<p>I know I've made threads on this forum before, deciding between USC and Swarthmore and HKU and all that stuff. I thought this process was over when I sent in my deposit to Swat YESTERDAY and today USC has given me another scholarship - making the decision difficult again! So I'm putting points down here, so perhaps you can help me make my FINAL decision. USC is going to be ~ $13,500 cheaper than Swat. My family can afford either school, but I don't want to make a financially unwise decision.</p>
<p>So basically my points are:
-I'm an international from a part of Asia where USC is well known but Swatties get good jobs here too
-I am totally undecided although I am somewhat thinking of doing psychology and then later doing an MBA but it's very likely to change
-I've been accepted to USC CLAS not Marshall or Annenberg
- Swat might be a better fit for me socially because I'm not really into football, the Greek scene, drinking etc, I'm more nerdy
-USC has better weather and is closer to home (if thousands of miles can be considered "close")
-I think Swat, the small LAC culture is a much better fit for me
-My dad is keen on Swat
-USC might be better known</p>
<p>So now taking all these factors into consideration, basically USC is cheaper and it might be more known because it's a bigger university but I have liked Swat better, except for the weather aspect. I had already committed when I got my second scholarship letter today. Now I am confused! What do you all think?</p>
<p>You seem to like Swarthmore better and your family can afford either school, so I’d go with Swarthmore. But these are 2 very, very different schools IMO.</p>
<p>Intro classes at USC are very large, while Swarthmore’s classes are all small. Is that something that makes a difference to you? Some kids don’t mind being anonymous in large lecture halls, while others prefer a smaller, more discussion-based setting. You might want to factor that in to your decision.</p>
<p>I do like Swat better, there are just two major things which give me pause - whether I will be able to find a job after graduation and the weather in USC is better (I come from 2 tropical countries). But more importantly, I’m worried that since I won’t get a work visa to work in the US after undergrad, I will have to go back home and that people won’t know my college and I won’t be able to get a job. :S I mean, if I had gotten 1/2 tuition or a Trustee Scholarship then I would have gone to USC easily but now I’m a little more confused. Has anyone in a similar situation gone to the more expensive school?</p>
<p>Are you sure that USC is better known among the people who count (that is, future employers)? I wouldn’t be so sure. Even here, I would bet that the average person on the street has no idea what Swarthmore is.</p>
<p>He’s talking about his home country, where presumably USC is more known than Swarthmore. Here in the US? Yes, I’d agree USC is more known than Swarthmore, but honestly to a lot of people, their awareness of USC is mainly due to sports.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is a better school. If you like football and the football culture, go to USC. If you want to live in a big, unsafe city, go to USC. If you don’t want to be as challenged academically, go to USC. If you need sunny weather, go to USC.</p>
<p>I’m from So Cal, and I would choose Swat hands down. Congrats on your acceptance. It’s a huge accomplishment.</p>
<p>Where do you think you’ll do your very best work? I’d vote for Swarthmore because you understand its rightness of fit for your own personality. I think you’d come out of it very well educated and above all, confident. That should mean SOMETHING when you seek jobs in your home country, no? </p>
<p>USC has sunshine, but you also contend with some odd weather situations, such as the Santa Ana winds, smog pollution in Los Angeles. Swarthmore is in the Northeast but not the extreme north. Swat has change of seasons, which can actually be very interesting and pretty. It’s not in an extreme snowbelt with a constant, brutal winter (like Dartmouth, Syracuse, Minnesota, Chicago…). It simply has some cold months with some snowstorms a few times each year. Very different. </p>
<p>You can wear layers of coat and scarf; that’s in your control. At Swat you’ll also find plenty of students from Texas and California, trying to figure out their first winter season, so that’s bonding.</p>
<p>An ambient culture of football/Greek/drinking that others choose is NOT in your control to change.</p>
<p>I’d say: embrace your inner nerd and sign up for Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Swarthmore enforces breadth: students have to take 20 of the 32 courses required for graduation outside of their major. That’s an issue for some graduate school-bound Swarthmore students I know, who feel that they are at a competitive disadvantage compared to students from research universities who have 2 year’s worth of graduate courses under their belt already.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your replies. I am leaning towards Swat at this point, but I wonder if it’s because USC gave me another initiative so late in the game. USC is basically a lot like my high school. I’m just thinking, am I being foolish by turning down the money? </p>
