<p>I will post this in the ND forum as well, cause let's be honest, everyone can be a little biased :) but can we get a nice, polite (hahaha) comparison between the two institutions and what is great about both, and not so great; what one has over the other and what not. I will be majoring in business and want to know which one will set me up best if I put in the work obviously. Thanks!!</p>
<p>They are very, very, very different places. When I see ‘Notre Dame or USC,’ I usually advise the person to take a step back and think about what they want out of their college experience. They are both large private universities that enjoy football and the similarities peter out after that. You don’t need a pros/cons list from strangers, you need to think about what you want.</p>
<p>Academically, they are both fine business programs; Notre Dame will likely set you up better for a career in the Midwest/Northeast, while USC has more connections on the west coast and in Asia.</p>
<p>P.S. If you aren’t Catholic or at least Christian that should be a major consideration for you when looking at Notre Dame.</p>
<p>I have visited Notre Dame numerous times (usually for football games) and have a son who just finished freshman year at USC (Marshall). My assessment:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>BandTenhut is dead on regarding job opportunities though this is pretty standard with most colleges - proximity helps. Realistically speaking, perhaps due to movies like Knute Rockne All-American and Rudy or having its own football channel every fall, Notre Dame will be more well known than USC. Though it’s hard for me to assess how much of a difference that makes.</p></li>
<li><p>Location. USC is in Los Angeles, a massive city known around the world. Notre Dame is South Bend, Indiana. There is very little else there and Chicago is 90 - 120 minutes away (of course 90-120 minutes in LA traffic is about 15 miles).</p></li>
<li><p>Campus. In a lot of ways Notre Dame is the stereotypical college campus, tree-lined, ivy-covered, football stadium in the middle of campus experience. USC is an oasis in an urban setting. Though, please note, for all the hand wringing about how “dangerous” it is around SC, I find South Bend to be far “sketchier” an area. Like SC, the ND students simply don’t walk off campus in a certain direction (south I think it is).</p></li>
<li><p>Diversity. USC is one of the most diverse student bodies in the country. ND is very Caucasian (during a tour a guide said that if it wasn’t for the football and basketball players there wouldn’t be any ‘black kids here’. He seemed puzzled when I chewed him out for that depiction, though he did seem to be right).</p></li>
<li><p>Religion. USC is secular, ND is Catholic, complete with a recreation of the Shrine at Lourdes (usually the first stop on the prospective student tour). </p></li>
<li><p>Education. ND business has been getting very high ratings of late. I don’t know whether that turns into higher starting salaries or not. At both schools you will get an excellent education.</p></li>
<li><p>Weather. One is in the Great Lakes snow belt with occasionally brutal cold spells. The other suffers from relentless sunshine and mid-70s temperatures.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Both are excellent schools, though I have a hard time imagining someone liking both places equally well. Visit and decide for yourself.</p>
<p>It is true… South Bend has sketchy areas. But if someone told me I had to walk a mile at 2 AM in the worst part of LA or the worst part of South Bend… I would pick South Bend. You will most likely run into drunks or addicts, not gun-toting criminals.</p>
<p>Apply to ND early for its scholarship consideration and apply by Dec 1 for SC’s scholarships and see if you get offered any money. Among schools with similar rankings, the ones which are easier to like are the ones that save you thousands of dollars a year. period.</p>
<p>Meh. Every urban campus has issues. USC is not alone - Penn and the University of Chicago in particular both suffer from the same issues that USC does. However, they also benefit from the same urban dynamism that USC does. What you trade off in terms of security you more than make up in terms of a dynamic, diverse, cosmopolitan education that you would never get if you went to school in the middle of a cornfield. I’ve only driven through South Bend a few times and that was enough to know I’d be bored out of my mind there.</p>
<p>FWIW, USC is in the process of building a new, fantastic, state of the art Catholic Center. Check out CatholicTrojan.org for more info.</p>
<p>Also, have to hammer home the diversity issue as well. USC is half white, half minority, and has one of the largest international student populations of any university in the country, if not the world. This is not the 19th century as you’re going to have to understand different people from different cultures on their own terms and you’re much more likely to get that when you learn alongside people from all across the world, who practice different religions - or none at all. You won’t get that at Notre Dame, or any other university that strongly espouses any one religion. BTW, I am a nominally decent practicing Catholic myself, grew up rooting for Notre Dame, have a ton of friends who went there, and still root for the Irish whenever they’re not playing USC. ;)</p>