<p>I live in LA, and almost nobody at my high school is interested in USC. In my three years here, I think a grand total of one person has decided to go there.</p>
<p>Most people at my school think of it as a good school that is ridiculously expensive. It’s a bit better than the smaller UC’s (UCI, UCSD), but it’s really bad value and certainly not prestigious.</p>
<p>It does have football going for it, and many of the smaller sports are also very good - probably close to Stanford and UCLA for best program in the country (in smaller sports). Its basketball team is also decent, middle of the Pac-10, though it doesn’t really compete much with the national powers (like UNC or UCLA).</p>
<p>gadad- i know, and i’m looking at gtech as well as caltech because of it… but out of the 2200 kids at my h.s, i only know 3 even looking at OOS. and money isnt the issue- GHS kids are ridiculously rich parents for the most part.</p>
<p>I’m not going with prestigious since that’s a flame war waiting to happen. But trendiest? As in, a lot of people seem to be applying there above the average? Well…at my area…</p>
<p>Berkeley
UCLA
Cal Tech
CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN LUIS OBISPO
Rice University</p>
<p>Everyone where I live is Stanford crazy.
Like every year tons of kids apply and like maybe 1 a year gets in. Although this is most likely because of the ridiculous amount of Stanford Alumni in the area</p>
<p>Prestige-wise its just the same as everyone else. Harvard, yale,…etc</p>
<ol>
<li>Northeastern - We had 23 kids go this year, from a class of only 311!</li>
<li>UMass Amherst - A safety for the top 10% and many other kids dream of going there. I wish I could’ve offered someone my spot…</li>
<li>BC - Like, the top 20% of the class applied. Everyone loves BC: people who don’t have siblings or alums in the family wear BC shirts to school.</li>
<li>UNH - Strangely enough, we always get 5+ going here…</li>
<li>BU (Go Terriers!) - Not very many kids end up going here, but a lot of people apply.</li>
</ol>
<p>Well, I bet that the majority of people here haven’t even heard about Yale and Princeton. But those who want to go study abroad usually apply to these schools.</p>
<p>Why UCLA students and alumnni are so reluctant to concede that USC has more bright students (higher SAT scores), and more difficult to get in(21% admission rate). Just accept the fact that USC is better than UCLA(according to LA Daily News, Sept. 2006), then you guys will have peace of mind.</p>
<p>**But why do USC students/alumni have such chips on their shoulders? ** They go out of their way to tell EVERYBODY that they’re “prestigious.” They constantly name drop their school’s Top 30 rankings and how they have “better” academics than UCLA and even UC Berkeley. USC students/alumni go so far as to claim that they are rivaling Stanford in academics. <em>seriously rolling eyes here</em></p>
<p>Of the “elite” schools (which by now it looks like all CC posters agree means ONLY Top 30 US News national universities + NYU), seems that Duke and USC students/alumni are the most arrogant and have the biggest chips on their shoulders.</p>
<p>Whenever a Dook student/alumni is talking $hit about their alma mater, just remember, Dook is a perennial safety school for Ivy League rejects.</p>
<p>^^^I think students from Michigan and alumni should also be on the list of people with a chip on their shoulder. The alumni and student on this board are far to defensive . </p>
<p>However
Duke is more selective than Brown, Cornell, and the other lesser Ivies except for Columbia. Only people who don’t go to HYP rely on the Ivy label anyway. Its just a way to piggy back off of their prestige.</p>
<p>It varies of course, but it seems that students and alumni from Top 20 - Top 40 universities tend to be the biggest prestige wh()res and have the biggest chips on their shoulder. </p>
<p>There are exceptions of course. Dook is a Top 10 university, but they constantly feel the need to namedrop that ranking and remind everybody that Dook is prestigious and Top 10. They also have a tendency of denigrating ANY school below Dook’s ranking (the Cameron Crazies are a perfect example of this).</p>
<p>UCLA is solid Top 25, but I think the students there are very chill. However, they seem to have a strong hatred towards USC – and there’s definitely a sense of seething animosity between the two schools. This is in contrast to say Michigan and Ohio State students/alumni who talk smack to each other, but you’ll be surprised that most Ohio State students/alumni concede that Michigan is a stronger academic institution without being jealous or having chips on their shoulder. </p>
<p>I think in terms of having the biggest chips on their shoulders, USC students/alumni are the worse. I think part of the reason is that USC is a johnny-come-lately to the elite university crowd. For years, USC was always derided as University of Second Choice, University of Stupid Chinese, etc. It wasn’t until the last 5 - 10 years that USC has suddenly become this elite university thanks to its surge in the US News rankings. Many USC students/alumni suddenly became intoxicated with this possibility that people are saying USC is elite and all, so their egos get inflated to the point that they start talking $hit about the University of California schools.</p>
<p>Lately the trendy schools have been Stanford, Duke and University of San Diego. Warm climate schools are really popular to apply to but when all is said and done the top students usually end up at U of MN or Madison. There’s only a few who leave for Ivies although a good number get accepted.</p>
<p>“I think students from Michigan and alumni should also be on the list of people with a chip on their shoulder. The alumni and student on this board are far to defensive .”</p>
<p>I think that’s because a large number of people are surprisingly clueless and misinformed when it comes to the top public schools.</p>
<p>trendy as in where everyone applies? or trendy as in where everyone matriculates? or trendy as in where everyone would want to go if they could?</p>
<p>“trendy” as in “I am so cool cause I go to…”
Brown, Duke, Yale, and Penn For the big U’s, and Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, Pomona and Bowdoin for the little guys. Did anyone in my school get in? eh, about six lucky ones out of a hundred (generally good) applicants. One to Brown, two to penn, two to Bowdoin, one to YALE.</p>
<p>at my weird, technical/performing arts high school near nyc, the “trendiest” schools are : </p>
<ol>
<li>RUTGERS … mainly because it’s RUTGERS and it is the only school in NJ besides Princeton they actually bothered to research. A large majority are congregating there. It is a good school but the perception from NJ kids is much different to that of out of state applicants </li>
<li>NYU - a lot of my classmates love the idea of being in the city, the hipness, and the alumni connection. </li>
<li>Columbia - the dream school for the brainiacs. </li>
<li>SVA/Pratt - haven for the artists at my high school </li>
</ol>
<p>i wish my high school had better direction with its students during college admissions. i had to navigate through research all by myself and many of classmates did not have that type of motivation and have wound up in schools they want to transfer out of. i also find it very odd that my classmates were really set on the east coast. my list, if my parents would have allowed, would have expanded to the pacific northwest. it got as far as the midwest but my classmates mainly stayed in the tri state.</p>