<p>Wow, you need to chill a little bit Listenkid, especially with the language. I knew what you meant I was just taking issue with a comment that TrojanTransfer? brought out.</p>
<p>I went to USC years ago, and honestly I would have no chance of getting into USC now. So I know first hand the value of a degree that has increased in prestige over time. So I agree with you thoughts. If you are part of the Trojan Family I think you should have a little bit of respect to the others in this forum.</p>
So are "Quiz" classes where you basically go to take weekly quizzes and stuff?
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<p>Sometimes, but more often you only go to the quiz section once or twice during the semester to take the midterm exams. The reason for a separate time is so that if there are several sections of the same class, everyone takes the same exam at the same time. </p>
<p>(otherwise, two different exams would be given, each one during the normal lecture time for each class)</p>
<p>For class size purposes, that's why to ignore the quiz section.</p>
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is it true they now grade on homework? I hear USC is becoming like high school alot.
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<p>In engineering homework is usually ~10% of the grade (as an incentive to do it). The rest is divided up between out of class projects and exams.</p>
<p>One class I took, the grade was 100% exams (no graded homework!)</p>
<p>And seriously, the classes are nothing like high school. This, I guarantee :)</p>
<p>Grading on homework means more points and better chance to get better grades. Why not? That's good news to me. In AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC, we were only ever graded on quizzes and tests (100 point tests and 10 point quizzes), so those of us who were not good at taking tests suffered. Luckily I am pretty good at taking those types of tests.</p>
<p>BTW Jbusc, you are at USC right now right? What would you say the workload is compared to high school? Also, how many classes do you take in one semester? And how many classes do you have per day and per week?</p>
<p>I had 5 classes, 18 units last semester. 4 days a week. Spent a majority of the weekends studying. Although I took Thursday nights and part of Friday off from doing school work.</p>
<p>USC has the "University of Spoiled Children/Second Choice" rep because UCLA hates it so much. And that's because of the sports rivalry, the fact UCLA is ranked higher (slightly), and the costs. That'll always exist, but it's been drastically reduced from what it used to be.</p>
<p>USC's current reputation is from its professional schools and rapid rise academically. I attribute it President Sample, his administration, and the individual schools. Sample talks about it a lot in his book, "Contrarian's Guide to Leadership." I don't think anyone can mess up that work in the longterm. But you have to take into account how competitive other schools are going to be. There's going to be resistence of course, and I doubt USC as a whole will be "the best." It'll be really high up there.</p>
<p>Even now, a degree from USC is a door opener.</p>
<p>I don't see how any of my comments were inconsistent or off-topic of what you meant. In fact, it seems like this topic is banking to use the USC name as a resume fluffer.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I can compare the workload to HS (my high school was small at the time, so I ended up self-studying for most of my AP's)</p>
<p>It definitely is heavy, but very manageable. You have to be able to learn some time management, how to be self driven, how to use resources available to you, how to juggle priorities. It is helped tremendously if you enjoy doing it.</p>
<p>Someone once compared engineering classes (in general, not at USC) to learning how to drink from a firehose :) The analogy is not that far off. It's mostly a matter of learning how to sip properly. And realizing that almost everyone else is in the same boat.</p>
<p>Most engr students take ~4-5 classes. 4 to start, and if you're comfortable with the workload, 5 classes is normal also. 6 classes is considered stretching it.</p>
<p>Classes per day is entirely the luck of the draw. Some semesters I end up with 3 classes each day MTWThF, other semesters it's a solid block of 5 classes on TTh and maybe an hour's worth on M or W. You have a bit of freedom in layout, but sometimes you have to adapt a bit to different schedules.</p>
<p>i'm not quite sure where you've been hearing rumors that colleges have zero homework. while this may be true for many classes (like biology, chemistry, etc) you are almost always going to have homework in math-based courses like calculus, physics, etc worth about 10% of your grade.</p>
