Hello everyone, I got into USC (East Asian Languages and Cultures) and UCSD (Linguistics). Both campuses seem great so I have difficulty choosing one…Although the campus at USC appears to be more active, lively, I feel like as an international student with Japanese and Taiwanese backgrounds, it is less meaningful to study East Asian languages and cultures under Western influence/education (?). If I do end up at USC, I feel like I will need to apply to double major with linguistics to make it more beneficial to find jobs once I finished undergrad (I want to teach linguistics with emphasis in Chinese in the future either as a high school teacher or ultimately a university professor [planning to continue until receiving doctor degree in linguistics]) Although the campus at USC is attractive, my research indicates that UCSD has a decent linguistics major with complication with neurobiology which adds diversity to the degree. However, the title of “University of California-Socially Dead” to a certain degree discourages me to accept the admission and the college I’m assigned to (Revelle college) also has a reputation of being terribly hard to graduate with high GPA. If possible, I’d like to transfer to UCLA, which has the world’s 2nd best applied linguistics major, in the beginning of my sophomore year but perhaps the low GPA (assuming Revelle is indeed too hard especially with required GE with physics, calculus, and chemistry…) will set me at a disadvantage to be admitted as transfer to UCLA? Thank you for your time and I’m really grateful with any help I can receive!
UCSD and USC are ranked 31st and 37th respectively for linguistics by the QS rankings. That’s so close that I’d consider it a wash. If you’re planning to pursue a career in academia, you might prefer the more research-focused linguistics program at UCSD which is also closely affiliated with the department of cognitive science. I can tell you that the “UC Socially Dead” stereotype is just a stereotype, and that if you’re good at meeting people and making friends you won’t have any trouble doing so. Revelle College is hard; it’s not impossible, but the HUM sequence will probably bring down your GPA a bit. Attending either school is going to make it hard to transfer to UCLA, but the UCLA website notes that “We give highest priority to students who are transferring from California community colleges or other University of California campuses.”