I was wondering whether or not USC is considered conservative? Is the majority of the student population wealthy? Do they wear a lot of preppy clothing (vineyard vines, j crew)? Or are the people in Greek life the only ones who are preppy? Thanks!
USC is a very liberal school, I get tired of hearing about Bernie. Being conservative just isn’t an openly expressed thing in California, regardless of if you’re rich or not… I only know Claremont Mckenna has a slight conservative lean.
Everyone wears preppy clothes in college. I’m poor and non-greek and wear J Crew. How does that influence anything lol.
And no, the kids here are just as poor as anywhere else. You’ll see that from all the perpetually cracked phone screens and 3 year old iphones. When I got here I was disappointed at the unexpected scarcity of nice cars parked here, cause I’m a car person. Seriously, maybe 1% of kids come from hyper-wealth families, and 25% are from upper-middle class. The rest is on financial aid or half/full tuition scholarships, which matches the statistics they put out assuming no overlap. But you’re right on greeks being from wealther families across the board.
Lol, my adopted son has a cracked iPhone and I just replaced it. He’s become kind of spoiled so do not think for one minute that one’s cracked phone is indicative of poordom. It’s more likely the result of a kid whose parents refuse to accommodate their every want.
P.S.: This is his third cracked phone…what is it with kids dropping expensive phones all the time???
It is because their parents keep replacing it! 
At SC most of the students receive some sort of financial aid. In the freshman class that entered in August 14% were the first in the family to enter college and l7% received Pell Grants. Students come from a wide spectrum of financial backgrounds.
My impression is at SC T shirts and shorts are popular. In the cooler months many students wear jeans and a casual shirt. There are many international students. Some wear native dress on campus.
Check out the webcam views near the site of Tommy Trojan. Individuals pass by and you can see for yourself what students are wearing.
Not conservative, eclectic, yes. There is some amazing wealth there, the top end is way up there. My student’s friend that also attends USC, stays in an apartment in the same building where Elton John and Bon Jovi keep an apartment, and drives a ridiculous car. Hilarious, but gets great dinner reservations all over LA. My other student has made incredibly great connections with very successful (who happen also to be wealthy) families, because successful people like to be around each other. And then there are some without wealth who can also be your best friends and end up equally successful. It’s quite a mix. And California tends to be an accepting bunch. There are 43,000 students there now (way too many frankly) with 32+% being foreign. You will find all kinds. With that many people, there is no single label that could possibly fit.
Be who you are when you get there, then worry about the clothes if that is something important to you.
USC is a very liberal school, along with pretty much every other university in California. if I had to throw out a number, I’d say at least 80% of the students here would identify as liberal
The style of dress is pretty eclectic due to the diversity of the school. The fraternity/sorority people tend to dress a certain way, but it’s not what I would describe as preppy in the traditional sense