Nice to hear. My son is leaning towards Viterbi (computer engineering /science). His alternate is USCD undeclared which he feels is not worth the risk. The other choices are UVA, UC Davis Cs major and Cwru. He is an international students. So fees is high wherever he goes.
We went to visit USC last weekend… and it was amazing! My husband had taken my daughter for her first visit (almost 2 years ago now), so this was my first time on campus. Thanks very much for all the tips on visiting… they were so helpful and our trip went smoothly.
I fell in love with USC right away, but my daughter is still having a bit of hard time deciding. USC is definitely a top choice, but she has a couple other nice options that might be a little “safer” in her mind. She goes to a Catholic high school in the Midwest, and USC is the largest school she is looking at and it is ranked as a top party school. I am confident that with a little work, she could find her people there, but her major concern is fitting in and she’s not sure about the fraternity/sorority scene . She wants to have a lot of fun in college, but not go wild (at least that’s her mindset now). Any thoughts?
FYI - she would be a Marshall/business major.
One of the great things about USC is the overwhelming diversity in terms of its student body make-up and the options afforded to those students. There are literally 100s of student organizations and a multitude of paths that each and every student can select for themselves. It is an elite private university that can feel like such ( and fairly small ) if you so desire. But, it can also feel like a larger public university too if that is more your speed and goal… in terms of its athletic prowess, school pride and plethora of activities. An USC college experience is there to be molded as you so desire.
A ton of students choose to socialize only within their select group of personal friends and not through Greek life at all. The Row is set apart from campus and clearly there as an option for those who feel well suited for such, but there are many who never attend any of those parties.
My older daughter, despite being an actress, was pretty much a social introvert and only hung out with a few close friends. Often, she preferred simply being alone when not engaged in some chosen activity. She only attended a couple fraternity parties during her four years there. My younger daughter was actually in a sorority, but she still only attended 1-2 such parties each year. And there are many USC students who never even step foot on The Row.
USC is quite simply whatever you choose to make it. I would not let a concern about Greek life dissuade you. My younger daughter was very anti-Greek as she enrolled at USC and ended up in a sorority, simply because she ended up making friends with many of them. You can elect to join in, only sample it a bit, or ignore it entirely… as many others do.
Good luck with her decision…
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Is there anyone else here you have not received any, even preliminary, financial aid offer? We badly want to commit but are still waiting, despite all the docs being submitted. The financial office response is discouraging, they say we will not necessarily get the letter by May 1.
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Thanks so much for your insight. That supports what I was thinking too… but it’s nice to hear it from someone who has more familiarity with the University. The setting is beautiful, she’s a huge football girl, and Marshall is a great business school - so if she could find a nice group of friends, I think it would be the perfect spot for her.
All good choices. Good luck to your S! My D declined UCSD as CS chances are very low undeclared.
My D goes to a large catholic school in California. USC accepts a good amount of kids from our high school. No one at our school considers USC a party school. Good luck to your D!
Just to endorse @wwward comments, if you look at the gpa’s of the kids coming in, it is definitely not a student body intent on partying away their college years. The party scene is just louder in terms of attention it draws at any school. And there are some amazing things to do if you want to party in various forms. But the more time you spend there, the more you realize the majority of the kids there are quite studious and focused, with or without partying.
One of mine that went recently graduated was a total engineering nerd/quiet reserved type (mine attended Jesuit hs) and he flouished in confidence and networking. He certainly found a large amazing group of people that are now life long friends in the grown up world of tech jobs. He went to a few football games as a freshman, but his group wasn’t into that going forward. They did like to go to nice dinners on the west side. They signed up to be red carpet walkers a couple times (that was cool) and a million other things they wanted to do. They found their own adventures. The fraternity/sorority scene for two of mine was non-existent, they didn’t give it any attention and it had no impact on them in any regard. Another did occasionally go to parties on the Row, but was never involved in them at all. My D joined a sorority for about 15 minutes, but then got internships and didn’t have time for it so quit (after it cost us a fortune I should add). Everyone finds their own groove.
