<p>My son wants to study computer science or computer engineering. He is currently only a junior in high school but he was accepted into USC's resident honors program which allows a student to skip senior year and enter school a year early. He also got into Purdue. I really want him to stay in high school another year so he could apply to more schools and have a bigger choice, but he is so bored that he just wants out.</p>
<p>My question - is USC worth the cost? He is getting a small deans's (1/4 tuition) scholarship and no financial aid so my cost will be $39,000 per year. Purdue is in-state and they offered him a merit scholarship that brings the cost down to $13,000 per year. Both schools are highly ranked. USC does have the "Trojan family network" etc. Is is worth it? Any USC grads out there?</p>
<p>I know for a fact that Purdue engineering is among the best in the country (Neil Armstrong went there) it's in the top 10 on any rankings you will ever find, USNEWS ranks it 6th in front of USC which is 9th. Comp E in particular is 11th at Purdue and 19th at USC, which looks to be a pretty good estimate. Computer sciences I'm not as sure about.</p>
<p>If it were me I would go for Purdue. Unless he prefers the atmosphere at USC I don't think it makes sens for him to go half way across the country for something half as good and two (three?) times more expensive. He could also stay another year in HS and see if USC gives him better money (assuming he prefers USC).</p>
<p>Hope that helps. I admit I may be bias as I used to live in Indiana and my mother taught at Purdue. Maybe a USC grad cangive the USC side of the story.</p>
<p>In my opinion, USC is not worth that much money. As mentioned before, Purdue is a great engineering school and I think he should go to Purdue over USC.</p>
<p>The program at USC called the resident honors program takes kids right out of junior year. They do not expect them to graduate. They suggest taking the ged if you want to. They feel that once you graduate from college, the college diploma is your first credential, not your high school diploma.</p>
<p>My son got accepted into this program in late January. My concern was that if he went to usc and wasn't happy that it might be hard to transfer without a high school diploma. It took a while, but I finally arranged that he will graduate in August by going to summer school and taking classes at a local university. He is also currently taking an extra class independent study.</p>
<p>After I was able to ensure that he would have a diploma, it was too late to apply to most schools. As you know, most colleges have application deadlines of January 1 or 15th. I had him apply to Purdue.</p>
<p>He is so bored with hs, that I can't convince him to stay another year or even another semester. The result is that he only has 2 schools to apply to. He had a high psat score, so the chances of him being named national merit next year are very good. When that happens, USC will bump his scholarship up to 1/2 tuition (about 16,600 per year). But it won't kick in until his 2nd year.</p>
<p>Well he must still be young if he graduates early, do you live in Indianapolis?</p>
<p>I really think it's not worth going so far when you've got something better right next door. This is only undergrad level, I think there are better uses for that kind of money namely for grad school.</p>
<p>momofchris, if chris was a film major it would be worth the money but it appears that he is not. ;) I think he'd be happy at Blank State Polytech, anything to be done with high school. Go to your highly ranked, 1/3 the cost in state option. Save your shekels for grad school at MITTechvardford.</p>
<p>i think if he can easily skip a year of school, that obviously means your son is very intelligent, perhaps an extra year of high school will improve his chances of getting more merit money from the schools he applys to in the future.</p>
<p>I think one year definetly makes a difference. A lot of changes happens within a year, I think you should make your son stay in high school all 4 years and have him apply to colleges in his senior year. Other schools excluding purdue or usc might give him even more merit.</p>
<p>I could have graduated early as well but I chose not to, either way my parents would not have let me. If it were me I would finish off HS, and if not then go to purdue. Sending you're son to pudue engineering is not being cheap on his education, here are the USNEWS rankings:</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Computer Engineering
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)</p>
<ol>
<li> Massachusetts Inst. of Technology</li>
<li> Stanford University (CA)</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
