I know it sound like a college football playoff but s2 is interested in these schools. I think academically its Texas then USC then Oregon but I don’t know. He’s in the 10 grade and lives in SoCal and loves to run but probably not good enough to get a scholarship to these schools. He doesn’t know what he wants to study. His brother is a college freshman at a small top tier school but he wants a larger school. Any thoughts on the differences between these schools?
UT has over 50,000 students. He’d need to check the website concerning out-of-state students and minimum qualifications. Housing is also extremely tight at UT and many students live off-campus. I can’t speak to the athletics question (track or cross-country) but UT athletics are very competitive (lots of UT current students and grads just in the Olympics). Not to say he couldn’t get a scholarship but it definitely bears more research in that area.
Academically, out of state scholarships for UT Austin pretty much don’t exist.
USC, Oregon, and Arizona are safer bets.
Have you run the net price calculators?
Texas is probably quite difficult to get into as an out-of-state student. Note that class rank is used in lieu of GPA there. Big scholarships are rare.
USC is also very selective, probably comparable to UCLA overall, but weighting different factors differently (probably more weight on test scores relative to grades than UCLA and other UCs), and different majors may be relatively more selective. Used to have lots of big scholarships back when it was trying to raise its academic profile; now they are much harder to get.
Oregon is generally considered less selective.
What about UCs and CSUs if you live in California?
Intended major? He should investigate whether his intended major (or possible majors if undecided) are more selective ones at each school, which can mean more difficult to get in as a frosh or difficult to change into after enrolling.
I would really question what he’s goign to get from those schools that he can’t get form one of the UC’s
Looks like Texas is a high reach for him and I don’t think he could get in. I did the net price calculators. I didn’t realize that Oregon is so expensive OOS. I agree @ucbalumnus that UC’s are good perhaps the second tier like Irvine or Santa Cruz or Riverside. UCLA and Berkeley, Davis are too competitive. Non decided in terms of major. Can these schools compare to USC?
I’m going my memory but these numbers will be really close. 75% of Texas admits are in-state students based on clas rank.10% are for foreign students. The remaining 15% or far out of state and holistic reviewed students. Texas offers very little merit aid because of the competition to get in. The school itself would be considered more liberal than A&M on overage. The sports programs are huge but this would apply to USC and Oregon as well. UT is a urban campus being located less than a mile from the state capitol building. It’s a great school.
Eugene is a completely different university setting than the other two. In the last two years more resources have been put into getting in-state top high school grads to enroll, not just recruited athletes. The Clark Honors College has a beautiful residence hall and offers some perks. It does not offer engineering- that is at Oregon State. Crunchy granola outdoorsy types make both the uni and town very progressive. My peeve with that is the very liberal marijuana use even before Oregon legalized it.
USC is no longer the “University of Second Choice” as far as admission selectivity goes, although it may be a bit more friendly to test-score-heavy applicants compared to UCs.
Go Trojans!
He’s only in 10th grade. Visit all those schoools plus more, and decide where to apply after he figures out what he wants to study and which schools he likes best. Then decide where to go after he finds out where he gets in - which could be April 1 of senior year for USC. If he is a strong student with good test scores, he can get into all. I would absolutely pick USC over the other two, but I am biased.
Hi! I’m sure it’s still early to tell how competitive his stats will be for the UC’s, but your son is interested in the same schools I was initially interested in out of high school. I wanted a school that had both great academics, but also a fun sports culture. I went to USC my freshman year, and ended up transferring to UCSB. There were some things I did love about USC (I had great professors and the football games, etc were super fun), but I never really found a super strong group of friends and transferred to UCSB (the student body was much friendlier and laid-back in general). I was shocked how awesome the school spirit was at UCSB! Men’s soccer and basketball games especially. The stadiums are much smaller, but UCSB students go all out for these games. Super fun! UCSB has gotten increasingly difficult to get into, but if he ends up with the grade/test scores, it might be worth a visit from SoCal. And.,.the beach location is tough to beat 
Thanks for the input. We visited Berkeley, UCLA, UCI UCSB Stanford and USC last year. Even though he was a 10 grader these were the final admit choices for older brother so we took him along just to see if anything struck his fancy. He did like UCSB but it was during their spring break and it was kind of crazy. He liked USC but it may be too close to home for him(30 minutes away). No school blew him away he said but I think that maybe just because he’s low key. We plan to visit Oregon next summer and I think that’s his number one choice even though he never visited and will probably change. I’m sure its from him being a Duck football fan. Its early still but thanks for all the tidbits like from @Oregon2016 because it seems as a parent these times come faster than you wish.
The top 5 track and field programs in the country are Texas A&M, LSU, Florida, Oregon, and Arkansas (according to the NCAA website). I was a bit surprised, because I figured USC would have been up there, but they weren’t even in the top 25. Texas was No. 7. That might help answer your question as it seems he might have an easier time running at USC.