<p>I was present at a talk given by Steven Sample as he spoke to a Parents’ group early this year. He talked about the current economic conditions and said that the loss of endowment does not affect the university’s operation as much as other schools because USC is less endowment dependent and more tuition dependent.</p>
<p>A quick Google search shows several links to support this.</p>
<p>China’s one and only ruling party is Chinese Communist Party (CCP). CCP has a Publicity Department, also called Propaganda Department by people, whose role is to control media. It is believed that they hire hundreds of thousands of web security staff to monitor all important media outlets, discussion forums, and other online communities. Not only do they propagate their doctrines, sell lies, they also DELETE/CLOSE inappropriate posts against the party. </p>
<p>Not sure how your post is related to this topic. If you can further your thinking to find some “evidence” to prove your implied points, you may arrive at the level of SAM LEE. I don’t think your questions are well thought, but I am a nice person …</p>
<p>(1) Where did you get USC’s graduating class 3x that of the freshmen class. Did you ever even think about whether that is possible?</p>
<p>(2) Why a NMF finalist mean a high SAT? Who said USC focus on high test score, but what’s wrong with that? What do you know about the 20-30 ranked private colleges, and what do they focus on? I really think the question of yours is naively brought up.</p>
<p>(3) USC knows its position, and the scholarship students are ivy-quality students that help elevate USC’s stature. Again, what do you know about “top-30” and “mid-50”? This becomes funny to me - hearsay and unsubstantial personal perception become facts to you. Please stop pretending to be an expert in something you don’t know. A lot of schools send out free money to get students they could not get, not necessarily in the form of scholarship. Stanford cuts tuition for many of its students. You don’t think they are stupidly generous, do you? They want to get the students who may go to other elite schools. CalTech’s most undergrads are getting some free money. Their dorms are incredibly nice, and incredibly cheap. If UCLA and Berkeley are not cheap, you think they can get top notched students? Every school has their own way of competitiveness. </p>
<p>(4) I vaguely remembered the incident you have a lot of “thoughts” about. First I want to say don’t believe a media report 100%. As far as I’ve known, that is a small department at USC trying to talk to some of UCLA’s faculty privately, but our president stopped it after knowing of it. It is certainly NOT the practice of the school. Plus that was a failed attempt. But from your mouth, it becomes “the scale that USC does”. If you have the ability looking deep into facts, you will find most of USC’s successful recruiting of senior faculty are from a diverse group of schools, and RARELY from UCLA. Instead, UCLA stole a couple of USC’s top professors to resurrect/establish their rundown programs. Frankly speaking, but purely my opinions, USC doesn’t have the appeal to elite professors of UCLA, and most of non-elite UCLA professors are of little use to USC. </p>
<p>Don’t be obsessed with USC. And try to get more facts and give it more thoughts.</p>
<p>to qualify to be a NMF you need to score very high on the PSAT in relation to the rest of the country so if you can score high on the PSAT chances are very high that you will score high on the SAT as well</p>
I have little idea about NMF, but how many students actually take PSAT, what kind of correlation between PSAT and SAT score? Personally, I believe USC want to get students with high score (who doesn’t?), but that can be achieved during admission process. To award a NMF finalist is more likely a way to promote the school among future seniors. According to my knowledge, the number of NMF who actually got the half tuition is not high, which won’t affect the school’s average that much. Correct me if I am wrong. </p>
<p>
The 1.64 is obtained when you compare the 2008 graduating class with 2008 freshman class. I remember USC is reducing its freshman class over the recent years. Furthermore, not all transfers are from community colleges. Some are from other 4-year university, or overseas. Considering the dynamics of retention rate and graduation years, it is not that easy to evaluate the impact of transfers. </p>
<p>Anyway, the verdict is GrooyGeek is one level below Sam Lee in thinking skill.</p>
<p>‘According to my knowledge, the number of NMF who actually got the half tuition is not high, which won’t affect the school’s average that much. Correct me if I am wrong.’