<p>I’d like some advice. My D was admitted to USC. Her interests — Japanese/Music Performance/screenwriting. She’s an honor student at one of the top prep schools in our city, 3.7 unweighted (at a grueling school), 2050/2400 SAT, conservatory quality musician, already proficient in Japanese (on her own — no one in the family speaks a word) – all good reasons to like USC, which is strong in these areas — yet no one in our household has set foot in California. It would be (I think) a big change, yet I’m uncertain. We get conflicting advice — “it’s a nice but walled school, in a slum,” (even if true, would that stop anyone from going to Chicago, or Columbia?). Others tell me it’s like any big city school. She’s used to operating in a school with 700 girls, grades 4-12 — yet can negotiate Tokyo subways on her own. I’m not sure . . .</p>
<p>Maryland- you have to come with her and visit the school. I think you will be pleasantly surprised to see it is not “a walled school, in a slum.”</p>
<p>Although USC is a big city school, I think they do a good job of providing smaller environments for students that makes it feel like a small school. I believe it is important to find a group, club, special interest, or some activity to get involved in. The Office of Campus Activities does a really good job- take a look at their website:
[USC</a> Campus Activities](<a href=“http://sait.usc.edu/ca/]USC”>http://sait.usc.edu/ca/)</p>
<p>I may be stepping over the line here (I’m a mom too) but I think she will have no problem “operating” at USC- YOU may have the bigger problem handling it! It really will be OK if she comes to USC. It is a FANTASTIC school. :)</p>
<p>Georgia Tech, Univ. of Penn., Univ. of Chicago, NYU, Columbia, Tulane, and others are all located in urban areas. After visiting parts of Philadelphia, New Orleans, St. Louis and New Jersey SC does not resemble those places at all. It is more a poorer, working class neighborhood. At Explore SC buses are available for parents to view the surrounding areas or drive around themselves. The “Walls of Troy” were in place over 50 years ago.
It is located in an urban area, which can be an asset or a detriment. In SC’s case the safety measures provided by the university are well known. However, students who decide to walk alone along dark streets at 3 a. m. in the morning are not using common sense.
Many parents are on this board. None of their SC students have had problems, but one must be aware of surroundings and not take silly chances.
In modern America campus crime is a major problem. It occurs on campuses even in small rural colleges.<br>
This will be your daughter’s possible home for the next four years. I urge you to visit and participate in an Explore session.<br>
If your daughter has been admitted to the famous School of Cinematic Arts she is one of the select few to receive that precious packet. Please see the videos posted by KOHR to view the fantastic opportunites and creative experiences that await her. Here is another link which tells you more about the school and alumni. Link…[USC</a> Cinema - Alumni Notable Alumni](<a href=“http://cinema.usc.edu/alumni/alumni-history]USC”>http://cinema.usc.edu/alumni/alumni-history) .
Some of the most prominent people in California send their children to SC, including the Governor of California.</p>
<p>My, gosh. I have had about enough of these scare stories about the area around USC. I know we are city people, but still…We live just outside Washington, D.C., and we found the area around USC to be not that different from areas around here. We were there in the summer so my son could tour the school and the SCA. We asked the SCA admissions person afterward for a restaurant recommendation and walked there. It was a great lunch and we enjoyed seeing the neighborhood near the school, feeling there is no way one can be divorced from the other. My son felt totally at home, having traveled all around DC on his own for years. As Georgia Girl observes, anyone living in a city must take sensible precautions. You have to understand it is an urban area and not a gated subdivision in the suburbs. But you can also try to appreciate people living in neighborhoods (“slums”?) different from your own who may share the same goals and aspirations for their children. Okay, I’ll get down from my soapbox. Go there and visit and form your own opinions.</p>
<p>Listenkid, to answer your question about alienation and Berkeley, I would say yes. It’s easier to get alienated at Berkeley because of its big class sizes and sometimes, unaccessible professors.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, USC has a better sense of community and for many people, it helps to get careers in the future.</p>
<p>My kids are both attending USC (sophomore & junior) and neither have voiced any fears about their safety. It is an urban enviironment, which has all the pros & cons of a large city. They do not stroll around ANY urban area at wee hours of the morning (alone or with friends–in HI or LA or elsewhere) and to my knowledge have never walked about drunk or spoiling for a fight, which is how I understand several students at USC & elsewhere have been the victims of tragic violence.</p>