And the good thing about California and USC specifically, there is no judgement on who you are or what you do. Whatever you may be into (or not), is certainly the way there.
Free to be at USC.
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Love that… we all need to be “free to be”! Thanks so much for your thoughts - I really appreciate it. My D is leaning heavily towards USC… we’re going to sleep on it over the weekend and hopefully pull the trigger next week.
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You’re welcome. I am sure that she would thrive well there too.
I’m an incoming freshman. I got an email on my USC account to “complete an online course on healthy relationships, consent, dating violence, sexual assault, bystander intervention, and university resources and reporting options available through the universitys administrative process and through local law enforcement”
However I couldn’t find the invitation to complete the course. On Trojan Learn it says I don’t have any assigned trainings and when I visited “https://eshc-pncw.usc.edu/rosters.aspx” I also couldn’t find the training.
Is it not there? Is it only 1 training or multiple?
Thank you
It’s a 90 minute workshop. Not sure they are up yet, but they would be here:
WORKSHOP SIGN-UP PROCESS: MySHR
1. Go to usc.edu/myshr and select “Groups/Workshops.”
2. Select either “Trojans Respect Consent” (for first-year students) or “Healthy Relationships” (for second-year students)
SHORTLY BEFORE YOUR WORKSHOP DATE
- You will receive an automated “appointment reminder” from USC Student Health with the name of the workshop facilitator as the provider.
- You will receive the Zoom link at 12am (PST) the day of your workshop.
Does anyone know if a University Grant is renewable? I finally received my FA info and that’s what listed under gift aid.
It is if your financial condition for the family stays consistent. Grants, whether federal or via USC, can rise or fall, depending on how your family’s perceived ability to pay fluctuates over time. So you will have to estimate whether your family’s financial situation is likely to stay consistent or not over the next few years.
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While presenting an outline for the upcoming fall semester, Folt said the university will require all students who intend on attending campus must be fully-vaccinated. USC declared the fall semester will feature a full-return to campus in February.
In another note from the address:
USC’s endowment fund reached $6.9 billion in 2020, a $1.2 billion increase from the year before. The university received $660 million in gifts and pledges from alumni and donors in the past year. Folt said the university will increase its funding of mental health services and university research.
Will be interesting to see how the 1.2 billion settlement will affect giving for the next few years.
I cancelled my annual giving to SC last recently (yes, partly because their inept admissions counselors denied admission to my 36 ACT, 3.97 11 AP senior) partly because I don’t want my donations going to pay for the OB scandal settlement since money is fungible.
My D is a Spring admit to Marshall, is there anything I need to know specifically about Spring admit? Any pros or cons about being a Spring admit? And would also like her to connect with other Spring admits. TIA!
I posted that because I was surprised of such an increase actually. I totally get what you are saying. I wonder how giving will be over the next several years as it seems many high achieving legacy students are being denied more often, and those folks, like yourselves, are the ones that have donated for years. But it seems they somehow always get buckets of money from somewhere. We’ll see.
That’s true-- the big gifts have been from Lord (a quarter billion), Annenberg (120 million), Alfred Mann ( I think also 120 million) and those gifts might be “protected” from the settlement, but again money and donations are fungible to a great degree.
I’m too big of a Trojan to hold a grudge forever and I’m sure that someday I’ll donate again when Helton gets fired and if SC admissions starts accepting the best applicants.
Actually, as I think about it more, as an alum, even completely ignoring my son, despite watching their pleasant instagram videos, I’m not really sure how anyone in the admissions staff survived varsity blues. Even with crew or soccer coaches vouching for the Aunt Becky’s kids they still shouldn’t have been offered admission. I was a tour guide at SC in the 90s, working under Duncan Murdoch and Joel Allen. These were legendary names in higher education admissions who really ushered USC into it’s current highly selective position in academia. Neither of them would have let something like the varsity blues scandal occur. There was a mini-varsity blues scandal with a Walmart heir in the late 90s and she was quickly (and loudly) expelled under their watch.