I am a pre-med student currently deciding between USC and Rice and I have 15 days to do it.
For USC, I love the location and social-academic balance. It’s the complete college experience and it feels the most “me.” I also was awarded the Trustee scholarship, so it would only be about $17,500/year for me to attend there. However, my main concerns are that I’m choosing USC with heart rather than logic. As a pre-med student, will I get plenty of opportunities to shadow doctors and conduct research with professors, or will I have to fight hard to find these opportunities? Also, how is pre-med advising? I just don’t want put myself at a major disadvantage by attending there and then end up kicking myself when I can’t do the things I need to do for med school.
For Rice, I like the fact that students are practically handed research, shadowing, and volunteer opportunities because it’s across the street from the world’s largest medical center. I also like how small the classes are, allowing me to have close relationships with professors. Lastly, I was given an instate-only scholarship that gives me $7500/year including medical school coupled with a medical doctor mentor in the field that I’m interested in. However, Rice would still cost about $31,000/year which is gonna make me have to take out about an extra $14,000/year in loans relative to USC. I think that I could definitely be happy there, but I could also see myself happy if not happier at USC because I’m more of a Cali guy.
I’d appreciate some insight from anyone who has experience at/with either schools!
Our son is currently a freshman at USC and also a Trustee Scholarship winner. Rice is a phenomenal school but the opportunities at USC for Trustee Scholarship winners are enormous. As a Trustee winner, you would probably be able to live at USC Village, which is a 700 million project on the north side of campus which will be opening this fall. USC Village will have dorms, a full service grocery store, a student recreation center and more. Trustee winners can go beyond 18 units per year at no cost if they want to take additional classes. Double majoring is very possible and there are literally hundreds of minors, including interdisciplinary minors. The sports scene is incredible and USC should be a championship contender in football this fall. The school’s endowment is close to $6,000,000 and the school seems to be on a push to make their facilities and programs “the best.” Given your scholarship and obvious excitement at the prospect of spending your next four years in Los Angeles, I can’t imagine that you would have any regret in attending USC. Good luck (and if at USC, fight on!).
I’m a sophomore at USC and while I am a political science major who knows little about premed, I can speak to the overall quality of the university. It is a phenomenal institution and I’m happy to say that coming here versus a variety of other schools was the best decision I’ve ever made! There is a fantastic social atmosphere, however, the academics are tremendous as well. USC places a strong emphasis on networking and consequently the fact that if you have USC next to your name it means a big difference - I don’t see that not being the case for any program. I was interviewing for an internship once and when the guy asked to make sure I went to USC and I responded with an affirmative answer, his statement was basically: When can you start? End of interview.
As far as premed, all I can really say is that USC is pouring tons of money (literally hundreds of millions) into Keck right now. Last year Oracle CEO Larry Ellison donated $200 mil because of the treatment from a USC physician - which should be indicative of the quality of our hospital, and I doubt that USC would waste the experiential opportunities of having our own hospital. You’re also in LA, which has career opportunities for pretty much everything under the sun. Some of my friends are premed and I’ve heard them all talk about how they are doing/have done research, if that is something you are very interested in!
Hope that helps. Regardless, best of luck!