<p>ETA: I don’t mind the breadth of Swarthmore, might double-major or something. At this point, the amount of breadth afforded to me by both USC and Swat is acceptable to me.</p>
<p>First, addressing mrscollege’s points:
USC is not just a “football school”. There are 17,000 undergrads here, from all over the world, with an incredibly diverse range of interests and activities. Slapping a generic stereotype on all of us is both inaccurate and insulting.</p>
<p>Next, “big unsafe city” huh? Well being from LA you would surely know that it is not as bad as the scare stories everyone tells. Plus, USC’s campus security force is large, patrols often, has great community support, and keeps the campus and the surrounding area quite safe.</p>
<p>Academically challenged? Yes, swarthmore is a good school. That does not mean that you will not be challenged academically at USC. Here’s the thing: swarthmore is tiny. You’re going to be working with and competing against the same few students for four years, instead of seeing and matching yourself up to the wide array of USC students.</p>
<p>Now, you mention that you don’t feel like you will “fit in” with USC’s culture. Here’s the thing: college is a time to experience new things, grow, and develop as a person. You should never pick a school because it’s culture fits who you already are and you want to hide from scary people who are unlike you. You’re going to have to deal with those kind of people when you go out and start your career. Shouldn’t you be figuring out how to deal with them now?</p>
<p>Finally, I’ll like to say that the number of strength of USC’s alumni connections, especially in the business field in Hong Kong, are going to serve you very well if you take advantage of them. It is very hard to get a job based solely on your own academic merits, because there are plenty of other people who can match and exceed you there. Interpersonal relationships are crucially important, and frankly are the cause behind most of the jobs and internships that me and my friends have gotten. USC’s connections will help you get your foot in the door, which is a huge advantage over people who are just an anonymous resume. This is why I picked USC over another school which had better academic rankings.</p>
<p>Mrscollege didn’t say that USC was “just a football school.” She did, however, say that it’s an important part of the campus culture. And in my personal experience with the school, that’s an accurate thing. A student who doesn’t enjoy football, spectator sports, a prominent Greek culture, may be unhappy there. No one has said that those things are inconsistent with fine academics.</p>
<p>“USC has better weather and is closer to home (if thousands of miles can be considered “close”)
-I think Swat, the small LAC culture is a much better fit for me
-My dad is keen on Swat”</p>
<p>Swarthmore appears the better fit. You cannot make the wrong choice, you have to “right” options.</p>
<p>Congratulations on such wonderful choices. </p>
<p>Does Swarthmore have any kind of formal or informal Alumni Club in your country? If not…have them send you a list of 5 or 6 recent alums from your country. Try to find out what they’re doing now and if they were happy with their choice. You may find it somewhat reassuring to talk with them.</p>
<p>While I would rarely advise going to one school with transfer options in mind…if the weather becomes an overwhelming issue for you…or you really think you won’t be able to get any kind of job after Swat in your home country (which I HIGHLY doubt…and you may decide to go right to graduate school, anyway…which could be at a more world-recognized school) you could consider a transfer. It would likely be easier to transfer from Swarthmore to USC than from USC to Swarthmore. </p>
I’ll chime in as a parent of a USC student who doesn’t enjoy football, spectator sports or a prominent Greek culture - but she LOVES USC. L O V E S USC.</p>
<p>Her first year at USC, the football team went to the Rose Bowl. Her grandfather (who DOES love football), planned a Rose Bowl party in honor of his granddaughter being a freshman at USC. On the way there she asked, “Rose Bowl… what’s that?” She had no idea that USC was in the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>Another poster suggests that there is not breadth of education at USC (though the OP is aware of the opportunities). USC stresses breadth in their general education program (yes, the GE program is required of all students in all majors) and encourages students to double major and do major/minor combos. Students are encouraged to cross-register in the various schools and each school publishes a list of courses they feel would be most interesting and accessible to non-majors (though students are not limited to those courses).</p>
