<p>This might seem a little disorganized, but I have some reading for school I need to get done this weekend.</p>
<p>I found out unofficially that I got accepted on February 17. It was so refreshing to hear it, even though it was from a phone call to the admissions office. I was afraid I wasn't going to make it, because by then I was 90% sure I wanted to do it. First semester of junior year was over, and my grades weren't very good (far from straight A's, which I had gotten the first four semesters of high school). I was afraid my junior grades would keep me from getting in. But I did. I received the acceptance packet in the mail on March 2. It felt quite good to read "Welcome to the Trojan family."</p>
<p>My major is economics and I'm planning on adding religion as another major. Both are humanities/social science, and those majors require little in the way of number of required classes/units, so there's only around 80 units I need for my major/minor to graduate (6+1 GE classes = 28 units so still 20 free units to work with, asssuming 128 units in 8 semesters). Engineering students like some of my friends get a loaded schedule pretty much planned already for them and it's hard to double major, but I guess minoring is a possibility.</p>
<p>RHPers are encouraged to do Thematic Option as opposed to regular general education. It's basically honors GE, with smaller classes and better professors. Like the title suggests, the program is a thematic approach to general education. It's very unique, cool at times, boring at times, but that's how classes are. The students in TO are invited based on SAT scores and high school GPA, so most people are motivated and bright learners. I took CORE 102 - Culture and Values last semester in a class of 28. Reading load is considerable...sometimes a book a week (100-200 pages). Not every week is like this though. Sometimes we watch movies, go on class field trips, attend TO events open to every TO student. There is also a considerable amount of writing involved. The first writing class for TO (there are two) required us to write 7 papers total for the semester (16 weeks in a semester, so about 1 every two weeks). Again, small classes -- 14 students (Our CORE 102 class was split into two writing sections). I took a religion class (300-level) that was really cool because there were only 9 people in the class, and it was discussion-based, and there was a lot of reading but easier to bear than the abstract philosophical and anthropological works we had to read in the TO class. Generally, small majors have small classes in anything above 100 and 200 level. That goes for any school within USC. For my major, I took the intro macroeconomics class, and it was big (150-200) but I think it makes things interesting when you have big classes along with smaller classes. My microeconomics class this semester is similar.</p>
<p>Back to TO, it seems engineering and pre-med/science students are the people with the greatest chance of disliking it. First, just the fact that most of TO is humanities/liberal arts. Yeah, there's one scientific themed course, but it isn't a hard science type class. In addition, the greater workload in TO just adds to the stress of having bio and chem and engineering courses the first year. For me, a potential law school applicant, I know the experience is and will be a valuable one, being surrounded by tons of reading and writing, intelligent classmates and dedicated professors.</p>
<p>Most RHPers (some live in other dorms and I don't talk to them on a regular basis) are having a great time and they don't regret skipping senior year of high school. Speaking of dorms, most RHPers live in the Deans Hall residential community, consisting of two residential dorms. The basic difference between the Deans Halls and the other dorms is quiet hours and occasional Deans Hall-specific events like going to museums (there are fun events too, like going to the beach, TV tapings, etc.). Some RHPers managed to find their way into other dorms around campus. I think it's good to be with the other RHPers freshman year. There's plenty of time to pick your own place to live after freshman year. Which reminds me, because after freshman year, Penny, Diane, and the RHP crew don't really "take care" of the RHPers; they just leave us alone to do our own thing. No RHP events, no occasional RHP meetings. But they are always available to talk with. Everyone in general at USC loves the school atmosphere, the great weather, and the close proximity to a lot of cool locations in and around LA, among other things.</p>
<p>There's always the option of transferring to a different school if you don't enjoy your first year at USC. But everyone seems to love it here.</p>
<p>Edit: This is pretty much the old email with updates and additions, so Cipher3D, you don't need to ask me to send you an email.</p>