<p>I posted this on UNC site so I thought I would post on USC as well </p>
<p>Hi All</p>
<p>I am sure this has been posted before but we would like to hear from some Carolina students and or residents regarding their opinion on this matter. S has decided that he wants to attend college in the south. He has been accepted to USC Honors with guaranteed in state tuition plus more and UNC at full out of state price (we do not get financial aid). UNC has more prestige but does anyone think it worth paying for or better than attending the Honors College at USC? He loves both campuses and plans on majoring in Biology. Any thoughts?? </p>
<p>My D followed the money to USC (didn’t apply to UNC, but was accepted to Duke, UVA, Davidson, WF among others…but little/no money) and she has never regretted it. Yes, UNC is a great school, but I would put the USC honors students against many at more prestigious schools - in fact USC honors scores (midrange) are higher than UNC. It is a great community and great housing. Honors students have an advantage in housing with newer building with nice rooms including options of single suites, great study rooms and hang out areas. D has a great group of friends she made in the HR her freshman year. Some of honors classes meet in the dorm and there are two food options right there. Honors has much better chance of staying on campus as upperclassmen with some space in honors residence or historic horseshoe. D loves living on horseshoe.</p>
<p>It somewhat depends on what your S wants to study. Is he wanting to be premed with biology? Looking on South Carolina Honors College FB page I see almost monthly opportunities for premed speakers, etc. Honors offers maymester terms which is very useful for students who may have trouble going abroad for whole year…several times they’ve offered a medical theme trip to Romania.</p>
<p>My D has loved her honors classes. Even as double major, she completed all honors requirements except sr thesis by end of sophomore year. She has made great connections with faculty in both majors. The extra honors advisement is great. She still prefers honors classes for the interaction…as a 2nd semester junior, 4 of 5 classes are honors - 2 in her major with less than 10 students. She is also doing research with a professor and has a grant to help pay her for this. USC has a great fellowships and scholarships office to help with all that.</p>
<p>Of course, if S is a football fan, USC gets a nod over UNC D is involved in professional clubs, service groups, intramurals, club sports, religious groups and general USC events. She has friends in sororities, student government, ambassadors, etc.</p>
<p>I hope you get a chance to visit again and maybe schedule a chance to sit in on a honors class. There is no bad choice and that’s nice but if grad school is in the future, then I definitely don’t think it’s a sacrifice to pick USC over UNC for money alone.</p>
<p>Sell it scmom12!! I’m going through the same process with my daughter but she is already leaning towards USC … It is my husband who is ‘strongly encouraging’ UNC since he is an alumni and it is closer to home. I need to let him read your comments. </p>
<p>Anyone looking for a very general comparison of the 2 schools- see my post under the McNair Scholarship thread on this topic. </p>
<p>It depends on his career goal and your home state. If he plans on going to med school and you are from a state that sends a lot of students to top 30 U’s your med schools will have a lot of med school applicants from top 30 U’s. If you live between Wash. DC and Boston, or in FL, IL, CA, or TX then go to a top 30 U. If you live elsewhere go to USC. </p>
<p>bud123 that is an interesting concept. So you are saying that since we live in PA that my S should attend a top 30 U in order to be competitive for med schools in our region? Do you think a med school applicant from UNC would be chosen over an applicant from USC honors assuming grades are the same at both schools?</p>
<p>If you are truly concerned about graduate school admission based on your choice of an undergraduate school, you should contact the USC Honors College and ask them to provide you with a list of graduate schools their students have been admitted to in the last few years. I think all schools track this and many have it on the website. In the end, I am not sure the prestige of getting a medical degree at a top 30 school pays off. I have spoken to a few doctors (friends of my family) about this and have been told that the insurance companies dictate their income more than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a degree from Harvard.</p>
<p>IMHO, yes, and yes. If you live in SC then USC-H is your best and safest route to med school. In most states USC-H will place you on even footing with the majority of the med school applicants. But you live in PA. PA med schools will be inundated with applicants from Ivies, top 30’s, top 10 LAC’s, top 10 publics and many quality universities in PA. Don’t get me wrong, the USC-H program is wonderful and the top ranked honors programs. Will the PA med schools know or care about how strong the USC-H program is? Do the SC med schools know or care about Penn State and Pitt or are they looking at USC, Clemson and Furman?</p>
<p>There are some great threads on college confidential about med school and how important the undergraduate school is…you might want to check those out for insight into what med schools are looking for.</p>
