<p>Thank you in advance for reading my long-winded story, but I felt it was necessary to give you the scope of what I'm dealing with. I have received all of my decisions already and I am deciding where I should spend the next few years of my life. I am very confused because I never even thought I was going to apply to USC, but here they are, offering me some wonderful things.</p>
<p>I was accepted into some great schools and need to decide what to do. I have narrowed it down to Wash U, Berkeley, Emory, Michigan (w/ Honors), and USC. I am planning on studying Neuroscience as a pre-med and pursuing Neurosurgery in the future. However, this is not the path I planned on taking (undergraduate-wise). I applied early to Stanford and was rejected, and was killed by the 3 ivies I applied to in the RD round (except for a waitlist at Dartmouth). </p>
<p>I know that Wash U, Berkeley, Emory, Michigan, and USC are all great schools, for which I am very happy for my admission, but I am confused as to where I should attend. I know Wash U's reputation for Biology/Neuroscience is superb, but I have heard that it is very competitive and cutthroat. As for Emory, I have heard that NBB (Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology) is a great program if one wants to pursue Neuroscience as a career.</p>
<p>However, the biggest dilemma of all has been USC. I initially applied to USC as a safety school, but they have captured my interest as they throw money and opportunities in my face that I seemingly can't refuse. I was accepted as a Trustee scholar (full scholarship for undergrad) and was recently accepted into the Bacc/MD program (1 of 30 students who gets guaranteed admission into medical school assuming GPA is above 3.0 and MCAT is 30+). Also today, I got an email from a doctor I worked with at an internship who now works at USC that wants me to help pilot a research program for all 8 years. I feel like all the stuff that USC is giving me is unbelievable and that I am being given an offer I can't refuse. I had a preconceived idea that I was going to go away for college (whether it be northern California or the east coast), but it looks like my best offer is still in SoCal, even though USC is not the most highly ranked/prestigious school on my admitted list. Can any of you guys give me some guidance as to what I should do?!?! I am confused and need some advice. Thank you!!!</p>
<p>If you are sure that you would like to continue on to medical school, the Bacc/MD opportunity is by far your best option of those you list. No question.</p>
<p>I agree with alamemom…plus the fact you have been offered the Trustee and this huge 8 year opportunity in research.
Crazy to refuse this offer if med school is your future.
My D is majoring in neuroscience, is a Trustee, and chose USC over Berkeley and other top schools…
No regrets.
Btw, you are not committed to Keck if when the time comes you wish to try for another med school. However, it’s nice to have the security of already being admitted (as long as the requirements are met)
Congratulations!</p>
<p>Having tuition paid for during undergrad will offset the huge expense (or loans) of med school.</p>
<p>According to my D who takes some of the premed courses (though she’s not a premed), she hasn’t found a cutthroat/weeding environment as may exist at other schools (not sure this may be the case at your other options, other than perhaps Berkeley). D has found the atmosphere to be very collaborative. Her Bacc/Med friends also appear to be very happy there. Also, USC encourages interdisciplinary study, with double majoring in disparate fields if this might be of interest to you.</p>
<p>I also sense that maybe, being from So Cal, that your perception of USC may not have been all that positive. If this is the case, USC has much changed over the years and has become an intellectually vibrant university with a diverse population of students.
Also look into the terrific Thematic Option honours program.</p>
<p>You’ve got great options…best of luck with your decision.</p>
<p>You seem more worried about “prestige” than if you can obtain a fine education. USC is not a safety school these days. </p>
<p>In the U.S. News ranking (Yes, I know there are many rankings) it is #23. That is not 56 or 82. In U.S. News academic reputation index by their peers SC was ranked tied with Notre Dame and Emory. It was only ONE point below Rice and Washington Univ. at St. Louis. That is not a chasm.</p>
<p>You will be studying neuroscience in the school that just received a $200,000,000 gift. Some time ago SC recruited the Honda Prize winner, Dr. Antonio Damasio along with his brilliant wife, Dr. Hanna Damasio. Drs. Damasio are known acoss the nation for their work. Dr. Nikias at a recent speech commented neuroscience is going to be one of the featured programs at SC. That means there will be generous funds for research, new labs, star professors added. Already, the David Dornsife Imaging Center is helping to provide new research capabilities. You may be working with Professor Maja Mataric. She is a professor of neuroscience who has received the National Science Foundation Career Award. She was also featured in a documentary about seven of the the world’s leading scientists.</p>
<p>If you visit the Facebook group of admitted students you will find seniors who are planning to attend SC over highly ranked universities. Not all of these received merit scholarships.</p>
<p>SC does not "throw money in your face’. They have offered you a great opportunity which will save your family thousands and thousands of dollars. These dollars are not from the government. Alumni, friends of SC or foundationss have provided you with these funds to help gifted students attend a fine university at a much lower cost.</p>
<p>If you already live in California keep in mind these will not be the same students you knew in high school. SC has the largest number of international students of any university. There were 1,397 high schools represented in the 2010 freshmen class. Your classmates will be from all over the world. Due to top notch art schools your peers will be many of the most creative, talented, imaginative and inventive freshmen students, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Hi–mom here, who grew up in a Southern California NON-SC family:
First of all, congrats on all of your great options (although it sounds like you’re still annoyed about the Ivies).
