<p>So I have a friend who is trying to decide between these two schools. Both cost about the same for him b/c of scholarships, etc. and right now he is leaning toward USC because its a private school where he believes is less competition and a better chance of him standing out and gaining acceptance to better med schools. </p>
<p>So is he making a huge mistake, or does going to USC actually make sense for him because if I were him I would have selected UCLA no questions asked....</p>
<p>i would go to usc. privates are great.</p>
<p>he is making NO mistake whatsoever. his thinking is right. in addition to being private and having better advising for pre-med, usc also has grade inflation. i dont know of a pre-med anywhere who complains of having too high gpa. ucla on the other hand has a proven record of being a serial gpa killer.</p>
<p>wow…I really had no idea. Is the grade inflation THAT prominent at USC? And if USC is so great for Pre-Med because of these reasons, why should any student pick a public school like UCLA or Berkeley over private (other than price).</p>
<p>^I guess the only reason someone would choose UCLA or Berkeley over a private is because their private options are way less prestigious. Most would choose UCLA over Montana Christian University (made that up) but the decision isn’t so clear when it’s UCLA vs. USC or UCLA vs. NYU or UCLA vs. Georgetown.
And UCLA is kind of special… It’s in an awesome area and has a great ambiance so it might be chosen over a private just because of that.</p>
<p>i agree w nodnarb.</p>
<p>besides zorro you are jumping topics. you go from ucla vs usc, and generalize to ucla vs any private. e.g., harvey mudd is equally prestigious but it suffers from grade deflation. In most places it may not matter. but med schools routinely use gpa for cut-offs. so usc does make a great choice over ucla anyday.</p>