<p>hmm...
USC
Pros
USC is closer to home.
Cons
USC had that recent issue with those 2 interenational students.
Outside USC..its not that great.</p>
<p>UCSD
Pros
UCSD is fresher...</p>
<p>Cons
UCSD is 2 hours away.
Housing would be so much more expensive.</p>
<p>Unsure...
I'm unsure which one is more renowned.
I also heard that for my specific family income..I would get almost a free ride to USC if accepted. I'm sure that both have strong EE programs, but i wanna see if ne one knows more of the details.</p>
<p>I think you heard wrong. I doubt USC will give you a full ride because of your family income. It’s a private college so they don’t determine scholarships on need-based.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you would get the idea that private colleges don’t give need based financial aid. That is SO not true. In fact some private colleges can be even more generous with need based aid than public universities. It depends on how healthy the private college’s endowment is.</p>
<p>ya…that’s what my friend did…
she has a similar family income like mine and she only has to pay like 3000 for her books and stuff rather than the 40k tuition per year…
She said she didnt apply to any scholarship and that they just gave it to her… =_=
Her gpa i think was around 3.7 and mine is around a 3.6…hopefully the cutoff isn’t in the middle.
If that’s true…then the cost of UCSD is actually higher than USC…accounting for off-campus housing vs my parents.</p>
<p>I doubt that USC would be more generous than the public school systems though if you’re low income</p>
<p>USC has one of the highest financial aid ratios in the country and they guarantee to meet 100 percent of their own determination of your need. In other words you can get a full ride if you and your family are seriously very low income. That said, it is easy to misunderstand their offer system and think that two kinds of aid can be combined when they can’t. For example if you get a USC scholarship, that is deducted from your “need” amount and the rest of your financial aid will be determined based on your reduced cost. So if you don’t take that into consideration, it may seem like you are being offered more aid than you really are. But yes, USC is most definitely in a position to be more generous than UCSD, especially if you are poor AND brilliant.</p>
<p>The only sad part about this is that I only found out about css profile on june 1, but I filled out my fasfa…:[
I can’t explain what i’m feeling right now…
no financial aidd… nooo USC T=T
What’s the difference between CSS profile and fasfa?
I heard that CSS take more of what you invest in and whatnot.
My parents don’t own much because we’re poor…</p>
<p>I never applied to USC in high school from what numerous people have told me in the past because of the cost, while I knew my costs for attending a UC would be very low. If USC truly did offer virtually a full ride based on low-income, i definitely would have applied. I know other privates such as Harvard had implemented a system not too long ago where those who’s family were really low-income would get a full ride, but never heard this about USC.</p>
<p>I always thought USC’s main consideration were on your grades/scores as well as factors such as whether your parents attended USC, etc.</p>
<p>Quite a few private colleges use the CSS but not all. The schools that require it should tell you about it in the application and I think there is still a small charge for submitting it to each school, just like the SATs. There is a lot of online info about the differences but basically the CSS is more specific and takes things like your parents’ home equity into the formula.</p>
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<p>Can we stop spreading lies. USC does offer need-based scholarships. Thanks.</p>