<p>i know someone that went to Virginia Tech and is from our area. She got into 2 top med schools in PA. She maintained a 4.0 GPA and did well on her MCATS. Isnt that the bottom line?</p>
<p>My DD was in a similar dilemma last year. She was accepted to Vandy, Emory, UNC, SC Honors, Clemson Honors and a couple more. Ultimately, she thought being a special fish in a large pond might be more beneficial than being just one in the school. (I didn’t intent that to be a pun, but it is apropos!) Also, the academic scholarship at USC was the most generous. Overall, the USC Honors College has met expectations of what was promised. She loves the large school atmosphere. She has gotten involved in new things, found the other students interesting and friendly, and her professors have been responsive & supportive. USC has worked out very well.</p>
<p>I may be able to offer you a unique perspective on this issue. I have a son that is at UNC in their honors program and a daughter that is in SC’s honors college. One of the key differences is UNC’s is a program, not a college. You can take some honors courses at UNC but other than that it’s not that special in my opinion. I like SC’s honors college better in that the majority of their classes are honors with a very small number of students per class. It offers a much more intimate classroom setting. Also, no special housing is offered with UNC’s honors program.</p>
<p>Also at UNC, its extremely difficult to maintain a higher GPA that is needed to get into med school. My son was a Morehead Cain finalist with a 35 ACT including 36s in both math and science and he finds it extremely challenging to get As in their science classes. He is a chemistry major but he said other sciences like biology and physics are also difficult. You will find it much easier to get an A at SC yet you will still get a very good education. Also at SC they don’t give “minuses” so no A-, B-, etc. but they do give “pluses” . At UNC they do give “minuses” which also hurts the GPA. </p>
<p>My son absolutely loves UNC and he has no regrets about going there but I have concerns that their grade deflation in the science departments may hurt his chance for med school. If I could do it over again I would encourage him to go somewhere other than UNC only because of the grading issue. </p>
<p>This is why I sent the post so that I could get an incredible comparison from catdaddy! Thank you so much for sharing your S and D’s experience. Yes I know what you mean about grade deflation because I have friends with kids in similar situations and it really does become an issue with med school. Your comment has significantly swayed our opinion and will share with our S. It also saves us lots of money. Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>I will comment on the “honors college” approach that USC takes. The dorm set up encourages honors students to bond and be kept informed of all the programs the university offers – study abroad, elite scholarships, speakers, research opportunities. I am sure that all the dorms offer programming and activities and any student can get on the mailing lists, but the Honors College staff is strongly encourages and prods their students to do more than just attend class & study. The Honors dorm was the first one on campus designed specifically to encourage student interaction. It worked out well and now other dorms are being remodeled with similar results – the new Patterson is fabulous. When visiting look at the construction. It’s clear that USC has money to expand and improve.</p>
<p>Catdaddy’s point is noted and deserves consideration. Does anyone know the average GPA at USC-H vs UNC-H? If parents know UNC-H is more rigorous than USC-H it’s safe to assume med schools have figured this out as well…but a 3.8 GPA at a grade inflation university will trump a 3.4 at a grade deflation university. Ivy schools figured this out a long time ago and a below average student from Brown with a 3.65 will get in before an above average student from JHU with a 3.30.
Cost must also be considered as med school will set you back $250-300K and the new reality for physicians is increasing overhead and lower compensation.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the average GPA at USC-H versus UNC-H but I saw a stat that the average GPA of Chemistry majors at UNC is approx 2.65. When you consider about 85% of the students that are accepted to UNC are in the top 10% of their high schools and are very bright students, I consider an average GPA of 2.65 to be very low. </p>
<p>2.65? My girls are going to visit unc in a few weeks. They are accepted and we will have to ask them specifically about avg gpas, their med school acceptance rates, etc. </p>
<p>STEM major do get hit in the head with 2x4’s in college and people wonder why we don’t have more students in STEM majors. UNC is a leader in contextual grading to let grad school and employers know how students GPA measures against their classmates taking the same classes. A chem major with a 3.1 GPA may be 0.5 points and 2 standard deviations above average. A humanities major with a 3.4 GPA may be below average.<br>
It’s worthwhile to ask if honors pre-med classes are graded on the same C+ curve as non honors classes. Why would a pre-med at USC take honors classes when he is graded against 1 percenters if he could take non honors pre med classes, be the smartest kid in the class, and breeze through with a 4.0?</p>
D is involved in professional clubs, service groups, intramurals, club sports, religious groups and general USC events. She has friends in sororities, student government, ambassadors, etc.</p>