much"</p>

<p>Look at USC funding and the number of PhD graduates (what a strange indicator !!) :p</p>

5

<p>USC has a very respectable program in EE (ranked #14 by US News) and is pretty much on par with the other SoCal schools like UCLA, UCSD, and UCSB.</p>

6

<p>Gshine</p>

<p>Just wonder where you get these stats?</p>

7

<p>They are from U.S. News. You need premium edition to view them and I don't have it but I found this: <a href="http://bbs.taisha.org/viewthread.php?tid=343827%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://bbs.taisha.org/viewthread.php?tid=343827&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>These are the top 10:</p>

<p>Rank.|School|Overall score|Peer assessment score (5.0 highest)|Recruiter assessment score (5.0 highest)|'03 average quantitative GRE score|'03 average analytical GRE score|'03 acceptance rate|'03 Ph.D. students/faculty|'03 faculty membership in Natl. Academy of Engineering|'03 engineering school research expenditures (in millions)|'03 research expenditures per faculty member (in thousands)|Ph.D.'s granted 2002-03</p>

<p>1.|Massachusetts Institute of Technology |100|4.9|4.8|777|735|24.0%|4.1|13.1%|$241.0|$684.7|205
2.|Stanford University (CA)|93|4.9|4.5|778|730|30.8%|5.0|14.8%|$120.1|$727.7|229
3.|University of California – Berkeley|88|4.8|4.4|776|734|14.7%|5.8|19.5%|$121.1|$571.0|174
4.|University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign|83|4.6|4.3|769|735|12.9%|4.4|3.9%|$213.7|$590.4|186
5.|Georgia Institute of Technology|77|4.5|4.2|751|697|23.7%|4.1|4.6%|$187.0|$392.1|179
6.|California Institute of Technology|75|4.8|4.6|791|754|9.7%|4.8|13.5%|$48.2|$502.1|57
|University of Southern California|75|3.5|3.4|762|674|40.5%|5.2|13.1%|$134.2|$1,091.4|109
8.|Purdue University – West Lafayette (IN)|74|4.2|4.0|752|700|22.5%|3.9|3.8%|$178.9|$745.3|145
|University of Michigan – Ann Arbor|74|4.6|4.2|768|713|30.0%|3.8|4.1%|$140.3|$482.0|153
10.|Cornell University (NY)|73|4.3|4.1|774|732|24.8%|3.9|9.2%|$105.8|$777.7|98</p>

8

<p>Thanks a lot :)</p>

9

<p>I believe USC is in the top 3 Engineering schools when measured by $$ spent on research.
There should be lots of opportunity for undergrad and grad research.
I'm told there is a very large and loyal network of USC grads in Southern California, so if you want to work in the area, that would be a plus.</p>

10

<p>could anyone elaborate on the quality of life at usc engineering? Do the people know how to have fun? (or am I going to have to resort to a frat). Is the instruction for the most part good? Do the teachers get to know you personally? How's that new building (Ronald Tutor Hall)?. etc. etc...........</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

11

<p>bump^.......</p>

12

<p>I will answer your Q's during my spring break</p>

13

<p>sweet, i'll look forward to reading that.</p>

14

<p>First of all, u decide what quality of life you wanna have in college, how much time u wanna party, and how much time u spend on studying. For me, becuase I am shooting for the 5yrMS/BS program, I spend a great deal of time on studying, I wanna get the highest GPA possible in my freshman yr. However, it is very easy to have a decent social life in USC if you take the time and people really know how to party. </p>

<p>The new building is gorgeous. (Well, although the rest of the engineering building is pretty ugly) it got a nice cafe place and a lounge for engineering students to hang out. And a free tutorig place. However, the rooms are not yet being used for lecturing rooms or research labs. Rooms above 3rd floor are so far empty. </p>

<p>About the quality of education, I would say that for the first 2 yrs, any community colleges would offer a better education than USC. I am actually pretty disappointed of the quality of education I am receiving rite now considering how much I am paying. Specifically, there is a good number of math, science, engineering profs and ta who can't speak English. Like for my math class, the prof is a Russian. I had no idea of what he is lecturing or whatsoever. I basically need to self-teach. And what make the matter worse is that during the discussion session, the TA is an Indian, who speaks worse English than the prof, and seems unprepared(it is funny to note that she always wears the same shirt. ) </p>

<p>And for my lab session in physics, the lab TA's are pretty bad. Everytime who the guy is giving the instructions for the lab procedure, me and my partner would laugh, and we will ask each other, "u know what is going on in this lab?" I have no idea of what the TA is speaking also. I would just read the lab manual myself. </p>

<p>For GE classes, they are huge (ranging from 100 to 200 ppl). Usually, prof would just give the lecture. but the paper, exam are graded by TA. And for the first yr writing class, it is taught ENTIRELY by grad student. </p>

<p>However, although with that much bad. I would say that I hate USC but I love the Viterbi School of Engineering. Ppl in the office of engineering students affairs are very helpful. Although classes offered by the college of letter, arts sci are crap, classes offered by viterbi school is awesome. Like my first Intro to EE class I took in my 1st semester. The prof is AWESOME. He is a very nice guy who tries to remember our names during his office hr. He always seems willing and happy to help us. And for the class project, we get to build a circuit base robot car, which is very cool, considering that we are only freshmen. I enjoy that class a lot</p>

<p>Let's me sum it up. The Viterbi School is getting better (largely because of the 52 millions endorsement from Andrew Viterbi [usc alumni, who invented wireless communication]) Resourse and oppounities wise it is also great. More importantly, the school starts to care more and more about undergrad students. </p>

<p>I am very happy and proud of being a student of Viterbi School but not as one in USC. </p>

<p>Feel free to ask me any specific q's.</p>

15

<p>auscguy- can you tell me how many of the core course you can take in community college, or any other way? Hate those big classes. Are there any classes you would recommend as good cores -in terms of easy, gpa boosters?</p>

16

<p>you can take cal 1,2,3, basic comp programming, and intro to Chem at CC. And couple GE's ONLY BEFORE ENTERING USC. </p>

<p>You also can take one engineerng class (one that is not of your engineering specialty) in a Cal Sate Univ. during summer </p>

<p>However, if u wanna go USC for grad school engineering. they won't look at your cc gpa at all. they only look at your USC GPA. </p>

<p>I think the math and chem classes are really GPA booster, at least for me. A few GE classes are easy as well, ex: take home midterms and final :)</p>

17

<p>hey auscguy,
if im interested in robotics, which major should i pursue? will it be like mechanical or like computer science or something?
also which resident hall do you recommend? i heard New/North are the party dorms which sounds exciting, but parkside has a suite styled dorms that sounds really nice...</p>

18

<p>For robotics,
I would recommend EE with specialization on "Control and Robotics"
also Computer Engineering.
But I would discourage you from majoring in CS, since lots of CS jobs are going offshore. </p>

<p>For resident hall,
Parkside all the way.</p>

19

<p>Hi Auscguy
Which GE's have take home midterms and finals. Got to get those GE's out of the way. Thanks on the GPA info. We'll keep those at USC</p>