Every NMF student who matriculated at USC AND remembered to notify NM that USC was their first choice before the May deadline received a 1/2 tuition scholarship. If they forgot the last step, then they were out of luck.</p>
<p>I wish to respond to the topic of USC ranking and transfer students. USC has limited on campus housing for freshmen which limits the size of the freshmen class. However, the university, due to its size and scope of programs, has room for more students than admitted in the freshmen class. Therefore, since many of the original freshmen go on the junior year over seas programs, housing becomes available off campus for in-coming transfer juniors. Since nearly everyone lives off campus and/or driving distance during the senior year, it really does not greatly impact the number of transfer students. It makes excellent business sense to fill up the classrooms with transfer students who do not need on campus housing. Also, I think USC strives for high performing transfer students who truly want to be at USC.</p>
<p>i’d like to say something about the merit scholarships usc gives out. a lot of people are debating whether or not this happens. as someone who was accepted to usc and many other similarly ranked universities, i know that usc gives more merit scholarships. many of the schools into which i was accepted, such as tufts or barnard, said directly that they give ZERO merit scholarships.</p>
<p>however, i’d like to refute the idea that this is a bad thing. as someone whose FAFSA came out tens of thousands of dollars higher than i expected or could afford, USC was the only top-ranked school i could even consider attending. usc is making an excellent decision in offering merit scholarships. even the schools that supposedly meet all “demonstrated need” are losing many middle class students. now i plan to be a proud trojan, only because usc actually offered me a package that didn’t involve $120,000+ of debt.</p>
<p>Hehe, I used to get anxious about rankings and how we should be included on the top college list, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Then I came to school here last year. My roommate and one of my closest friends is an architect, another close friend an engineer, I know a good amount of the freshmen BFA kids, a few in Thornton, alot of film students and a ton of pure science/premed students, I’m an IR major. I probably have it the easiest of all my friends being in the college, at least right now, yet my first IR class was with Lamy, a man whose not only worked in DC with high ranking government officials, but is a lead contributor in the field of IR Foreign Policy traditions and analysis. I’m no architect but from the all nighters and the amount of time my roommate and some of our arch friends put in, I know they aren’t getting any easy work, and if I were to say that about my engineer friend I’d just be a damn liar. My film school friends have learned from real directors and screenwriters, my friend who plays guitar is taking lessons on campus from some famous spanish guitar player.</p>
<p>I have no doubt in my mind after being here that our ranking is undoubtedly deserved, and so now I can laugh at threads like the USC ranking rigging and us not being in the top picks.</p>
<p>You know what can’t be laughed at? The diversity that presents each Trojan a new experience with a person from outside of their traditional world every day, or the ability to walk into a job and already have a hook just because you are a Trojan. The myriad of professors ranging from former CIA agents in the IR department to world class Physicist in the Engineering departments are also nothing to laugh at, because even with the “adjusted” number to the NAE we still have more than most universities period. </p>
<p>I find it funny that people who don’t attend USC so vehemently hate against it. The athletic schools hate us for our football team, the intellectual schools have somehow determined that our student body isn’t as qualified as we scoop up more talent and consistently get job offers based on a strong network found only at our school. </p>
<p>It would get me mad like I’m sure it’s got some people, but then I wake up and realize…damn it feels good to be a Trojan ;).</p>
<p>Hello,
Thank you. I wish you would start a new thread about academic rigor or similar topic and make some of the same points you have written on this post. I would enjoy seeing your comments in a more prominent place.</p>
<p>Hyakku – What you say about USC is absolutely dead on. I echo Georgia Girl that I’d love to see you start a thread about USC and mentioning what you say above. There needs to be a counter balance to the vendetta that Dooley has against the school – really how unprofessional to post an inflamatory thread on a permanent spot at the top of the USC board. I’d love to know why he hates USC so much. Must have been rejected or had his kids rejected. Anyway…good to hear your thoughts above. I imagine he’ll delete this post like he has in the past…apparently this is an open forum unless you dare to criticize the administrator’s unprofessional actions.</p>
<p>I am not sure about stealing faculty but I do know that, according to the television news, with the huge financial hit that is coming to the UC and Cal State schools they expect a brain drain to occur both in the graduate school and among the faculty. At least that is what I heard on the Bay Area news last night.</p>