<p>USC also offers the Thematic Option Honors program (applications have already been submitted so this may no longer be available to the OP, but it may help another who is wondering about USC) which is an amazing general education honors program built around themes. Classes are taught by USC’s best professors in classes of about 8 to 24 students. Individual tutorials with professors are an important part of the writing courses. My student thrived in Thematic Option, receiving the individual attention and small classes of an LAC combined with the incredible resources and opportunities of a top research university (such as a fully-funded research project abroad summer of her freshman year, presenting a paper at a research conference sophomore year, internships, etc.).</p>
<p>The point is that there are so many opportunties and so much diversity at USC, that to say “If you don’t like football, you won’t be happy” is simply untrue. </p>
<p>Best of luck with your decision - you can’t go wrong!</p>
<p>Just curious, had you turned down USC when they made the additional scholarship offer? Just wondering, as another poster (different schools, I think) just had that experience. I was wondering if that is a new (and unpleasant, IMHO) trend this year… schools adding to financial aid offers only after a student turns them down.</p>
<p>^ USC adds merit-based University Scholarships (four-year scholarships usually ranging from $2,500/year to $5,000/year) in late April every year. In our case (the 2008 cycle) the student had not commited to USC, nor had she sent regrets. She received a University Scholarship on April 28th her year.</p>
<p>I had a hypothesis for a while that it was an extra scholarship to entice those who hadn’t commited, but I have observed many posts over the years from students who sent deposits weeks earlier also receiving the University Scholarship. I think I need to start a survey thread to figure this out… (I love survey threads.)</p>
<p>My son is a junior at USC, who looked at LACs (especially Amherst), when he was applying. He is so relieved that circumstances conspired to put him at USC - he couldn’t be happier with his college experience, and he’s seen a lot of friends at elite small schools whose experiences haven’t been all that great. Alamemom already recounted many of the reasons USC has been wonderful for him: Thematic Option, tons of activities that don’t revolve around sports and drinking, very interesting and intelligent classmates. Sure, USC has its stereotypes, but there are also plenty of artsy kids and geeky engineering kids to bond with.</p>
<p>That said, I would not choose USC just because it’s cheaper, if you really feel more drawn to Swat. It is a gorgeous campus, and that east-coast LAC experience would be very different from your current environment. When my light-hearted D looked at Swat, it all seemed wonderful - except for a distinct feeling we both got that the students were sort of hunkered down and dead-serious. Just didn’t see the joy there, so she did not apply. Now she’s a happy Pomona student. </p>
<p>Given the 2 very different experiences my kids have had between USC and Pomona, I honestly believe that both can be perfect, for the right student. Good luck with your choice!</p>
<p>I just attended a USC reception in HK and now the decision is even harder! I had not turned USC down before they gave me a scholarship, but I had already committed to Swarthmore, both financially and mentally. Because of that, it’s so hard to “uncommit” myself from Swat and look at this logically. USC did say a lot of things in it’s favour today but Swat never got a chance to have a local reception so… </p>
<p>The main advantage I see with USC is the networking opportunity, and that’s not a small factor. The USC network in HK is amazing, but Swat might be a chance for me to stretch myself a bit and dive into my education. Someone said that college should be a time to experience a different environment. Both are different in different ways. USC is very similar to my HS in terms of culture but I might be more similar to the profile of “typical Swat student” rather than “typical USC student”. </p>
<p>Um on a slightly different note, I got a small scholarship from a certain group in USC, when I am not even part of that group! For example, imagine I get a scholarship from the “Black Students Association” when I am not even black! Could this be a mistake? I am not listing the exact name of the organization for fear of identifying myself.</p>
<p>Both are such good choices and so different. I think I will be challenging myself in different ways if I go to both so that makes my choice even harder. Thank you for all your advice!</p>