Hi I’m a junior who’s trying to narrow down my list of colleges of apply to and I’m debating whether or not to eliminate USC. My dream school is Northeastern and I’m including it so you know why that is and to compare it to USC.
I know USC is more highly ranked however at Northeastern there’s amazing co-op opportunities and I could double major in Political Science and American Sign Language (a program that USC doesn’t have). I love the idea of going to a college town that’s still a big city in it’s own right (I’m from Miami) instead of just another large city.
BUT USC has been my dream school since I could remember but now I’m starting to re-consider. I’ve heard that USC is not that generous financially which is an issue for me and also that there are many rich kids that go there (not that it’s a character flaw but I would feel uncomfortable around people who don’t value money.)
The most important factor making my decision is the fact that I haven’t heard much about their political science program. While I’m willing to maybe give up an ASL major, I want to make sure that it’s because the Political Science major is stronger at USC.
I know their Film and Dramatic Arts are strong and I’ve also heard good things about the school of Gerontology but can anyone tell me more about PoliSci and campus life?
NE is very expensive and unless you get a lot of FA, don’t saddle yourself with debt. The same advice applies to USC. Listen kids, don’t take on more than $80k in debt for all four years, regardless of where you go. That said, if not borrowing is not an option, then the more you need to borrow, the greater the brand name of the college needs to be, and that applies to USC and other schools. Forget the program of study, unless you’re going to get a Ph.D. USC has a solid political science department, and some of the great professors are Stan Rosen, Jeb Barnes and Ann Crigler. I had four classes with Rosen. Do your research.
I have one kid in each. I am happy with both schools, but I would not have sent either of my kids to either school if they did not get a good chunk of merit aid. I like Northeastern due to the serious nature of the school and student body, their co-op program, their central location in Boston, and they are very organized. USC is more in the center of many areas in technology/arts, it has a more extensive social life, will provide good connections.
The well respected John Tracy Clinic has a long association with USC. Try contacting them to see if they offer a program in American Sign Language available for USC students.
Northeastern gives worse financial aid than USC and is significantly less prestigious. Not that prestige matters much in the scheme of things, but I know many many people who have graduated or known people who’ve graduated from northeastern wirh tons of debt and no job. On the other hand, USC has great job placement especially if you stay in the area and the weather is obviously way nicer. Though I am a little biased, why not just apply and then compare your aid packages. Besides a couple of essays, you’ve got nothing to lose.
@couplemoreweeks – Where I live Northeastern is as prestigious, if not moreso, than USC. USC’s reputation isn’t that great outside of SoCal (or I guess the west coast as a whole), and I definitely would not advise someone to take USC over Northeastern because of “prestige.” The difference is marginal at best, and really no school is worth taking because of the prestige unless you would be just as happy there as the other less prestigious university.
I’d say that you should see where your scores end up. You could be looking at good merit aid from either school, or we could be looking at a situation where you’re unlikely to get much merit aid and would have to rely solely off of merit aid. As an aside, Northeastern gave me a good financial aid package this year, but not a great one. My scholarship definitely substituted as part of my need-based aid, and I ended up getting a decent amount in loans each year. I don’t want to publish this info publicly, but if you PM me I can give you more information and explain my financial situation in further detail.
Also, are you looking to get a graduate degree? If you are planning on getting a further degree, you may want to check out schools where you’re likely to get a good amount of merit aid so you graduate with as little debt as possible.
Look at any package you get and visit both schools. If you want to stay on east coast go to Northeastern, but it carries no weight west of the Mississippi. It is ranked well below USC and does not have the national reputation USC does, but may be ok on the east coast. A so-so school school from perception of two friends that were admitted, certainly no where near a top tier, just one people fall back on. USC is far more elite with stronger alumni. But that is just my view, you will get varying perceptions on here, check them out for yourself, look at rankings, majors, etc. Two totally different experiences that only you can decide between. Go somewhere cause you like it and it offers what you want.
actually I have my friends sister attended Northeastern and can not find a job and she says her friends are experiencing similar problems. My college counselor also said something along the same lines. Also, if you just look at the yield rate for USC—33% versus the yield rate at Northeastern–18%, you can also learn a lot. Also, @micmatt513 I was speaking in terms of national prestige, but I’m sure that Northeastern has way better name recognition in the New England region. Like I said I’m not from the East Coast so I may be biased but take everyone’s opinions with a grain of salt because we’re only talking based on what WE HEARD or Know.
Sadly, the kid ^ is right. My secretary’s boy went there and had a very hard time landing a job outside his externship. On the east coast, USC has very strong ties, especially in New York, D.C. and Boston, with loyal alumni clubs. Our reputation surpasses BC and BU, based largely on perception and US News. USC also has many students from New York and Massachusetts and New Jersey, so we have a national footprint. On the other hand, employers do favor local schools so just because you go to NE doesn’t mean you’re not going to get a job. If you get a 3.5 and are personable, you should get a decent entry level job. More importantly, NE has replicated USC’s success by gaming and climbing the rankings, and its president was a USC Dornsife dean (Aoun). It’s getting better each year and I predict it will rival BU and BC in the years to come.
The article indicates further that NU, as they call themselves, has eagerly embraced USC’s tactic of admitting spring admits - and, hello, enlarging the international student body – to boost the stats for the entering class. (They also have a satellite campus in Seattle that opened a couple of years ago, right downtown.) This has nothing at all to do with lack of freshman housing but is a cynical ploy to artificially increase the average stats. NU also ships them to Europe, just like USC, lol. They’re using Nikias’ playbook, metric by metric. Good for them. In a few years people will be confusing Northeastern for Northwestern…
Oh, that makes sense, two kids I know accepted last year could only enter by starting abroad. Thought that was odd but was of course marketed as an opportunity. Interesting. They didn’t go.
I actually think any college that pulls itself up from the bootstraps deserves more respect than how the Globe treated NU. And how could I not like the Huskies, as they call themselves. The LATs wrote a similar but vastly more respectful piece about USC in 2000, when we surpassed UCLA in average SAT scores…