I recently got admission into the University of Southern California (English lit/creative writing) and was accepted off the wait
list at Smith College (English major). It would be really great if I could get some insight on the colleges and which college I should decide to attend.
Also, I have been admitted into the Spring semester (2016) at USC.
These are two very different schools. Are there any financial issues with attending one over the other? Do you want to attend an all women’s college? I don’t see a problem with the Spring admit so don’t let that sway your decision too much.
There aren’t really any financial issues and I don’t have a problem attending an all-women’s college. It just seems as if USC has more to offer in terms of courses, and I would really want to pursue a double major in Journalism and English lit, if I choose to go to USC.
USC|:
In Los Angeles in a bit of a rough and tumble area.
20,000 undergrad
24,000 grad
Student Demographics (Fall 2014)
Rounded to the nearest percentile
Asians 18%
Black/African-American 5%
Hispanic 12%
White/Caucasian 33%
International 23%
Other 9%
Smith:
Idyllic setting
2,600 undergrad
Ethnicity of Students from U.S. 0.2% American Indian/Alaskan Native
14.4% Asian
5.5% Black/African-American
11.0% Hispanic/Latino
5.5% Multi-race (not Hispanic/Latino)
0.0% Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander
52.9% White
10.5% Unknown
International Students 13.2%
First-Year Students Returning 94.0%
Students Graduating
Within 4 Years
Both schools are really quite diverse. That is a plus in my book.
Yes, they are two very different schools.
It’s hard to imagine anyone being equally interested in both, or even interested enough in both to apply to both.
What drew you to each college?
Have you visited both?
If not, have you visited similar colleges (that is, another very large urban university and another small, semi-rural liberal arts college)?
I looked at your earlier threads, and you expressed interest in Columbia, NYU, Emory and Johns Hopkins. All of these are urban with NYU and Columbia among the most urban of US universities. USC is more similar to these schools than is Smith. Are you hesitating about going to USC because Smith is a higher ranked school?
A small LAC like Smith offers a very different experience than a large university. This comes down to a question of personal fit.
Since when is Smith ranked higher than USC? First of all, USC has a much stronger reputation, or at least national presence, than Smith has ever had. It might just be because it is a university vs. a liberal arts college, but really not many are aware of Smith’s existence unless they are delving into the college process. As for the actual “ranking”, U.S. News has Smith as the #19 LAC and USC as the #25 National University. Yeah, 19 is higher, but for context a top 10 liberal arts college is Haverford College. Great school, it really is, but its ranking equivalent in the national university list is UPenn. Not exactly equal when it comes to prestige. Ranking, and by extension prestige, definitely goes to USC. That should be clear by the fact that Smith accepts 43% of applicants and USC accepts 19.8%.
That being said, do NOT choose based on prestige. Choose based on (since finances are not issue) 1) Which place will get you the farthest in life in terms of career/personal fulfillment and 2) where you will be happiest. Based on txtella’s post about your college list, it seems like you might be leaning towards USC. USC has the environment you seem to want, and there are few colleges as accommodating of a double major.
Good luck!
USC = University of Spoiled Children
hoped that helped.
Smith participates in the Five College Consortium: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/consortium so to fully understand your academic opportunities, you need to compare the full offerings of all the partners in that consortium with the offerings at USC, rather than Smith alone vs. USC.
Weather and travel might be important issues for you. Check those out.
Yeah, maybe at one time that was true @MasterPleb , but now that they have $300 million dollars of aid available and literally two-thirds of students receive benefit from this fund, it’s really not. Maybe do a little research before you drop an outdated little one-liner.
hope that helped.
I don’t research schools I don’t consider going to 
sorry. But I did not say USC was not a good school, it’s academics are far from mediocre. You’ll get a great education there regardless how much you end up paying.
They are completely different schools. USC is huge and in an urban environment; Smith is small and an all womens LAC. I can’t imagine that the same student would feel compatible and fit at both…have you visited at all? Both schools are solid but the end decision depends on what you want and how you like the places.