<p>I was accepted to GWU and USC as a transfer. Barring that both give me similar financial aid I was wondering what you all think I should do?</p>
<p>I really want to go to USC as it's in LA and the weather is way better than here in NE. I also like USC as it seems to have a more solid "classic" college experience with a campus and big time sports.</p>
<p>However, my major is political science which seems to make a lot more sense to go to GW for it.</p>
<p>Would I be dumb to pick USC when GWU is undoubtedly in a better area for my major?</p>
<p>I plan on coming back to the east coast for law school too, if that matters...</p>
<p>I never think it’s dumb to pick USC even though GWU has a better program in that field.</p>
<p>Go for what you want. My friend got accepted to UCLA and WASH U for an engineering major but he decided to attend WASH U even though UCLA’s engineering program is better than WASH U’s, and I never thought he was dumb.</p>
<p>When choosing a university, some people consider “name value/overall ranking” just like what my friend did. On the other hand, some other people consider “programs/location & campus/tuition & financial aid/student life or something” when choosing a university.</p>
<p>So I’d say it’s all up to you :).</p>
<p>(If I were you, I would choose USC b/c I prefer overall ranking to program ranking, haha).</p>
<p>You can choose any school and be successful. It’s what you do while your in school that makes the difference. Are you paying attention in class? Are you doing internships? That’s what gives you the knowledge and expertise in specific fields.</p>
<p>@transfer2014 - Seems to me that since you are set on going to law school and not immediately going into politics or other areas directly related to Poli Sci, by all means pick the school where you think you will be happier overall. In your case that is USC. Besides, not all politics are Federal. There are plenty of local and state opportunities to learn a lot. If you know very specifically where you want to settle after you finish law school, try and get internships there over the summer. Those contacts might be valuable later.</p>
<p>I want to know where all of you are finding rankings for undergraduate programs. Do you actually see rankings/lists, or are you extrapolating from the graduate programs (which is a bad idea, IMO), or are you just going by what you’ve heard/stereotypes of the universities?</p>
<p>College isn’t graduate school. You don’t have to select it primarily by the department’s resources or researchers in the area. Quality of life matters, too, and I would argue that it matters much more for an undergrad who will actually take most of his/her classes outside of the major department (in general eds, divisional requirements and electives) and has a very good chance of changing their major.</p>
<p>Besides, even if you were going by the graduate rankings, USC is a top 30 school in this field. It’s not like you’re going to a tiny unknown place.</p>
<p>So yes, pick USC if you prefer it!</p>
<p>Also…don’t plan to go anywhere for law school, not anywhere specific I mean. Keep an open mind, especially since law admissions are so competitive. What if you get into Stanford Law?</p>
<p>Totally agree with @juillet. I just assumed they were talking USNWR overall undergraduate school rankings, which I think you know I despise. Picking the best fit for you is always preferable than looking at some garbage ranking scam to sell magazines.</p>
<p>On the law school thing, of course going to Stanford Law will open doors pretty much everywhere. But if you know you want to live in a certain area for your career, then there is something to be said for attending a law school in that area, since the connections are usually much better. Still, I wouldn’t turn down Stanford Law for a much lower prestige program because of that. But between similar programs, location can definitely affect career opportunities if one is locked into living in a certain region after law school.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist Are you really sure the undergraduate school rankings measured by USNWR (or Forbes or something else) are garbage? I’m curious.</p>
<p>Realgeukrak…I pay very little attention to rankings of programs or schools! go to the school that will be the best overall fit for you.</p>
<p>as it was pointed out to me one time…all rib restaurants are world famous and all wing (buffalo wing) restaurants are award winning. I apply college rankings the same level of seriousness I do the wing and rib titles.</p>
<p>@Realgeukrak - Yes, I am. Just the very title “Best College” gives that away. How in the world do you quantify something as subjective as the quality of a college? Honestly, this could be a book, and I should write it, but I will try and only hit the highlights. Then let’s stick to the thread topic.</p>
<p>The fact that the Forbes List and the USNWR list are so different is damning. If this were some scientifically measurable thing, then of course there would be only one answer. So OK, you can say that you can look at their formula for calculating their results and decide which applies to you more. But that assumes it is easy to take factors such as peer assessment, retention and graduation rates, spending per student or per faculty member or whatever it is they do these days and translate that into some kind of assessment of how that fits you personally. Not so easy, really. And besides, if you look back over the years of the USNWR rankings (the oldest and most looked at, so I focus on it), they have changed the formula many times. They change the factors involved, the weight of the factors, how they parse the data, etc. If it is that arbitrary, how valuable (or correct) can it be?</p>
