<p>"Fewer BMW's and keeping up appearance pressures."</p>
<p>LOL. So more ugly people, basically.</p>
<p>You find your own crowd at any school including USC. My son, the film major and peace and conflict studies minor, has no interest in keeping up appearances. He has found a crowd at the Trojan Horse newspaper and portions of the religious community that have meet his intellectual and political needs. You will find the BMW, frat-types at USC. You'll find them at UM too and at Harvard and Yale. </p>
<p>Right now I'm at the University of Wisconsin. It was 19 degrees this morning. It has warmed up to the low 30s. When my son was here over Thanksgiving he couldn't wait to get back to the warm weather in LA.</p>
<p>I do suggest that you go away to UM. It's not a USC-UM thing; it's a growing up thing. I went to college 12 miles from home. It was a mistake.</p>
<p>I spent Thanksgiving in Litchfield, CT where it was in the 20's at night and 40's during the day. It was beautiful. I'd much rather spend a week in New England than a week in California any month of the year. And I spent 5 years in the LA area. After you get over the beach there really is not much to LA.</p>
<p>BTW Madison looks very sunny today.</p>
<p>tsdad, I can't remember...what is your job at Wisconsin? How are you liking it there? Edit: i just read your post of a month ago. Glad to read you are liking the school. What are an assisstant director's duties?
I want my son to consider the school.</p>
<p>Hoo_29, the merits of this particular discussion aside, I consider US News rankings to be pernicious junk that have greatly distorted the whole search and selection process. The only thing that keeps me from wishing them to be blasted into nothingness is the knowledge that in their absence something equally stupid and mostly irrelevant would arise. Their criteria have only mild effect on a given student's undergraduate experience, include a peer component that is highly subjective and of which their have been confessions to "gaming," and largely reflect wealth, both in terms of alumni and institutional endowment, which is a shakey pillar upon which to base rankings. Moreover, there's a sort of implicit cyclical logic in design of ratings: HYP come out on top and if they don't the ratings must be tweaked until they do.</p>
<p>Is a school rated in the Top 20 better than a school in the 81-100 range? Most likely. Is their a meaningful difference between #7 and #23? Probably not. If there is a meaningful difference overall between #7 and #35, does it apply equally to all students? Definitely not.</p>
<p>The USNWR ratings have become a lazy, sloppy shorthand that subsitute for determining best "fit" by evaluating each school's merits or lack thereof in light
of the individual propspective student's needs, wants, and circumstances.</p>
<p>Catch me on another day and I'll tell you what I <em>really</em> think of USNWR.</p>
<p>USC, of course. a 30 min commute isnt a big deal, just dont live at home and youll feel like your ina different world. your own world where you can do whatever you want without mommy or daddy nagging you and telling you what to do. i live an hour away, i wouldnt say im missing out on the college experience. </p>
<p>this choice should be an easy one, these schools are totally diffferent. public vs. private, warm vs cold, far from home vs close to home, cali vs mich, small classes vs big classes. depend swhat you want. and they are both very social, so dont worry about making friedns, or meeting new people.</p>
<p>i dont like usnews rankings either. but saying a school is second rate is soemthing else. when you say something like that, it may offend somebody.</p>
<p>yes hoo, people in socal tend to look better than the rest of the world. just a fact.</p>
<p>University of Spoiled Children ? hehehe Go Michigan!</p>
<p>MrTrojanMan, USC may be a private school but it doesn't necessarily mean that it has "small classes"... Quoting a recent USC freshman:</p>
<p>"For most of GE classes, the class size is about 200. What makes the matter worse is that for freshmen they are not likely to get all the GE they need. Many filled quickly. Many people during orientation freaked out during the registration of class schedule, because they can't get all classes they need. </p>
<p>There is not much of interaction between students and professors for a classroom that contains more than 200 people. Actually, some professor encouraged students to see T.A. (grad students)., instead to go to their office hour..."</p>
<p>You can read the entire thread on the old CC board - "USC undergrad education is so DISAPPOINTING !!!!!!!!" by Auscguy (Sept 28, 2004)</p>
<p>my ge and upper division classes at uci had nearly 400 students, i dont think 200 is too bad. my upperdivision courses at SC have about 20 students. </p>
<p>some small private schools have like 50-100 for ge courses lets say, but these schools have like 5000 students. SC has 15,000, its more like a medium sized school. so its class sizes for ge's are about right for its size. besides, ge material is way easy. you dont need attention from a prof. to do well even if you are struggling b/c the TA's will help you more than enough. </p>
