UNC-CH or USC(southern california)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
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<p>Hi everyone, I am truly truly torn between these two schools-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Southern California</p>

<p>I am an OOS girl from Florida. I am going to do a pre-law emphasis, and major in philosophy at unc or philosophy politics and law at usc.</p>

<p>WHAT SHOULD I DO? Which school do you think would be better for me? Or which school do you think is better in general? Please feel free to discuss anything from school spirit, location, nightlife, academics, people, campus, food, etc.</p>

<p>Please help me. I visited unc and loved it so much, and I havent and dont think I will get the chance to go all the way to california before May 1st. </p>

<p>What do I do?</p>

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<p>Pluses of USC:

  • better weather
  • better facilities
  • real city
  • much more diverse
  • broader access to culture (especially Asian and Latin American)</p>

<p>Minuses of USC:

  • are mocked widely
  • in very unpleasant part of a big city
  • traffic</p>

<p>pluses of UNC:

  • cheaper (?)
  • better academic reputation
  • very well respected, especially in NC
  • people really love it here (‘school spirit’)</p>

<p>minuses of UNC:

  • sex balance (not sure how this compares to USC)
  • in a bit of a cultural desert (especially, few foreigners around)
  • surrounding area is trees and endless suburbs
  • traffic</p>

<p>On balance, you should go to UNC. The minuses I cited for UNC are mostly just ‘features’ not ‘bugs’ of a college town in this part of the country – and UNC is a great college town.</p>

<p>USC is not just in a big city, though, it’s in a nasty part of a city that lots of people dislike.</p>

3

<p>Much higher travel expense and cost of living with USC. Just considering travel time alone you’d be able to get home for a weekend much more easily (and more often if desired) from Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>As keepit has mentioned, USC is in the middle of a VERY bad part of town. </p>

<p>[Is</a> living around USC safe? (Glendale, Pasadena: 2009, rental, high crime) - Los Angeles - California (CA) - City-Data Forum](<a href=“http://www.city-data.com/forum/los-angeles/93050-living-around-usc-safe.html]Is”>Is living around USC safe? (Glendale, Pasadena: rental, high crime, homes) - Los Angeles - California (CA) - City-Data Forum)</p>

<p>I don’t think that UNC has the need to publish something like this:</p>

<p>[CAPS</a> Website](<a href=“http://capsnet.usc.edu/dps/CrimePrevention/GettingAroundSafely.cfm]CAPS”>http://capsnet.usc.edu/dps/CrimePrevention/GettingAroundSafely.cfm)</p>

<p>USC only guarantees on campus housing for two years. After that you have to move off campus. Most tend to usually end up in either the neighborhood around Figueroa St which is more than a bit sketchy or some venture further down Figueroa near Hope St which has many new apartments. The main caveat with the Hope St area is that these new apartments are VERY pricey.</p>

<p>FWIW…We live in Dallas which is also a big city. Several of my son’s HS classmates went to USC and said they had a very hard time adjusting to the school (and the area around it) and more than once considered transferring during their freshman year. Their parents were very surprised at the difficulty with “fitting in” that they felt. I don’t think you’ll have that problem at UNC.</p>

<p>From a school spirit point of view, UNC has won top honors in the the * Sports Illustrated* “Best mix of athletics and academics” multiple times and is usually right up there rotating with U of Texas for “best school spirit.”</p>

<p>If you were my D I would not want you at USC; without coming off as being too sexist, I’d be very wary of my son going to school there as well but you know how dads are with their “little girls.” ;)</p>

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<p>Hey! I was stuck between USC at some point as well, but for those same reasons stated above, I gladly checked the ‘no thanks, I will not be attending’ box.</p>

<p>I guess it depends on what you want, but for me, it was almost a no brainer. Cali is so much further away, LA is a big, very expensive city to live in, USC may be very diverse, but I also heard a lot of people have problems adjusting, and UNC has a better reputation academic wise anyway.</p>

<p>Go with what your gut is saying though. No matter the pros and cons, I think what your gut tells you is most important. I’ll give you the advice my guidance counselor gave me when I was stuck between two schools- “Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the campus of (college 1). Your parents have just helped you move in and they’re leaving. How happy/excited are you to be there?” Repeat with school 2 (even if you haven’t visited, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures/can conjure up a good image). It helped me! Good luck :)</p>

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<p>I’m stuck between the same two!!! ahh</p>