<p>OK you say, but then how come the schools that are recognized as the “best” always come out on top? Because, and USNWR admitted this themselves, they played with the formula until they got the result they thought was right. That is as opposite of scientific as it gets. It might be satisfying from a marketing standpoint, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>I am not saying that in some abstract notion of what makes a school great that the schools in the USNWR top 75 or so aren’t excellent. What is absurd is for a person to worry about going to a school ranked 30 because they think they need to go to a top 10. Or that just because a school is ranked a few spots higher it is a better school for them. That’s crazy, unless their obsession with prestige is so dominant in their personality that they will be truly depressed if they don’t achieve it.</p>
<p>I could go into detail on all these points and bring up many more. Let’s just say that as a person that values scientific objectivity, it is offensive to put out a list that is, in reality, so clearly pseudo-scientific and see it obtain the kind of cult following that it has.</p>
<p>@zobroward Don’t get me wrong. Read my previous reply up there. I respect most ones’ tastes.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist Oh, please don’t get me wrong. I myself don’t “absolutely” trust those rankings; I just look at them for general information.</p>
<p>And okay, I got your point. But let me say few things. You said “How come the schools that are recognized as the “best” always come out on top?” The answer is very simple I think. The schools that are recognized as the best always come out on top because they are overall the best (don’t get me wrong I don’t even go to top 20 universities or something). Of course everyone’s opinion on student life or something like that is very different so I can’t say those who attend prestigious schools have better student lives than those who do not, and student life, which is highly subjective, is what I think should not be counted as a factor in measuring a ranking (I heard student life satisfaction is sometimes used in measuring a ranking). A community college student might have a greater satisfaction than one who attends an Ivy. But can you say Tulane University is generally/overall better than MIT or Stanford? Tulane might have some better programs, a better faculty per member ratio, higher graduation rates or something, but is Tulane overall better than Columbia, Northwestern, Duke, Princeton or Cal? Hell no. You’re arguing that methodology (for overall rankings) is wrong, which I actually agree to some degree, but I guess you would agree with the rankings if your university is ranked higher than top 20 national universities. If that happens, yes, the rankings are absolute garbage :).</p>
<p>@Realgeukrak - I get your points, and I agree that is how public perception goes. That is why I am always careful to be specific that I am talking about undergraduate rankings. A lot of this perception comes from these schools having faculty that win a lot of Nobel Prizes and other awards, and in general conducting very high level research. This is a graduate school function that spills over to undergraduate perception. Not that these are still not great undergraduate schools, they are. Still, I would in fact maintain that the level of undergraduate instruction is equal or superior at a lot of schools ranked lower than the top 10. At some of these very top schools, you don’t even get profs but instead get grad students teaching some intro level courses, even sometimes some intermediate level courses. Now they may be talented, but it isn’t what you think you are paying all that money for.</p>
<p>But since best is a perception, it is a catch-22 to say that the best are always ranked at the top because they are known to be best. It will almost never change no matter the facts on the ground with that reasoning. And no, I don’t say Tulane is better than MIT or Stanford overall. I also don’t say that they are better. I don’t get into those debates or characterizations because those are very individual fits. But I can tell you that I have stated many, many times that if Tulane were somehow ranked #5, I would still excoriate the ranking system. I am sure the school would be thrilled, lol, but to me facts are facts. The formula is arbitrary and, if not meaningless, very misleading. You can, of course, choose to not believe me, but I know it is true because I know myself.</p>
<p>Anyway, let’s get back to the OP’s issue. If you want to debate this in more detail, I encourage you to start a new thread in the right forum. I was being polite in answering your query, but it is taking the thread off track. If you really want the last word, go ahead and I won’t respond, even if you say something crazy 
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