<p>Why did you choose the school? Are you happy with your decision? What do you like about the school? What do you not like about the school? </p>
<p>*Trying to decide between schools (All advice appreciated. Thanks :) )</p>
<p>Well one of my children attends USC. It was the dream school… and the university is what it was expected to be and more.</p>
<p>Super satisfied with the quality of Thematic Option, Science department…:</p>
<p>“It isn’t enough that the freshmen in Thematic Option, USC’s honors general education program, are swamped with reading and papers, struggling to understand the greatest philosophers, writers and thinkers of Western civilization. They are also supposed to question the definitiveness of the very works they are told are so important—those of Homer, Plato, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Marx, Locke, Paine, Woolf —the multiple “canons” that have long set the standards in their disciplines.”</p>
<p>Housing and Food could improve…but the “Academic” is what my s/d was looking for and obviously s/d is super satisfied with USC! Best wishes “california_life”</p>
<p>I love this thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/396126-101-things-you-like-about-usc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/396126-101-things-you-like-about-usc.html</a></p>
<p>Are there any students on here that could tell us their opinions first-hand? It’s beyond great having so many nice and exceedingly helpful parents on the USC forum, but it’d also be nice to hear from the students once in a while. :)</p>
<p>Nah, our kids are too busy partying and don’t have time to hang out here :-)</p>
<p>On a more serous note, take a look at the thread linked by cc411 above. It is sometimes entertaining, sometimes aggravating, but most of it is from students. I personally prefer this
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/689479-sc-kind-university-where.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/689479-sc-kind-university-where.html</a></p>
<p>It is anchored at the top of the USC page, I am sure many have seen it.</p>
<p>I’m a current student. I’d be happy to answer questions, but “what do you like about USC” is really too vague.</p>
<p>@Hawkwings, what school in USC do you go to, and how is it academically? (Class sizes, how much of it is applicable vs. useless memorization, and how are the professors?, also do you know how grading curves are?)</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore aerospace engineer, so I’m in the Viterbi School. Academically? Well I think it’s pretty good, but having never taken classes at other institutions, I couldn’t directly compare. We seem to rank pretty well though. Class sizes are pretty much what I expect, the general classes that I share with other disciplines of engineering (typically mechanical) are fairly large, like 60 or so people. My specialized aerospace classes (the two that I’ve had so far) have about 40 people, and I only expect that to decrease as we branch out into technical electives and stop sharing the exact same schedule. Classes outside of Viterbi, such as math and physics and chemistry, are pretty much the same. My first and only chem class was the biggest class on campus, with over 300 students. However, this was for everyone who needed to take chem, so it had engineer, biologists, pre-meds of all sorts, etc. Don’t expect class sizes of less than 20 until you get into higher level coursework. I can’t imagine any school being able to teach Calculus 1 in classes of 20, unless enrollment is exceedingly low, or they get their TAs to teach the classes. Which is another thing, I’ve never had a TA teach any of my classes, even the most entry-level ones. They’ve all been taught by professors, and TAs lead the discussion sections.</p>
<p>I’ve never had “useless” memorization in any of my classes, all the memorization I’ve done is for commonly used formulas and similar, stuff that would take way too much effort to look up in the book every time.</p>
<p>Professors? Generally very good, I’ve only really had one bad professor and I still managed to do well in the class. Most of them are good teachers and they are enthusiastic about their subject, not to mention well-versed in what’s currently going on in them.</p>
<p>Grading curves are done on a class-by-class basis. It’s completely up to the professor to determine how he wants to curve the class. Every class I’ve been in has been curved though.</p>
<p>I feel like my answers here haven’t given you any real information. Try asking more specific questions, and I’ll be able to give you more substantial answers.</p>
<p>I’m going into Computer Engineering, so that’s cool to hear about Viterbi. Grades are important to me, and I think I’ll succeed as long as it’s not a ridiculous achievement to get an A (got accepted to UMich where people laugh at you if you go into engineering expecting to get above a 3.0 GPA), because I’ll need decent grades to get into a decent graduate school or to be able to go to USC for grad.</p>
<p>Ok question about ranking. I’m comparing UMich and USC and on the USNews rankings, Viterbi ranks above UMich’s College of Engineering, but I looked at all individual fields of engineering, and USC wasn’t in the top 10 of any of them, while UMich held the #1 spot in Nuclear, #2 in industrial, as well as many other top 10 spots. How does this work?</p>
<p>How is the social scene for engineers? I know at UMich the engineering campus is forever away from everyone else, and engineers often end up living in their own world, granted I know it doesn’t have to be this way. Typical engineer, would you say is more focused on school work than other majors? </p>
<p>Also, something I really have no clue about but unrelated, is meal plans. How exactly does food work on campus?</p>
<p>Hey!
