<p>I am a senior in high school and considering USC. I am going to major in computer science and USC seems to have a great program in it. My one concern upon noticing that the graduate enrollment is GREATER than the undergraduate enrollment is how much attention/opportunities I actually would have if the majority of the students are much older than I am. Does the school focus its attention on the graduate students and the undergrads get what's left over?</p>
<p>Additionally, I was wondering about the area around the campus. I live in Michigan so I'm not familiar with the area, but haven't heard great things and just wanted some more opinions.</p>
<p>Finally, I'd like to know what the social atmosphere like? I heard a lot of people leave campus on the weekends, is this true? Most of the students are graduate students; does this mean that the school is only about throwing parties? I'm not into partying, so I was wondering what kind of other options there are? Thanks for the input</p>
<p>I am currently a student at USC, not too sure about the graduate to undergraduate ratio. However, the amount of opportunities you will have at USC is endless. They really do take care of their students. USC hosts many job fairs throughout the year. This year I noticed a career fair by viterbi with top companies such as google, apple, yahoo, etc. Bottom line, don’t worry about that, you will have plenty of opportunities. </p>
<p>Now the area around USC is dangerous but it’s not that bad. I don’t want to get too much into detail about it because people have different experiences. All I can say is that I’ve had no problems. </p>
<p>I love USC because of the perfect mixture of academics, athletics, and social opportunities. If you’re not into partying don’t worry. Everyone finds their own niche and group of friends that are just like them. </p>
<p>Honestly, you won’t regret coming to USC. :)</p>
<p>My son is a senior in film, and his experience is that having lots of grad students simply increased the number of projects he could work on. I can’t guarantee that’s the same for engineering, but I’ve never heard a complaint on this point. There are many undergrads you can bond with!</p>
<p>S had a suite in his dorm freshman year that was half local and half from outside the LA area. Several of the locals did go home a lot, but there were plenty of kids hanging around on the weekend - there was always more to do than he had the time for, and it wasn’t just parties. His freshman dorm friends are still among the best friends he has made at USC.</p>
<p>He moved out to a house junior year, and aside from minor theft incidents, the neighborhood is better than I expected. You will quickly learn which areas are safer than others, and just be smart about when you go where.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on the grad/undergrad thing, but I can comment on the neighborhood. </p>
<p>As I’ve said previously, the area surrounding the school makes me feel fine. It’s when you start to get a little beyond the school that I get uncomfortable. I’ve come up with 2 or 3 areas to avoid, and they’re all 100% avoidable (I’m guestimating that they’re all about 5+ miles from campus, so they aren’t really places people would be going). </p>
<p>It’s also worth noting at this point that I grew up in Los Angeles, so two of these areas are places I’ve always been told to avoid. One is a place that I accidentally discovered when there was a detour on my usual driving route. Very unlikely someone would wind up there. </p>
<p>My advice would be to map out any and all off-campus travel. If you do that, you’ll be in a better position than I was.</p>