University of CaliforniaBerkeley </li>
<li> U. of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign *</li>
<li> University of MichiganAnn Arbor *</li>
<li> University of TexasAustin *</li>
<li> Georgia Institute of Technology *</li>
<li> Cornell University (NY)</li>
<li> University of Washington *</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology
Purdue Univ.West Lafayette (IN)</li>
<li> Princeton University (NJ)</li>
<li> Univ. of CaliforniaLos Angeles *</li>
<li> Univ. of WisconsinMadison *</li>
<li> Duke University (NC)</li>
<li> Northwestern University (IL)
Rice University (TX)</li>
<li> Univ. of CaliforniaSan Diego *
Univ. of Southern California</li>
<li> Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY)
Texas A&M Univ.College Station *
Univ. of MarylandCollege Park *</li>
</ol>
<p>As you can see on that list Purdue is on par w/ Caltech and Princeton,</p>
<p>I really don't think USC is worth the money at all, Purdue engineering is very prestigious if you maintain a good GPA. Its a good track for grad school, save your money for then. (Unless $ is not a problem)</p>
<p>Why is USC on his list in the 1st place? Does he prefer USC much more?</p>
<p>I don't think USC worths the money. Even in the overall ranking where USC seems to place high (9th), it's peer assessment (reputation) scores are actually relatively low. It's ranked 9th mostly because of the large expenditure in research. It also has no department in the top-10 (if you look at rankings for subfields). I work in LA and quite a few of my coworkers went to USC and while they are smart (good communication skills and sound decently bright), their technical skills aren't that amazing. In fact, one of my co-workers used one of the projects as part of her master thesis (working full-time and working on the master degree part time) but I started the project and pretty much did the whole analysis. She was amazed how I figured it all out in a short period of time but it's actually nothing complicated. I have a feeling their program isn't very rigorous. Purdue's program has been known to be rigorous for quite sometime and it's reputation in the engineering world is very good.</p>
<p>This may be off topic, but I agree with TourGuide. I've been to USC with a group of friends when we went on a field trip to a museum right by it. </p>
<p>USC is in downtown LA = ghetto. The atmosphere is not so great. Quite a number of homeless people on the streets, horrible air, and all the other lovely things LA has to offer. </p>
<p>at least visit the place before sending a young boy off on his own.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. You have confirmed what my husband and I were thinking. I am a very frugal person, so I didn't want my penny-pinching blinding my decision.</p>
<p>Just a random comment... someone said Neil Armstrong went to Purdue. I know he went to USC, did he go to both? That would be funny. lol. Anyways, if your son gets the National Merit and USC gives him half tuition for the other 3 years it would be an awesome deal (even if it cost a lot the first year). If you're pretty sure he has a good chance at it, it might be worth considering. Also the students who enter USC a year early are given a lot of guidance and are treated really well so they wont get lost in the school. Also, it REALLY isnt in that bad of a location. Seriously, I heard bad things about it and then when I saw it I was pleasantly surprised. The campus is beautiful too. What are his reasons for USC over Purdue? If he has good reasons then definetly consider it because their engineering program is great. That is, unless he'd rather go somewhere like MIT or Caltech in which case he should probably stay in high school for another year (or... you say he'll get his diploma in august and hes tired of school so he could always take a gap year and intern at an engineering company or something and apply to more schools) That way he has a year to travel, work, evaluate his options and hopefully get a nice sum of merit money! He should be able to get full rides at schools like Purdue if he has stats good enough to get into the resident honors program at USC!</p>
<p>I'm just back from a long weekend at USC visiting my son. This is my fourth trip to LA and USC. The campus as always was immaculate. It's quiet. No major streets run through the campus. The weather was beautiful. There were gardens all over highlighted by flowers in cardinal and gold. We spent a nice hour or so sitting in a courtyard in the Marshall School where they have opened a new tea room. </p>