So I’m not an engineering major so I can’t tell you about that, but I did want to respond to your meal plans question, since I’m a freshman.
This is how it works: If you live in any freshman dorm or suite (and I think Parkside Apartments requires it too) you are required to get a meal plan. There are 3 choices for meal plans- Cardinal, Trojan, Unlimited. (The website says there is another one, but I don’t know anyone who has it.)</p>
<p>1) Cardinal- the standard meal plan. If you register for freshman housing then you are automatically enrolled in this plan. It has 10 meals per week and $510 dining dollars. The meals roll over weekly if you don’t use them all, which is why it is easy to accumulate many. Neither the meals or dining dollars roll over to the next semester, though.</p>
<p>You can upgrade to:
2) Trojan- which is a few hundred dollars more, but it is all dining dollars (I think around $3000/semester.)</p>
<p>3) Unlimited- which is cheaper than Cardinal, but it gives you access to unlimited meals at the dining halls. However, there are no dining dollars.</p>
<p>There are two dining halls on campus: EVK and Parkside, which is where you use the meals at. You can use the dining dollars at any other USC Hospitality food place on campus, like Cafe 84, The Lot (which probably won’t be here next year since the new Campus Center will be opened), Trojan Grounds, and any of the cafes. </p>
<p>Yup! That’s about it. Hope’s this helps you.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, your meal plan/dining dollars are on your USCard, so you just swipe when you want to use them.</p>
<p>So I’m a current freshman; I’m a Business/Cinema major and in a sorority. I LOVE everything about USC, from the school spirit to the weather to the general happiness of the campus. The campus is gorgeous and the student body is, too. The only thing that I hate about going to school with such good looking people is that most of them aren’t looking for relationships. In general, I don’t think many USC students date but maybe I’m saying that from my Greek point of view- but it’s kind of a bummer regardless. </p>
<p>I love being a freshman and living in the dorms; sure people can get annoying and irresponsible, duh this is college, but you build a family and I have not been homesick at all. (I’m from the east coast by the way.) Plus, there’s always something to do. If you don’t want to party, Los Angeles is at your feet and with a car, (or someone with a car) the possibilities are endless: from beach bonfires to shopping in Santa Monica… We have so many opportunities that other campuses just can’t have because of our location. Okay, so our exact location in South Central isn’t the prettiest, but I haven’t had a problem. Security is hella tight.</p>
<p>Thursday nights are dominated by parties on the Greek row; if you’re a guy, you need to be in a fraternity to get into parties, but for girls, you don’t need to be in a sorority. The Greek system is awesome, but if you’re not into it, GDIs still have lots of fun. ;D</p>
<p>Academically, I’ve had a few awesome classes but some of the GEs are just a pain and pointless, in my opinion. Business/Cinema is pretty tough, but then again, I’m thankful that I’m not in engineering or architecture. </p>
<p>OH, and football games are legit. That’s all that needs to be said.</p>
<p>If you guys have any specific questions, let me know, I’d be happy to answer! :)</p>