<p>Even if usc is in/near the "ghetto" (and ive been there...loved it and didnt notice anything) keep in mind that several great schools are in "bad" areas and yet tons of people still want to go:</p>
<p>Yale (New Haven)
Columbia (Harlem "Morningside Heights" riiight)
UPenn (Center City Philadelphia..go down the street and you'll see what i mean)</p>
<p>there's a big difference between what truly is the ghetto and what some people think it is. Anytime you're in a city, you're going to be dealing with these issues. Go to washington d.c., and then you'll see some ghetto (and I'm not talking about the smithsonian)</p>
<p>USC actually was my top choice school all of senior year until I visited a second time. I went alone and stayed with my best friend's sister. On the Sunday afternoon after I got there I ended up finding myself on the edge of campus right outside the big USC gates and right away a homeless man came up to me reaching for my purse as a group of sketchy people started yelling towards me from across the street. Dont take me wrong, USC is a great place and offers a lot of its student opportunities, but this experience at 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon stuck with me. I will be attending Emory University in a few weeks!</p>
<p>I'm sorry you let this keep you from USC, since 30,000 students are having the time of their lives there despite the neighborhood. :) Good luck at Emory!</p>
<p>i would have to agree, i mean to have something as described be the deciding factor or a very large part of it on where to attend for school seems a bit brash</p>
<p>yeah. i actually started this topic and just stayed there for a month and found that it really wasnt a bad area at all. yeah, i guess you'll get teh ocassional beggar or sketchy person, but in general it really isnt a big problem.</p>
<p>It wasn't the deciding factor...it came down to Emory and USC and I applied to 12 schools. It was something I had in mind when I made my decision</p>
<p>Actually, I think it would be pretty cool to go to school in Atlanta, but that's probably just because I have never been there before.
Anyways, good luck.
Kyle</p>
<p>Emory's in atlanta?</p>
<p>That's what their website says. Good ole' Atlanta, Georgia.
Kyle</p>
<p>The area around USC is indeed ghetto, but 90% of the students live on one side of the campus which is much nicer and heavily patrolled so there is little to fear. It doesn't surprise me that a parent that probably doesn't know the info above made one sweeping glance and deemed it dangerous or ghetto. You'll have no reason to go to the "ghetto" side that the parent was probably alluding to, unless you're doing community service work.</p>
<p>Merriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary defines ghetto as a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. USC as defined by Merriam-Webster is in the ghetto.</p>
<p>IT'S NOT THAT BAD! You think kids at Berkeley have it any better? My friend told me that he saw a bum mug another bum the other day. I know that sounds funny, but come on, I think some of you are overreacting. I live on Ellendale (north of USC...'bout three short blocks away) and it isn't bad at all living there. If you're living on-campus, you shouldn't be afraid at all, and if you live just north of the campus you shouldn't be afraid, but have some idea of your surroundings.</p>
<p>There's a saying at SC, it isn't whether or not you'll get shot, it's what you'll get shot by. It's a funny line, but it isn't true. The chances of something bad happening to you are quite slim. Unless you walk around at 2AM with jewelry all over yourself and start yelling at the top of your lungs "Oh no! I have sooo much money! How am I going to get rid of $1,000 dollars in cash!" Then you might have a reason to be scared.</p>
<p>Not that bad? Are you sure? I read about crime all of the time in the DT. Search the school's newspaper. These are a few of the first hits.</p>
<p>Police are looking for suspects who allegedly robbed six people, including two USC students, near the Health Sciences Campus in the last 10 days, officials said Thursday.</p>
<p>Six robberies and one robbery attempt occurred near campus between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3. Five victims were students. One involved a group of staff members and another a non-USC female, according to DPS reports. </p>
<p>Two people were stabbed minutes apart in the early morning hours of Sept. 14 the first on Hoover Street and the second on 28th Street and LAPD has yet to solve the case.</p>
<p>The first victim, a USC student, was cut on the back a one-inch laceration on the back of his left shoulder.</p>
<ul>
<li>Two suspects approached a student from behind and one of them grabbed hold of her purse near City Park II Apartments on the 1200 block of 30th Street at 4:59 p.m. Sunday. The suspect pulled the student to the ground and wrenched the purse from her grasp, then both suspects fled on foot. DPS officers responded and conducted a search, but were unable to locate the suspects.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>A suspect approached a student from behind at 6:24 p.m. Tuesday, simulated having a weapon and demanded his money at Jefferson Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The student gave the suspect the money from his pockets and then the suspect demanded his wallet. The student said he did not have a wallet and the suspect fled on foot. Officers were not able to locate the suspect.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>A student gave up his wallet after three suspects grabbed him from behind at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday. DPS officers were unable to locate the suspects</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>A student reported that a suspect approached him from behind, showed the student a handgun and demanded his wallet around 5:45 p.m. Monday at the intersection of 30th and Hoover streets. The student gave the wallet to the suspect, who then fled on foot. DPS officers were unable to locate the suspect.</li>
</ul>
<p>UCB="losers hang out there"-AP Euro teacher who graduated from there
USC=GHETTO, u wouldnt want to be there, TRUST ME
Yale=impoverished ghetto, half my living group at Yale bout pot outside one of the gates every weekend</p>
<p>Only one of those articles is more recent than 2002. Those are crime reports over the last four years! I hate to tell you guys but none of you understand anything about living in a city. This stuff happens everywhere and most of the time it is a lot worse and not even reported by area universities. I was a student at Carnegie Mellon last year. That is supposed to be in a nicer section of Pittsburgh. Last year, not only was there over $20,000 lost in dorm and computer lab robberies, but in November, if I remember correctly, there was a rash of muggings. Something like 26 in one month and they were all right around the campus. 26! At all different times. And there are much much much worse parts of Pittsburgh than where Carnegie Mellon is. Like every intelligent person has said before on this topic, be smart about it or don't live in the city.</p>
<p>
[quote]
USC as defined by Merriam-Webster is in the ghetto.
[/quote]
SCREW Merriam-Webster. Their dictionaries suck anyway.</p>
<p>Boballende, if USC was so bad, do you think the parents of 35,000 students would let them go there?</p>
<p>it was in february not November. Of course, Carnegie Mellon did not publish anything on it, but here is the article from a pittsburgh city paper. They said this guy worked downtown too but in the security release they sent to students all but one or two of his muggings were in our area and in the article it is unclear how many robberies they actually charged him for but I am pretty sure it was 26 in the end.</p>
<p>guys, whats going on ... does it matter where a school is situated ... ok, lets be smart abt this... don't walk around outside the school after 10 or 11 at night ... and u'll be fine ... use ur brain ... the school has even got a system where there've got people coming to pick you up .. what more could you ask of them ... if you walk around any city at night, be it new york or chicago and sfo, you're not safe... are people REALLY that thick to comprehend this ...</p>
<p>It's in LA, of course it's not going to be as safe as a little suburb in Connecticut. This stuff happens. It's sad but true. You learn here, basically stick with friends after night, and don't wander around drunk at 4 am by yourself, and you'll be fine. Just use your brain. I admit I've walked at night by myself coming to and from meetings or the library or whatever, and while I shouldn't do that, I have never had any problems. That's not to say it couldn't happen obviously, but the area's not that bad where everytime you step outside alone you're going to be attacked.</p>