<p>Am I one of the only people who just stepped onto the UCLA campus and said, "I feel RIGHT here"?</p>
<p>I didn't spend hours pouring over statistics. I didn't judge them by merit scholarship $$$ (and trust me, I got plenty from USC...). I just headed up Bruin Walk, stood in front of Powell for 10 minutes, and decided I was at the right place.</p>
<p>Excuse me for being a little cheesy and less scientific, but I really had to throw in my two cents.</p>
<p>Michelle</p>
<p>
[quote]
but the analogy with CAL/TAMU make little sense
[/quote]
</p>
<p>that was the point. that a place with a better alumni network, more school pride, and easier to obtain GPAs isn't necessarily the better school.. or better investment. </p>
<p>--</p>
<ol>
<li>i ask though... many say there's not much of a difference between UCB and UCLA in terms of undergrad education. and many say there's not much of a difference between UCLA and USC nowadays. so my question is, is there not much of a difference between UCB and USC? that's what i find hard to understand. if the gap between UCB/UCLA and UCLA/USC are small, then added together, it still should be insignificant. maybe USC is a top 20 school and almost as good as berkeley after all? </li>
</ol>
<p>stanford > caltech > usc > berkeley > ucla right?</p>
<p>or do i have some faulty logic here?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>i also meant professional schools when i said grad schools. law schools, medical schools, etc. </p></li>
<li><p>GPA is just a cutoff. it's not like they hire all the 3.6's above the 3.4's. if you have a decent GPA, you make the cut and you get offered an interview. from there on, GPA doesn't really matter anymore.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Am I one of the only people who just stepped onto the UCLA campus and said, "I feel RIGHT here"?</p>
<p>I didn't spend hours pouring over statistics. I didn't judge them by merit scholarship $$$ (and trust me, I got plenty from USC...). I just headed up Bruin Walk, stood in front of Powell for 10 minutes, and decided I was at the right place.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>haha, for the most part, that was me too. i stepped onto the UCLA campus and felt right at home, and that made a huge difference. i didn't look at US News, and I didn't go here on CC to ask for info. i came onto CC AFTER i made my decision about college, and i'm glad i did! sometimes, this place just doesn't line up with reality. </p>
<p>another thing, college is supposed to be one of the best times of your life. so why not choose a college where you think you'll fit in and have fun, whatever the definition of those may be? and for this, i think for most, you can't go wrong choosing between ucla or usc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
that a place with a better alumni network, more school pride, and easier to obtain GPAs isn't necessarily the better school.. or better investment
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The parity in academics between CAL and TAMU is too significant to overcome whatever Texas A&M excels on. But if two schools are too close a call, those benefits beside classes will be factors for many people, and should be.</p>
<p>
[quote]
2. i also meant professional schools when i said grad schools. law schools, medical schools, etc
[/quote]
</p>
<p>USC's law school placement is ok, but I am not sure about med school although I knew people went to UCSF, UCLA medical school. At USC, a lot of people are majoring in business, communication, engineering, film/theater/music, it is really unnecessary to go to grad schools. But I do applaud for people who aim high.</p>
<p>You said it right, GPA is a cutoff.</p>
<p>I think the graduate school placement thing is somewhat misleading as USC and UCLA, although extremely similar in more ways than many would like to admit, tend to have different focuses. The bulk of UCLA's top 10 programs are in the hard academic disciplines and students tend to have a liberal artsy focus. Anecdotally, the vast majority of my UCLA friends' post grad plans involve graduate school for their major. On the other hand, USC's top 10 generally the professions, and the students seem much more pre-professional. At UCLA, the two most popular majors are economics (of the academic sense) and political science. At USC, they are business administration and comm. As I type this from the library right now, I'm overhearing two students talking about their summer internships at Houlihan (an investment bank). Here, the vast majority of my friends plans involve which big 4 accounting firm they're shooting for, or which ibank will put them on the fast track to business school. Of course, I'm a business major so what I hear is a little skewed, but again, it's the largest major.</p>
<p>I would also debate the notion that UCLA has a bigger East Coast name. Being from California, we all know of UCLA and give it due reverence as a highly rated UC, and one that I'm sure many of us applied to. However, USC, as a private school, draws applicants from a national pool and subsequently, I would think many more students nationally would recognize it. My four roommates are from Dallas, Chicago, South Bend Indiana (how funny), and suburban Florida. I had to laugh when one told me yesterday that, being from out of state, he just learned that San Diego was south of here. Each tells me they were all congratulated by their HS classmates for getting into a difficult school, one that was highly-regarded by their classmates. Further, the prominence of USC's alumni networks in New York and DC (#'s 2 and 3 in size, respectively) promote the name. I remember getting more than just a few "fight on!"s walking around midtown NYC last april in a cardinal USC tee.</p>
<p>But as kfc4u said, they're both really great schools and you can't go wrong. It would be challenging to find a substandard department at each school, and both have renowned social atmospheres despite being so academically strong. Both degrees will likely net you a lucrative amount of money after graduation, assuming you worked hard. Both are big enough names to get you into the very best graduate schools. Both are very diverse (economically as well as socially), no matter what some will say. They're arguably the two greatest sports schools ever (UCLA leads in NCAA titles, USC leads in overall sports titles as well as men's NCAA as well as olympians, gold medals, yada yada yada...). Both have student bodies who do amazing things for the community. UCLA was recently ranked #2 in some poll that took into account things like this while TIME and the Princeton Review authored articles calling USC "College of the Year" (and this is not an annual recurring thing) for the breadth of its community outreach and involvement programs, and the fact that 70%+ of Trojans do community service projects. Both are huge (though one tries its hardest to seem small) and will offer seemingly limitless opportunities. </p>
<p>So don't feel bad about going to UCLA... except on December 3rd. And you're always welcome to drink over here in University Park.</p>
<p>Including December 3rd.</p>
<p>about the whole east coast name thing...</p>
<p>i think you're making a similar argument as i did with grad school placement. not many people from out-of-state apply to UCLA (and UCB too). why? is it because they're not popular? i dont think so. i think it's a combination of how they admit very few out-of-state students, thus making admissions standards tougher, and also because most would rather attend a private school rather than pay a private school-like tuition to go to a public school. </p>
<p>so like how you said UCLA is more successful at grad school placement because that's what people aim for, i say UCLA is less successful at drawing out-of-state applicants because their appeal isn't meant to be for out-of-state students. </p>
<p>but that doesn't make UCLA (or UCB) not known in the east coast. </p>
<p>anyway...... i'm wasting my friday debating another fruitless ucla vs. usc debate. seriously, you can't go wrong going to either, so just make the best out of wherever you end up and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>ya this is an endless e-debate.</p>
<p>ok, for a out-of-state student who wants to major in communications, is ucla or usc harder to get into? i've heard that ucla is usually harder, but usc is easier on out-of-staters since they're private.</p>
<p>UCLA is definitely harder to get into from out-of-state. Our admit rate is 21.7% and the out-of-state applicant pool is probably more qualified as well. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It really depends on what you'd like to do...USC rocks UCLA for Film Studies.</p>
<p>Film production, yes, but film studies, even if USC is better, the gap is small. As it is for many areas. Let the thread die.</p>