<p>USC has done a great deal to network and give back to the community–they do a lot of tutoring and outreach. Additionally, any vacant properties seem to be purchased for campus buildings and student housing, so the areas around the school are more and more student housing.</p>
<p>There are may threads about how the dangers of USC are hugely overblown.</p>
<p>It really is best for each individual to see for him or her self.</p>
<p>Many alums of USC candidly admit that they doubt they could gain admittance these days, since standards have risen so high. In HI & much of CA & other places, USC does have an excellent reputation and network, which can help with jobs and internships. </p>
<p>USC does encourage diverse double-majors and minors. It has an amazing beautiful new cinema arts building and school. The kids we have met on campus ll seem quite happy there and there seems to be enough variety for everyone we’ve met there.</p>
<p>During the LA riots in 1992 the school was completely unharmed even though much of the looting and destruction was going on around it. I’ve heard a lot of people say the community outreach into the nearby area was one of the principal reasons the school was unscathed. Ever since 1965, back when the area around SC was a real dangerous place, students and parents alike have been petitioning and begging the school to move to a different place. There have been many proposed locations but the USC family has always chosen to stay right where it is. </p>
<p>And it has paid off. There is a community commitment that comes along with being in the area that USC is at. I think it helps to sensitize the students. It makes for really humbling and honestly geniuine community service experiences when you are trying to help the area around your school (unlike UCLA which probably has to bus its students away from Westwood). In the past decades USC has improved a lot and the area around it has improved right along with it. Most of the neighborhood is now a working class area. USC’s crime rate isn’t something to be extremely concerned about. Most of the crime that has occured at the school was preventable and if it wasn’t, it didn’t differ much from the kind of crime that occurs at other urban universities. </p>
<p>I don’t think the area around SC should be your determining factor as to whether you belong there. This is an urban school (abeit one of the most comfortable urban schools in the country). If what you want is a nice quite liberal arts campus with a nice quiet population somewhere in the woodlands, don’t go to SC. This is close, but still Los Angeles, one of the biggest, most diverse and bustling cities in the world. If you do however enjoy the idea of an urban campus, USC and Los Angeles make for one of the most inspiring and energized places on earth. Can you imagine the kind of people you see on a day to day basis at USC? When I was visiting Ted Turner had just done a presentation there, just recently a friend went to a class where he watched Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks and Rober Zemeckis, urban planning students are literally put into the insane laboratory that is South Central Los Angeles, and engineering undergrads are given opportunities to do research that their peers at other institutions can only dream about. </p>
<p>If we have to convince you to join the USC family, then maybe you don’t belong there. Just looking a snippet of information about this school was enough to let me know I belonged there. Second thoughts are never fun. USC is however.</p>
<p>“If we have to convince you to join the USC family, then maybe you don’t belong there. Just looking a snippet of information about this school was enough to let me know I belonged there. Second thoughts are never fun. USC is however.”
I am choosing between several schools. I am closest to attending USC. Infact, the USC message board is the ONLY one I have been posting/complaining on. I know you say a “small snippet of information” was all most people need. But really this decision will have a MAJOR impact on me. The problem is you don’t know if the “snippet” is right. USC is a great school but so are many other schools.
You go to any other college message board you hear this same stuff. You really gotta push button until you see what the school is made up of. I gotta say, you guys have been super tolerant of my questioning. Or maybe you arent and I havent taken up the que.
Probably the most convincing thing on the board isnt the snipets you post but rather the fact that no matter how many concerns you guys will come back an respond/argue them in a non-attacking manner. The fact that I have been a total dick due to online anonymity and no one has flamed me for it is pretty chill.
Probably when I pick USC I will delete my account never go on CC again and act like a total USC fan, I will probably be one. But until I pick it I will scrutnize it like anything.</p>
<p>This week I will be doing visits to both schools which will probably answer my questions.</p>