Thank you! I think Birnkrant has all the qualities for my kid, and it’s good to know there is the practice lounge. I was overwhelmed with the housing materials this morning, and my brain just couldn’t track that it said that.
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CC threads in the past, back in 2013 and 2014, prepared my older daughter well for the freshman housing situation. She also used CC back then to locate a prospective roommate for freshman year… and then they both requested Webb and got it as their first choice. She preferred the idea of an apartment versus a dorm and loved it there… A/C, private bath, kitchen, living room. She chose Century for her sophomore and junior years for the same reason.
But it is great to see so many options available to freshmen currently… traditional residence halls (dorms), suites and even apartments again. Some freshmen clearly prefer the dorms due to the likely true impression that dorm-life may enhance their social-life, but that’s actually of course available to all freshmen regardless of their housing assignment. My daughter chose A/C & extra space & conveniences over dorm life. You can always of course go to a dorm or party elsewhere, but then you at least get to return to your larger apartment. At least that was her logic.
Many of her friends instead chose dorms and had great experiences. Some did complain occasionally about the lack of A/C. That was especially true when visiting her apartment - as they then realized what they were lacking.
But that is the great thing about USC Housing… lots of options and the ability to choose among them. We live in FL, and personally I cannot imagine any apartment or dorm, even in L.A., without A/C. But to many others, they cannot imagine being anywhere else but at a traditional dorm environment like Birnkrant.
Many thanks for the housing and schedule information. Looks like the orientation calendar is not out yet. Hope we can make it to one of the sessions.
So we got on the application portal and what are the affixing “WS” under room preference mean?
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Anyone is offered Viterbi Pathways Program (VPP)? What is the point of this?
Gateway apartments (right on the edge of campus) has Thornton’s official music practice rooms.
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Thornton has designated, soundproof rooms with pianos etc subleased from the Gateway apartment complex which is right on the edge of campus.
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I have it. Are you Legacy or high stat student? I have been rejected at school at USC level and the interviewers just frankly told me that I am more qualified than other applicants at the school so it is a yield rejection.
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ws = With sink
Oh ya, forgot about those, but most of the dorms have a room(s) too which is convenient. 
Hi there! We are currently out of the country on vacation but have been trying to log on (unsuccessfully) since it’s been open. Now it doesn’t say “high traffic” or “service unavailable” on the page, but there is no option or link to fill out the application. It just says “you are not currently in room” under the Current Housing Assignment. Are we not going to be able to sign up today at all? We’ve been trying to refresh the page ever since it opened. Not sure what next steps are…. This is a bit frustrating…
i wouldn’t refresh, but copy & paste the link again…it kept bringing back to the unavailable page when i was refreshing. Did you set up your account with password already?
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Yes, logged in and it says
Welcome to the USC Housing application portal! On the top of the page.
Did we do this wrong?
Does anyone have experience with Thematic Option? My son is weighing whether to apply, but hasn’t found much info online about T.O. thus far…
Yes, both offered TTP. My oldest was on board until she was at her current school for a full semester and ended up loving it. She didn’t want to leave the friends she made. We were hoping she would be happy wherever she chose- so ended up being a great outcome.
My current student is not ready to have the talk about the TTP option. She’s still processing.
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I used to teach TO at USC in the early 2000s. Basically, it’s an interdisciplinary honors level program, comprised of faculty from different departments, as well as writing instructors. In the past, students would attend a lecture with a USC professor. Then, they would also attend a writing seminar and write rhetorical analysis based on the lecture materials, led by a USC composition instructor. In addition to lectures, and small composition classrooms, there are also evening activities, like movies, and discussions, or debates, and field trips. In the past it used the core curriculum model and classic literary and philosophical texts. It also meets the composition requirements and some GE requirements at USC.
From the website: Each year, 200 freshmen participate in this interdisciplinary core curriculum. “T.O.” - as it’s commonly called around campus - offers small classes with some of the University’s best undergraduate teachers and a hand-picked group of writing instructors. The classes are stimulating, and the faculty are brought together with students for a variety of evening events including films, dinners, speakers, performances, and field trips. The intellectual community fostered by common coursework and evening events helps bright students find their peers and a sense of their own place during those crucial first few freshman weeks.
Thematic Option’s curriculum consists of honors-level interdisciplinary courses taught around distinct themes, through which you will satisfy USC’s general education requirements. Your T.O. classes will ask you to consider the big questions, such as: Is there such a thing as human nature? How have conceptions of justice changed over time? Is there order in history? How do we define progress? What is the nature of truth? Where does knowledge come from? As you pursue possible answers, you will learn about broad ethical issues and approaches to historical change. As issues of epistemology, representation, and social construction emerge from your studies, you will be challenged to reconceptualize the world and your role within it.
Thematic Option’s writing program consists of two writing seminars supplemented with biweekly one‐on‐one tutorials. The first semester writing course focuses on the relationship between critical thinking and analytic writing. The second course is aimed at developing your capacity to address specific audiences and convey complex ideas persuasively.
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@AquaticLibrarian Amazing post! Thank you. After my D did TO, I would have just wrote a lot more in depth reading and writing with smaller classes, lol. Appreciate the thorough response to a question that gets asked a lot every year.
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Definitely a great post!
My son is a sophomore TO student at USC. A love of reading and writing is important based on his descriptions of the TO classes he has taken thus far. They are generally small classes (10-ish students) on par with a small, liberal arts college format of reading, discussion, and analysis. He found the TO classes to be VERY challenging from the perspective of the level of expectations of the writing (but also very interesting). The TO classes are NOT “easy As” by any means.
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Not everyone gets it. I don’t know specifics (although it’s been discussed earlier in this thread so you could try searching here), but basically they will take you after you spend a year elsewhere taking certain classes and getting a minimum GPA.
You have to click the link on the top left of that page that says housing application
Are you driving down this weekend? If so, please drive carefully and pay attention to Cal Trans alerts. They tweeted this afternoon that they expect snow and ice on the Grapevine. Also, a portion of southbound I-5 near Castaic is collapsing. Landslide on 5 Freeway through the Grapevine near Castaic partially closes freeway; large chunks of asphalt seen sliding down - ABC7 Los Angeles
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