This is your chance to develop your decision-making skills which will be used the rest of your life (trust me, when you have to make decisions about jobs, etc., it isn’t easy):
Start by making a page for each of your options with two columns–one for pluses and one for minuses–then start listing everything you can think of for each school. Since SC is offering you a Trustee, you have to include something for financial items.
As for information gathering, I would start with your College Counselor/Guidance Counselor at your school. Then I would ask any recent alums from your HS who happen to be at one of your five options. Have you scheduled any more visits for Accepted Students Days? If you are okay with it, your parents might even have some input which is relevant.
If after all of your information gathering, a clear favorite doesn’t emerge, well then, you have to go with your gut.
A few other points:
As some of the other posters have mentioned, SC is offering you a fabulous opportunity and full-tuition is nothing to be scoffed at. Also, SC’s reputation has sky-rocketed since I was in HS (back in the dark ages). And, the current financial mess in California doesn’t bode well for UC students–entering students this year have been told to expect at least 4 1/2 years to graduate.
I think you should post your question on the forums for the other 4 schools just to be a balanced viewpoint.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>@Alamemom: I’ve been looking at that thread since I applied and would be glad to put my name down as #8!!!</p>
<p>@Sequoia: You are definitely right about my initial perceptions of USC being more a party school than an academic powerhouse, but I’ve learned that it has changed immensely (especially over the past few years). It is great to hear that the environment is collaborative rather than cutthroat. Based on my preconceived notions, it is just going to take me a little while to wrap my head around seeing myself as a Trojan. Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>@Georgia Girl: I didn’t mean to come off as, for lack of a better phrase, a “prestige whore” :). I have a sister who went to USC when it was a party school, and that was my frame of reference. Based on that, it seemed like a let-down after my rigorous academic experience in high school. Now I recognize that USC has elevated its academic standing by leaps and bounds. Thank you for your input!</p>
<p>@Kathyc: You think just like my mom lol! I will be sure to make use of your sage advice. Also, I agree with your assessment of the UC situation and thanks for understanding that based on the past, there are other ways to look at USC as an academic institution.</p>
<p>"I feel like all the stuff that USC is giving me is unbelievable and that I am being given an offer I can’t refuse. "
Your gut is correct. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You WILL regret spending hundreds of thousands of $$ elsewhere if going to Med School is your goal.
USC is an incredible place these days and the opportunities for the best and brightest students are unlimited. My son, a Trustee, [ also accepted at Wash U and 2 Ivys] is graduating this May and is beginning his PHD program at Cal Tech in Sept. That is due to his hard work, great education, drive and the incredible opportunities offered by USC and profs there who helped guide him. AS another poster said, this is a no Brainer.
It is really easy to ignore the party kids at USC, and all colleges have those kids of students. You’ll find hundreds of really bright students in the Honors science classes, which is filled with Engineering and pre-Med kids.</p>
<p>@menloparkmom: Thank you so much for your input. I definitely need help seeing USC in a new light and this kind of feedback truly helps. Sounds like your son was able to take the best USC had to offer and I think I’m planning on doing the same. The professors I’ve met with really seem brilliant and engaged. Good luck to your son at CalTech and once again, I appreciate your advice.</p>
<p>I swear we’ll outrank cal next year. and emory in due time. compared to your other scools I think our prestige is only slightly lower than WashU and berkeley. Hopefully that will change soon lol.</p>
<p>I also know for a fact that our facilities are better than most of schools on your list so yeah.</p>
FWIW, prestige doesn’t change year to year, and especially doesn’t change due to incremental fluctuations in the highly flawed US News rankings. It’ll take much, much longer for SC to pass Cal in terms of prestige, if it ever does (which I highly doubt). Cal is pretty much second only to Stanford in terms of Graduate Schools, and a lot of this trickles down to the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>Peer Assessment ratings give credence to that, and there’s a reason why schools like UVa, UNC, Michigan and Berkeley all have much higher peer assessment ratings that schools like SC, despite the fact that they may be ranked lower in the US News rankings (but much higher in all the other world rankings).</p>
<p>@sharkfin: Although your logic seems reasonable, I think USC has done a great job at establishing themselves as a high caliber institution over the past few years, basically “recruiting” the smart kids. Prestige comes along with rankings, I’m sure you can reason with that.</p>
<p>@mamatata: Wow that’s incredible…definitely an incentive to give it serious thought</p>
Definitely, and USC is doing an excellent job in improving almost every aspect of the school. And to echo what everyone else is saying, USC seems like an amazing choice, especially given your circumstances. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Some perspective: your admission to the BACC/MD program is a gift from God. There was an article in the NYTimes a month or so ago about how hard it is to get into American medical school and how the back door route (Caribbean medical schools) is closing rapidly. Their poster child was a Cornell bio grad with a 3.9 who couldn’t get into an American med school and was pursuing a Caribbean education . . .</p>
<p>The fact is that USC’s academic reputation becomes, from your perspective, a self-fulfilling prophecy. If quality people like you go there, it increases; if quality people don’t, it decreases. That is why USC gives enormous aid to great people – it knows the ripple effects are enormous. </p>