<p>I will second or third the comments re: Hyakku’s post. My oldest D went to USC and received a phenomenal education (just graduated last year) and made contacts/interacted with many top people in their fields. She was studying Business with an Entertainment concentration. I remember one class when they brought in over the semester the entire production staff/writers/business folks/several actors from Little Miss Sunshine to explore the production of a film from script concept to theatre. It was first rate all around. My youngest D was accepted to USC for this coming year, but decided on a different school (I am still in mourning over it). I am a firm believer that students can get whatever they want from their education, somewhat regardless of where they end up, if they are dedicated and diligent. You can be a total goof off at a “top ranked” school and come out much worse off than a dedicated student at a medium-ranked college. But to me, the sign of a great school is one that opens up a range of possibilities and exposes its students to the best opportunities. USC did that for my daughter and I would recommend it to anyone – Fight On!</p>
<p>I love going to SC and all, but that’s messed up for anyone to have to go through. Dropping from 100 to 10 positions in recruitment and cutting entire courses UNDER 100 is too much.</p>
<p>While I agree that USC is a top school (why else would i submit my deposit to come here), i think that it’s pathetic that so many of us complain about the fact that it isn’t labeled as a top school. If everyone knows that it’s a top school, does it matter if they label it as one on a forum? It’s not like CC changes the “top schools” listing based on US News. UNC was ahead of USC in every year until the most recent rankings. That’s because it’s always been known as one of the best in America. As a result, that warrants a “top schools” listing on CC.</p>
<p>My reaction to the increase in ranking is purely that it is a reflection of how USC started to care about its academics. No longer is this school just a football school and no longer is it just a school that produces Olympians, it is now a potential school for many valedictorians and salutatorians. There is no doubt in my mind that USC has, at one point, tried to increase it’s ranking with some sort of monetary compensation, but I know for a fact that every school has tried it. When you think about it, so many high schoolers/transfer students base their opinions on stupid rankings on a website/magazine. Universities aren’t stupid. They know that top students who care about their academics look at these rankings. Rankings are the best way to attract the best students so that they can say that they’re going to a top school. I agree that it is very unfair to specifically target USC for “rigging” rankings, but it is seriously only because so many people wish to go to USC but can’t. In my opinion, USC is a very sexy choice when it comes to choosing a college. The school has everything a person can want except a small student body. It’s got the academics, the sports, the beautiful men/women, the beach, the weather, and it’s in a city. Not to mention, it’s in the city with the most celebrities. I think one reason why USC has become such a popular school (which causes USC’s forum on CC to become very popular) is because of the media. When you hear about the school in shows such as “The O.C.” and see all the people wearing designer jeans, driving bmw’s, and carrying coach purses, it appears that USC students are living the good life. And it makes complete sense why USC is a “dream” school. This school is extremely intriguing. Don’t get me wrong. It may appear that I’m trying to badmouth USC, but this is not the case. I just don’t think USC students should be worrying about these silly things on a forum and we should all start letting our work in the outside world do the talking…that’s the best way to make the school attract the best of the best.</p>
<p>thesecrtazman - though your points are valid, i think youve misunderstood it a bit…</p>
<p>we dont want usc to be listed as a top school so that we can brag, but because we feel that the school deserves it… i mean hey, most ppl just go in here during their admissions, and then when they get in/dont get in, they ditch the forum because they dont need it anymore… do i see myself sitting on CC every day next semester when im at USC ? no …
but its about school pride, we want our school to be treated fairly and because we feel that it being a top univ is what is right… also, why should it be lumped into the category with all the rest of the schools when it is obviously one of the most popular schools… </p>
<p>in fact, the only argument we need is that USC should be a ‘cc top univ’ because it is convenient… its one of the most popular, so why should all these ppl have to go to the alphabetical list, scroll down to S and then find it? there are schools on the top list that have less than half of the posts of usc… </p>
<p>one could make the argument that ‘cc top univs’ category should be the 20 most popular schools instead… if anyone needs to know the ‘best’ schools, theyre not gonna be looking for them here anyway, theyll go to rankings… right?</p>
<p>so yea… i do agree… it wont make a huge difference in anyones life… no one will go around telling their IRL friends that ‘OMG USC is a CC TOP UNIV!! WOHOOO’ … we are already aware of usc being awesome… its just about principles :)</p>
<p>thats just like not including albert einstein on a list of geniuses… we all know he was, but we still tihnk he should be on there…</p>
<p>or not including george w bush on a list of stupid ppl… (haha jk )</p>
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