<p>How's the neighborhood around USC?</p>
<p>its fine. People will tell you its in the ghetto but its really not that bad. Its safe during the day and its got everything you need for grocery shopping, movie theatre, hair dresser, etc, right next to campus at UV. The few incidents that have occured are usually drunk people wandering alone at night and the've gotten mugged but thats gonna happen in any city if you are stupid. I think its nice and when I got here i was pleasantly surprised. I had heard some bad things so cam prepared for the worst and it was such a relief to see that it is totally not as bad as people make it sound.</p>
<p>if you search the USC message board, I think you will find that 99% of us agree that the neighborhood around USC is relatively safe. And yes, the incidents that do occur are mainly because the victim didn't think smart (e.g. was walking alone at 2AM while listening to iPod). The area is just a neighborhood for a lot of low-income families, but they're all really nice to the USC community, and it allows students an unlimited opportunity to serve the community surrounding campus. We're not a Westwood, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>seeing how i don't like leaving the campus at all by myself tells you something. (which is a pity because some fast food places are like 2 blocks away and u don't want to leave the campus.) It's not THAT bad but it not great either... walking outside of campus during the day is prob not that big of a deal but definately a no no at night (unless you have a big group or something)</p>
<p>I have to agree with the last post. I don't want my 1st year daughter leaving the campus in a big group or alone. My wife and I visited LAPD while moving her in and it is not as safe as USC would like us all to believe. I am perfectly comfortable and feel she is safe while on campus but not anywhere in the vicinity off campus.</p>
<p>Visit the site:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lapdcrimemaps.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.lapdcrimemaps.org/</a></p>
<p>If you enter a date and an address, it tells you what major crimes were committed in a certain time frame.</p>
<p>First, visiting LAPD is not very productive, since it's the DPS who are responsible for the vast majority of patrolling, arrests, etc. in the area.</p>
<p>Second, yes, there is crime on and near campus. Most of it is property crime, not violent crime. No, it's not a desirable thing, but it's also not anything to sit quivering in your dormroom about either, because a good portion of that is crime of opportunity- someone's left their laptop or wallet unattended, their car unlocked, etc. </p>
<p>I am one of those 'stupid' people who walked off campus, alone, at all hours of the night. And you know what? I was not once approached by anybody I did not know, much less victimized. You'll say I'm lucky, but I did this on a regular basis for five years. The streets were EMPTY. All those poor people living in south central were in their houses asleep, just like any other people.</p>
<p>My S has been happy exploring LA with his friends while attending USC. He hasn't said anything about ever feeling unsafe & he's not a very "adventurous" guy (quite "security conscious"). If you use good common sense, you should be quite fine--don't wander around alone at night off campus. With a group, you should be fine!</p>
<p>Where I live on 30th near Vermont is practically empty around midnight. There are many other threads about security and safety at USC. For those new to the subject, I recommend reading those. IIRC, there were less on-campus crimes at USC than at Berkeley and Stanford (among many others). I think it was in an older thread.</p>
<p>DPS is all over the place - Their average response time is 2 minutes if I recall correctly.</p>
<p>On-campus is totally fine: the worst I've seen is periodically spotting those 12 years old gangster looking kids riding around in their bike posse's. If I had to guess, I'd bet they are responsible for a good portion of the bike theft, but I guess that's just me judging based on stereotypes.</p>
<p>Walking out of campus during daytime is totally fine. It is preferred you walk in group during late night, but I did that alone for all the years and nothing happened to me (knock wood). </p>
<p>Actually majority of students live off campus. You just can notice most of people paranoid about safety are freshmen. Not that this area is good, just most of volient crimes were not happening to students. And LAPD won't be able to tell you this. Years ago there was a huge gang war several miles west of campus, but that had no effect on student life here.</p>
<p>Much of USC housing is off campus apartments & USC now guarantees housing for two years for the current freshmen class (provided you meet their application deadlines, etc.)</p>