<p>What the true peer schools of USC in terms of quality of students, academic reputation and prestige (historically)?</p>
<p>These are the ones that come my mind?</p>
<p>UCLA
University of Texas - Austin
University of Miami
Tulane University
New York University
Boston University
George Washington University</p>
<p>A cut above USC include:</p>
<p>Emory
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Georgetown
Notre Dame</p>
<p>In many ways SC is unique due to strong ties to the Pacific Rim, premier art schools and large numbers of international students. For a major research university it also has a low faculty student ratio of 1/9. So much depends on the major a student wishes to pursue, in my opinion. For example, none of those universities mentioned above as peers have a school of communication and journalism to match SC’s Annenberg School. </p>
<p>After years of reading where SC students apply I would suggest a different list:</p>
<p>Schools of interest to SC applicants:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
University of Virginia
UCLA
Georgetown
Vanderbilt
NYU for the art schools </p>
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</p>
<p>Don’t think Emory should be on this list, as its cheating on SAT scores makes its quality unreliable. Two people I know who chose between USC and Georgetown chose USC.</p>
<p>Georgia Girl, Thanks for the nuance. Looks like a fair list of peers, and reflects the increasing strength of a number of USC programs.</p>
<p>Point on Emory above well taken. </p>
<p>BU is a cut or 2 below USC</p>
<p>Some of USC’s peer schools that come to mind are:
UCLA, UCB, University of Michigan, UVa, CMU, Emory</p>
<p>Santa Clara students are often accepted at both USC & SCU with similar merit offers. We know a pair of fraternal twins who applied to both schools in engineering. One was accepted with merit at one and the other was accepted with merit at the other. Neither U would offer both twins merit, so each went to a different U.</p>
<p>One dad who had two sons in engineering – older at CMU and 2nd at USC said he thought USC was hands down MUCH better. Younger S transferred into psych, so just as well he didn’t go to CMU, where he wouldn’t have even had that as an option.</p>
<p>One kid I know was considering between Trustee at USC and full ride at several other Us; not positive which were the other Us, but was happy to matriculate at USC where he earned dual engineering and finance bachelor"s as well as a master’s in 4 years and a few summers.</p>
<p>Have heard that some kids are weighing between an ivy with no funding and trustee at USC, choosing USC. Does that make them peers?</p>
<p>^I would say no, I think what would make them peers would be choosing usc with no funding over an ivy with no funding. Tons of kids choose their instate publics or cheap oos schools( bama for example) over ivys with no funding just because it is all they can afford. That does not make alabama a peer school of ivys, just a better option for some students.</p>
<p>Also:
Johns Hopkins
Rice
WUSTL
Duke</p>
<p>UVA, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Northwestern</p>