<p>oh right, i’m your twin hahahahha.
sorry i had to.</p>

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<p>thanks everyone!! Safety is one of my biggest concerns at USC, and im very afraid I will get lost in the big city and be pushed into a competitive spot right when I start college. LA is a tough city my mom grew up there. I love UNC though. I visited that campus and thought it was amazing. I went to the spring football game and got a sneak preview of the games and was exhilarated. My only problem is there are so many more internship and job opportunities in LA than there are in NC. The area of chapel hill and the college town is amazing, but I’m worried about the rest of NC, it doesn’t seem as lively?
Thank you for all your advice, keep it coming, I am still indecisive :(</p>

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<p>by the way sis, you’re really cool</p>

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<p>I don’t think anyone is going to claim that the rest as NC is particularly ‘lively’. NC is a nice place to raise a family, and there is some good stuff here, but the Piedmont is mostly nice small towns and boring suburbs.</p>

<p>LA is a world city, almost (not quite) on a par with New York, London, Paris etc. In comparison (and maybe not just in comparison), Chapel Hill is a backwater.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if it weren’t a backwater then it wouldn’t be such a good college town!</p>

<p>So if the amenities of a big city are important to you, and potentially decisive, then maybe choose USC. On the other hand, UNC is not a million miles away from the big cities on the East Coast, like DC and New York.</p>

<p>The American transport infrastructure sucks, and other than flying there’s no way to get to DC in less than 4 hours, or New York in less than 8 or 9. And flying is horribly complicated here – there is no real public transport to the airport, so there’s a lot of 5am drives to RDU.</p>

<p>I’m rambling now, but I guess I’ll summarise: UNC is better in lots of ways as a college and a town, but USC is in a real city. If a real city is important to you for various reasons, then go USC. You will probably grow more as a person at USC, since in LA there’s much less ‘big fish in a small pond’ syndrome than in Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>But the cost of USC … financial, distance, reputation, and safety … may not be worth it.</p>

<p>Your call.</p>

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<p>I was kinda in the same situation as you a few years back. I had gotten no money for UNC and wasn’t invited to the Honors Program either, while I had been accepted into the Honors Programs at both USC and Vanderbilt with enough merit aid that it would have been a little bit cheaper to go to either of those schools than paying full sticker price at UNC. Luckily, my parents were in a position where money didn’t have to be the deciding factor.</p>

<p>For me, it came down to what I wanted to get out of my college experience. I went and stayed overnight at all three campuses, and UNC felt right for me. USC is in a nice enough area on campus, but two blocks off campus gets sketchy, regardless of what you hear the students there say. Vanderbilt had that same SEC vibe, i.e. very Greek, as Alabama. UNC just felt right and was the right choice for me.</p>

<p>As far as internship and job opportunities go, I’m not too sure about exact stats or anything, but a UNC degree can get you places, both during your undergrad years and after. A friend of mine this year turned down UNC, Stanford, Harvard, and Emory for grad school to be going to Michigan.</p>

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<p>Definitely true, but talking about outliers isn’t very helpful. After all, since Bill Gates dropped out of college and became a billionaire, college doesn’t help you right…</p>

<p>well not quite. Even if people from a given college often do do well, it still might be the case that there are more opportunities and that you are more likely to do well at another place. The name of the game is trying to put things in your favour, so that you won’t have to be that one person everybody mentions.</p>

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<p>so it seems are people are just knocking down USC</p>

<p>1)USC is considered one of the best universities in the country (it is not mocked at all, only by ucla but it is because they are rivals)
2) Umm you guys realize USC is about 5 mins away from the Staples Center/downtown La/Dodger Stadium? Right across the street from Natural History Museum/Science Center. oh and its right next to the 110 freeway. So it is not in a horrible area.<br>
3)they give LOTS of financial aid (more than a public school, especially if you are out of state) so it will probably be the case that usc will be cheaper
4) transportation does suck if you do not have a car, but it is easy to find people with cars/there are the metro lines and city buses
5) it is in LOS ANGELES! there are so many things to do in this city, you would be 30 mins away from the beach and 1.5 hours away from the mountains(snowboarding, skiing, etc), there is always something to do
6) safety, just use common sense, stay in groups if you are going out, dont walk around the streets at night especially if you don’t know the area. almost every school will be “dangerous” but that doesn’t make it bad.
7) sooo much school spirit, great atmosphere and the best alumni family any school has (so great opportunities both before and after graduation)<br>
8) With being in Los Angeles, you can explore a lot of California, such as San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco which I assume you probably haven’t gone to because you are in Florida </p>

<p>UNC is a great school, but I just wanted to make sure you heard good stuff about USC</p>