USC has a nice undergraduate population of ~18,000, which I like a lot. But including graduate students, there are ~44,000 students. I haven’t been able to visit USC, so I’m not sure what the campus is like. My question is for undergrad students, does USC feel overwhelmingly large because of the grad students?
I’m a current freshman at USC. It definitely doesn’t have a small school feel but also doesn’t feel overwhelmingly large. The grad students aren’t around as often (as they live/eat off campus and have different schedules) and a large chunk of them are actually on the health sciences campus a few miles away.
I never found it overwhelmingly large. I finished my undergrad studies just as they completed the Village, so I have no experience with that. Sometimes USC even felt smaller than it actually is. This might have to do with it being very flat. I believe UCLA has a slightly smaller campus than USC, but that campus felt a heck of a lot bigger to me. Maybe it was because of the hills UCLA is famous for. The sheer amount of students on bikes sometimes irked me, but it was never too bad.
UCLA is 419 acres, USC is 226 acres.
Both have the same number of undergrads + grads, around 44K
While USC’s enrollment is around 40K+, the main campus does not feel overwhelmingly crowded during the day… The health science students (primarily medical and pharmacy) are at the medical campus. Though dental students are at the main campus, there are many MBA and Masters in Engineering students who are full time professionals and attend school at the main campus part time in the evenings.
Hello, I’m a Viterbi transfer. It’s my 3rd day of classes and I’ve already ran into several people form welcome week activities and other classes. It took a while for this to happen at the CC I come from. Hope this helps.
USC’s campus isn’t physically that big for the number of students. When I’ve visited the campus over the last 15 or so years, it’s felt very cramped and crowded compared to when I went there in the late 80’s. If you’re looking for a tranquil atmosphere, USC isn’t it, although you can always find quiet little courtyards around campus. If you’re looking for a campus with lots of energy, then USC would be for you.
A lot of the grad students will only be on campus at night, since USC has a relatively large graduate program geared towards local working professionals that attend classes in the evening. I was in that kind of program when I was going to grad school there. A lot of those grad students will also be found on the Health Sciences campus several miles away, rather than the main campus.
It’s a busy campus, lunch at the Ronald Tutor Center area reminds me of Times Square, abuzz with so many people and alive with conversation all around…it always feels like something good is happening there.
If you really want to get a feel of whether the number of students on the USC campus is overwhelming or not, just go to the campus when school is in session around the time of 11 AM to about 1 PM to see how it is at the peak hours, especially around the Ronald Tutor/Student Union areas. Go to UCLA or UCB, which has more undergraduates, around those same hours and compare. Both UCLA and UCB may have higher undergraduate enrollment, but physically, their campuses are larger and buildings are more spread out. Also, the 5 to 10 minutes in between classes might give you an idea too when students are rushing to the next class.