<p>First of, congratulations on both of those acceptances!</p>
<p>I’ll admit to some bias as I think Georgetown is the greatest place on the planet and can’t imagine myself anywhere else. </p>
<p>TL;DR: No, it’s not a terrible idea to pass up the scholarship for Georgetown ( I actually think its a good one), socially I would assume they are quite different, but both fun. </p>
<p>In my view, while some schools can come close to matching Georgetown in terms of the academic- that is, directly in the classroom learning- quality of their IR program, the full international relations experience at Georgetown is unparalleled at the undergraduate level, and only really by Johns Hopkins SAIS at the Master’s level.</p>
<p>Georgetown is in DC and it is the foremost school for what you want to study there, which by way of proxy essentially means it is the best undergraduate program in IR. I continued to be amazed by how driven and passionate my peers are about international relations and by the amazing professors and internship opportunities to be taken advantage of. The biggest Think Tanks, in addition to practically the entire US Government is here so that means the people teaching your classes are frequently going to be practitioners, those with previous experience, or otherwise a really big name in their field. You can intern with the State Department, Congress, Brookings, etc. during the academic year when the summer crush of students from around the nation isn’t something to contend with. USC has a good program but its just not in the right city and can’t match the opportunities or professors because of it. </p>
<p>In terms of working in international politics Foreign Policy Magazine published that the only other school that is close to Georgetown for working in government is Harvard. It permeates the SFS, which is very attractive for most people who attend it. The application for the State Department summer internship might as well be a campus ritual in the Fall, and an unofficial nickname of State is the “Georgetown Mafia”. </p>
<p>I know the money thing is really attractive. I had similar offers elsewhere but managed to convince my parents, and I’ve never regretted it. There are loans, which I think probably most students have these days. Its never easy but at the end of the day I think its worth it. </p>
<p>As for the social scene, I’ve never been to USC but I can tell you that it will be quite different. First, there are 10,000 more students which makes the two almost incomparable. USC is a big football school, Georgetown is kind of a basketball school. There is a really big greek scene at USC, where it barely exists at Georgetown. That will make USC a bit more wild and a bit more impersonal, but I can’t really comment as it’d all be speculation. I think the Georgetown social scene is a lot of fun and actually gets better the older you are, but I am sure that USC is also a blast.</p>