<p>The discussion about whether USC is surrounded by a slum is a racist canard. The only people who think this area is a slum are undoubtedly over privileged and badly educated; individuals who have no idea how working people live. The neighborhoods around USC are made up of students and working class Hispanic families. My son lives off-campus on 23rd street right off Hoover, in a 100-year old house with a spectacular staircase. The neighborhoods are filled with these types of houses and these types of residents. There is little graffiti and no gangbangers hanging around on the corners. The streets are clean. There are flowers in front of many of the houses. In fact I'd say the whole area unfortunately is ripe for gentrification, which will push both the students and Hispanic families out.</p>
<p>Thanks Kaitylin and tsdad for your comments.</p>
<p>Neil Armstrong went to both Purdue and USC!</p>
<p>What attracted my son to usc was the resident honors program.</p>
<p>I visited the campus 2 weeks ago, and it is nothing like the rumors make it out to be. The campus is very beautiful and there is plenty of security. The neighborhood around it looks old. Most of the surrounding houses look like they are occupied by students. I've heard that the crime rate in the area is actually pretty low for being in LA and compared to most college campuses.</p>
<p>He is not going to be 2000 miles away from home alone. He will be living in a dorm, and be part of rhp which supervises the students the first year.</p>
<p>bepiozo, I don't know which USC you have been to. If you saw a number of homeless on the street, you were not in the USC neighborhood. Please make sure you know your fact, then give your opinion. MomofChris actually visited USC for days, she know more than you to not worry about the location. </p>
<p>Most of areas around USC (except several blocks west of the campus) are decently urban downtown neighborhood occupied by poor, hard working people. The houses are BEUTIFUL old houses, alot of which been there for a centrury. Before the WWII, the surrounding area was LA's upscale residential community like Beverly Hills today. You still can see some big houses, magnificinet churchs, etc. There are probably less than 5 homeless totally I've seen during the several years I lived there. Even now I moved to Irvine, I still think the place is rich in style, tradition, and defintely a better place for young people to get education, explore things in your life.</p>
<p>Anyone, I mean ANYONE, who says USC's neighborhood is scary or ghetto, either hasn't been to the campus, or out of malicious reason.</p>
<p>I have no ax to grind, and I've been to both USC and Purdue. There is a significant difference in the atmospheres of the 2 places. The OP is mainly concerned with whether or not there is a good academic reason to pay the big bucks to USC rather than the small bucks to Purdue. I think that's been answered...there is NOT a good reason to pay several times as much. So save your breath on the USC-is-safe rhetoric. Nobody is saying USC is in the worst of ghettos, but if you've seen BOTH places, there would be little doubt to which you'd prefer to send your 17-year-old Indiana-raised son. And stop playing the race card.</p>
<p>MomofChris, going to Purdue is not a cheap option, neither a bad choice, but I do think USC offers something different or difficult for Purdue to match. I think you know it well, and that is the reason why it is hard for you to make decision. </p>
<p>First question, how much difference does going to Purdue make than staying one more year in high school in your hometown. If the life doesn't change much other than stressing your son out with freshman classes, I would think it wiser to just stay one more year (or a gap year) to evelate Chris's profile, try to get more scholarship or get into better schools. </p>
<p>Second, going to USC is not a financial disaster for sure. Your son may have good chance to do research with faculty member and earn the food money. Summer internship in California high tech companies is more likely at USC. USC is an all around better school than Purdue, so your son will have better chance to explore things other than engineering, and may do a minor or doble major. </p>
<p>Third, being away 200 miles from home makes little difference than 2000 miles IMO. I think being away poses a good opportunity for young man to grow not merely professionally. Not many other places are better than Califonia for a midwestern boy to explore the world, and know your life, learn open-mind. </p>
<p>Purdue is an excellent engineering school, but franckly it is not the happening place for new technology. Most of big10 schools (with exception of UIUC) tend to live off their past reputation earned during the time before sillicon valley made a household name. They still hold high prestige, but the trend of west coast being inovation center is not reversible IMHO.</p>