I would go with USC. USC is just awesome. The Trojan network is unparalleled.
Emory is great too! it’s your choice
@bernie12 so which would get more recognition in your opinion? USC or Emory? And USC has the stronger alumni network right?
@TheEpic2401Man That is irrelevant especially depending on what you pursue, and measuring alumni power is tricky because of regional effects and a bunch of things. I remember some random ranking of “most powerful alumni networks” coming out 5 or so years ago and Emory was like 16 or something (I actually don’t think usc was higher), ranking above places higher ranked or more prestigious in terms of lay recognition. Either way, I don’t really know or care. USC’s alumni network certainly will be larger because it is larger (the idea that it is unparalleled is false, and I think a lot of people underestimate smaller places, especially those without an emphasis on boosting the visibility of sports. Many of the even higher ranked places did not have that and were merely like Emory…good academically, and rich. USC does great marketing and has definitely convinced people that it may be better in this arena than it is. Emory undersells and is very unassuming on the other hand. Hype is important to perception).
I just sort of lump all 14-25 non-Ivy privates together in terms of that stuff and then scrutinize programmatic quality and various aspects that may change the social, academic, or intellectual vibe at each school and tell people to find a fit. Outside of these, only time any (even versus an Ivy) should basically be ruled out in a comparison contest is due to a large financial difference or one school completely lacking an academic pathway of interest (if having the exact pathway is key to professional development).
For example, the WS IB craze and supposed association with lay prestige and powerful alumni networks seems vastly over-stated as P&Q recent rankings of top WS IB placement have quite a few “surprises” in the top 25 suggesting that the feeder rates may more so correlate with varied levels of interest in those post-grad trajectories as well as maybe how wealthy and how much social capital different student bodies have. When you talk many of the pre-professions and STEM, it definitely hardly matters. Pre-professional placement is experience/stats driven, and grad. school placement in STEM or really any discipline is very complex as they get the luxury of deeply evaluating candidates’ applications and transcripts.
Either way, I am not getting into any prestige or alumni power wars here because a) I don’t know and b) I don’t think there would be any relevant non-regional differences between the two. And even with those differences, barring an inside connection to a company in a certain region, I suspect two students with a similar and strong enough profile will likely be interviewed for whatever coming from either . Choose the one that fit your social/intellectual vibe of choice and has the programmatic qualities that best fit your needs, take advantage of experiential opps, perform solidly, and you’ll be in a great position from either.
@TheEpic2401Man : Emory was 19. And when you look at a bunch of random rankings, there are so many ways of doing it and so many different rankings. A lot of them put an emphasis on how large, active, and well organized the alumni association is and not merely having famous or powerful alumni affiliated with the school. The network does have to be well-organized and active so that folks can more easily tap into it after all. Emory’s is surprisingly well organized and does, like other elite privates have tons of folks in high places or going into entrepreneurial endeavors or whatever. They’ve mobilized those resources really well, especially over the past 10 years or so. Basically, all I know is that it is excellent, and I can’t directly compare to USC (and nor should anyone try to do that)
The fact that Emory has begun to perform extremely well with certain post-grad fellowships and other things like that (like Fulbright, etc) also probably helps because there is heavy interest in that sort of thing. Kind of impressive considering the small number of very loud people who complain about the lack of “pride” in the school. Clearly people get over it and contribute anyway. Also, Emory being smaller may be advantageous if you are more academic like me and consider graduate/professional education as getting mentored by professors and whatever else is just more likely at an earlier stage in the undergraduate career. And that may matter more or just as much as the alumni network in those pathways. Again, it always depends.
these schools are almost polar opposites. it shouldn’t be hard to figure out which one suits you better. One is USC, and one has no football team. Prestige and rank is not different enough to be a deciding factor but the cultures and environments obviously are quite different. Yes, this is stereotyping a bit, of course.