Having 3 children attend USD (2 have graduated and 1 is a current soph), I can honestly say that their experiences at USD have been remarkable. Our 1st son chose USD over several other “higher ranked” institutions including UCLA, USC and UC Berkeley because of the small-school vibe, the location, the friendliness of students and faculty when he visited, and the 4-year presidential scholarship he received. Our 2nd son saw what a wonderful undergraduate experience his brother was having so he, too, chose to attend USD over many other schools as well (fortunately he also received a presidential scholarship). The class sizes are very small, the faculty truly enjoy teaching students and are always accessible, and there is so much collegiality among the students to help one another succeed. With no grad students, everything happens with the professors so students truly can learn from the best in their fields. Also, the research opportunities are abundant as the professors are constantly looking for undergrads to participate in research which gives them experience that would be much more difficult at larger institutions with grad students getting the research positions. I know my Mechanical Engineering son began research as a sophomore and was able to present a poster at a research symposium in LA during his junior year! Both of our graduates secured well-paying jobs during their senior year, well before graduation, and I have no doubt that will happen with our current sophomore as well. And both of our sons have several friends who were admitted to many medical schools, law schools and PhD programs.
San Diego is an amazing city, the USD campus is beautiful and the students always seem very happy! I know our college counselor during high school stated in her many years of helping high school seniors across the country with college apps, USD has always had the “happiness factor” and her students have never regretted their decision to attend USD.
Academically, the curriculum is plenty rigorous, and our students have worked extremely hard. But they have maintained a good balance between their school and social life, especially being in beautiful San Diego and living at the beach for 2 years (not very many schools in the country have that as an option!)
All in all, I have been very impressed with USD. This time of year there is always much anxiety as high school seniors must make those difficult decisions on where to spend their next 4 years. All factors should be considered including affordability, school/class size, location, available major, undergrad research opportunities, graduate TA’s teaching sections etc. The USNWR rankings and other ranking models should be least important!
In the end, our USD experience has been an excellent education with happy, well-adjusted young adults with lifelong connections and well-paying jobs. We are very thankful for USD!