<p>i find my education is very rewarding. and the oppurtunities that the career placement center affords me are pretty good.</p>
<p>On average, classes at Michigan are smaller than classes at USC. But that should not be the decision making criterion. The main question that needs answering is that of personal fit. Which campus/university is best suited for the individual?</p>
<p>MrTrojanMan: I agree. My upper level classes were all taught be Profs with class size around 20-40 students. I was in engineering so we basically had the same groups throughout most of the core courses, kinda boring. I agree with you that 200-300 ppl lectures for GE classes are fine as you really don't need much in-depth discussions with your profs...and you probably learn more from your TA's any way.</p>
<p>I quoted the passage so people don't mistake private universities for LAC's and expect small class size for all the courses (like Auscguy).</p>
<p>USC. But then again I'm biased, since I'm from Ohio. We don't like "that state up north".</p>
<p>Dstark:</p>
<p>Without saying exactly what I do, I do deal with some of the less positive aspects of the university. I often know more about what's going on than I want to consdering this is my retirement job. It has given me a new respect for university administrators and the sometimes nearly impossible job they have to do. I find it a very pleasant place although I tend to see the negative side of the university because of my job. </p>
<p>I like Madison although is not especialy pretty (it's not ugly just that we're not talking Princeton or Chapel Hill) and it's often gray. BUT it is a great college town and not a bad place to be an adult. I especially like to go down Bascom Hill and eat lunch at Memorial Union with a spectacular view of the lake. It's a great place for culture, plays, opera, rock, orchestras, both on and off-campus. The people are nice and the place is very liberal but there is a wide diversity of opinion on campus and certainly in the state. </p>
<p>It does get cold here. When my wife and son came out for Thanksgiving they were happy to get back to relatively warmer DC and and much warmer LA although everyone says that last few winters here have been mild.</p>
<p>I think either is an excellent choice, but UMich wins because 1. cost is going to be very similar 2.you're undecided and UMIch has superior academics 3.what's better than big ten football (not that that should be a factor :p) 4.going to a different environment for college can really open your eyes 5.snow really isn't that bad (i've never been to umich, but I live in ohio and have visited michigan many times) 6.USC's specialty is film, and while the others are good, not like UMich</p>
<p>tsdad, thanks for the update. I am thinking strongly that my retirement job should be on a college campus for reasons you have mentioned. As for the gray, I grew up in a very foggy area of SF. I am not sure if the gray would bother me.</p>
<p>As for the topic of this thread, my daughter is a freshman at Michigan, and she loves the school. She is from California, and her largest class has fewer than thirty students.</p>
<p>I got my masters degree from USC but I'll try not to be bias. ;) Ceteris paribus, I would pick U Mich because it is a better school. If you are planning to live and die in LA, I would pick USC because it has a better reputation over all in Southern California. If you plan on living/working out of state, I would think Michigan would have the better reputaion. After taking into consideration moving costs and out of state tuition, I doubt one choice would be more costly than the other but I could be wrong. </p>
<p>I happen to know that for some people, moving out of state for college is extremely difficult or even impossible. I got into Berkeley but could not go because that was too far and that is still in California! Well, luckily for me, the Los Angeles area is filled with great schools so I got to go to UCLA for undergrad and USC for grad school. I think moving is not an issue for you so you should pick whatever school fits your needs better. If you ask me, you have a very good choice and are a very fortunate person. It is not like you are deciding to take a plea bargain to do 3 years in the state prision or take your case to trial and risk losing an getting 10 years.</p>
<p>celebrian25, what are you taling about by saying "what is better than big ten football?" Are you forgetting that USC is in the pac ten? Now, let ME ask a question. What is better than Pac 10 football? </p>
<p>USC 2005 National Champs? Just wait until January 1st big boy!</p>
<p>If you want to do internships, and you hope to work in Los Angeles, go to USC, but if it doesn't matter to you, go to U of Michigan. Also how do you know if USC will even accept you, you should wait and see if you actually get admitted.</p>