<p>Gradcafe shows USC accepts a large majority of applicants to its masters degree programs, almost 9 applicants out of 10 are accepted into its various masters programs. Isn't USC a competitive school??? Why does USC accept 90% of its MS/MA applicants? IS USC a desirable place to get a Masters degree? Is the MS/MA from USC repected by PhD admissions directors at the best programs, e.g. Ivy League-level programs?</p>
<p>I think USC is a good masters program because they have a lot of money to spend on research and their professors are excellent. Engineering in particular is Top 10 in the country. I wouldn’t consider it Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, or CMU material, but USC is pretty strong overall in its Masters.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>Until your post I had never heard of Gradcafe. Visiting the site (maybe that was your point) shows it to be a graduate school version of CC. All the results are self-reported and therefore of extremely limited value. People typically don’t go out of their way to report bad news, so there’s a strong bias toward seeing only good results. For example, if you visit the USC undergrad decision thread here on CC you might, based on the posts, incorrectly assume that the admittance rate was somewhere around 70+% instead of the actual 19%. </p>
<p>You’ve taken flawed data from a single source and jumped to an incorrect conclusion. You’re better off trying to find information directly from USC than relying on anonymous websites (this one included).</p>