<p>It’s a good point: in general in the long run, the school that one attends has a negligible effect on one’s abilities and success. Your professional results <em>absolutely</em> rest on your shoulders; some people could go to Chicago and flounder and others could probably go to USC and prosper. It all depends on you.</p>
<p>"in some academic areas USC is far and away superior to Chicago. "</p>
<p>Okay let’s not get carried away. And I misunderstood 128K!!! </p>
<p>Go Trojans.</p>
<p>$128,000 is a LOT of money!!! Plus you will start to incur
Interest on that amount the minute you graduate. Don’t be
foolish . NO university can guarantee you a job. Get a great education
at USC and graduate at age 22 with the peace of mind that only comes with being debt free. Go to Chicago for grad school, if you need to. Do great at USC and you can be accepted at any top grad program .</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information and advice. We are visiting USC this weekend.</p>
<p>If money is not an issue, I would pick U Chicago. USC is a good school, but it’s the same caliber as Chicago</p>
<p>Hi,
I know this post is old, but I’ve been accepted to UChicago and I was just notified that I’m up for the Trustee Scholarship. I’m also a NMSF. I was wondering, does USC give all Trustees that are also NMF the extra 8k? I don’t think it mentions that anywhere on their scholarship website. Also, what did you end up picking? And did you find the Trustee interview process scary/difficult at all?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Sorry, I guess I should say “what did your son end up picking” and “did your son find the interview process scary/difficult at all” since the OP is a dad.</p>
<p>Chicago is far & away the best school, but USC can be very good in various areas & the offer looks great; Fordham is better than it used to be, but not an elite school like Chicago.</p>
<p>“I was wondering, does USC give all Trustees that are also NMF the extra 8k?”</p>
<p>you get an additional 1000/yr from USC in addition to the Trustee scholarship.
and the interview is no big deal- just be SURE you closely review your application and essay, as they usually do ask questions that relate to your applicaton. Relax and good luck </p>
<p>DS was accepted at both Chicago and USC, with a Trustee scholarship and chose to go to USC. No regrets. He graduated in May and is now at CalTech starting his PHD. His roommate is now a Churchill Scholar at Oxford and will be getting his PhD in computational Neuroscience at Princeton. His other roommate is at MIT studying for his PhD in EE.
A great student can get an absolutely top notch education at USC that will prepare you for anything. Nothing beats not having to pay 00 tuition!</p>
<p>menloparkmom, perhaps a better measurement would be where USC would be in its bac recipients through to STEM PHD completions, numbers and %‘s. If you have this statistic, this would be much more of a viable presentation, though your son’s and his roomies’ accomplishments are noteworthy.</p>
<p>I would recommend Uchicago if you can easily afford 18k and your kid actually wants to go there, if not USC is a fine option (and fordham after that).</p>
<p>Not really sure about the relevance of this thread anymore. The OP moved on. Why not start a new thread? </p>
<p>Fwiw, Fordham is an outstanding school. Mario Gabelli gave the business school a 25 million dollar gift and they are renovating a beautiful gothic building to be exclusively for Gabelli Business School. Fordham has fabulous faculty. But its really about contacts in Manhattan. Internships. Fordham also has a campus for its business school in Beijing. </p>
<p>So it depends on where you want to end up living and working, to a large extent.</p>
<p>I am sorry, but where you did get the idea that Chicago is $32,000 out of the pocket? With $18K/year scholarship you pay $41,000, live on campus. I have the bill to prove it.</p>
<p>USA full tuition +8K wins. </p>
<p>But I believe Chicago is a better school. My firend’s D got 5 IB offers when she graduated this year, all over the USA, Wall Street Firms, including New York and SF. She choose SF, since its close to home.</p>
<p>U of Chicago, a beautiful school, is higher ranked than USC, but the schools have such a different feel from each other, but are realistically close enough in the overall rankings, that any decision should be made on the particular program the student is interested in; money; and fit.</p>
<p>^^^ agreed.</p>
<p>Long time reader and have gone through similar detailed deliberations at home with my DD. I felt that I could add some fact based $.02 given that I live in one of the stated regions. Even though the decision has been made here, I felt compelled to weigh in relative to Fordham. </p>
<p>Career-wise: If he thinks his career will put him in NYC or companies that are based in NYC, then he cannot beat the Fordham Alumni Network which is so deeply entrenched in all upper areas of NYC business, and law. They are known as being staunch, generous, fervent and zealously devoted to each other; and a simple email has been enough to get innumerable grads interviews at good to top firms. There is more of a loyalty and lifelong spirit/commitment than the more generic NYC based schools (lacking any true driving ethos or cohesion) barring Columbia. The fact that they raised over $1.7 billion in this economy to rebuild their Lincoln Center Campus shows exactly how dedicated and focused the alumni are. Linkedin search for Fordham people in NYC provides a good empirical analysis.</p>
<p>Academically: You just cannot beat a Jesuit based education, and Fordham is one of the purest, most demanding and holistically intact Jesuit schools in the nation. If you want to enter grad school, the skill sets you will obtain will serve you very well. When you mention Fordham, the traits of being hardworking, intelligent, disciplined, diligent, socially and ethically minded (a person for others) come to mind. The rigorous critical thinking skills you walk away with are just second to none and will be transformative, not just informative.</p>