<p>I have the privilege of having been granted the full scholarship to USC with Thematic Option as well as granted admission to Stanford. I plan to major in political science.</p>
<p>I really love both schools and am thankful for being blessed with these great opportunities. However, I must make a decision. While I think Stanford is the superior institution with the superior prestige level (which may help with job placement in the future), I am hard pressed to turn down a full-tuition merit scholarship to USC, which is also a fine institution that is continually rising in the rankings. </p>
<p>My question is this: Will my education be significantly better at Stanford, even though I will be taking Thematic Option courses at USC? Will social life and quality of life be better at Stanford? Is it worth the extra $170,000 a year? Is Political Science at Stanford better than the polisci program at USC? </p>
<p>I truly appreciate help from fellow applicants, current USC students, and informed parents. Thank you very much.</p>
<p>“Will my education be significantly better at Stanford, even though I will be taking Thematic Option courses at USC?”</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>“Will social life and quality of life be better at Stanford?”</p>
<p>No one really knows that but yourself so slightly irrelevant to ask on an online forum.</p>
<p>“Is it worth the extra $170,000 a year?”</p>
<p>Again, no one knows but your family and you seeing as how you didn’t provide any financial information. </p>
<p>“Is Political Science at Stanford better than the polisci program at USC?”</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>So in conclusion, I suggest checking with your family about finance. If money is not a problem, Stanford all the way. If it is, then it makes the decision harder, and you need to really evaluate what a dollar is worth in your eyes and let us know about your financial prospects before we can recommend anything. But if money isn’t an issue, Stanford no questions asked.</p>
<p>Stanford…your salary after graduation will more than make up the tuition payments.
Plus you will make better connections at Stanford.</p>
<p>However if you are planning to spend $170,000 a YEAR (???) while at Stanford I think you should consider living off campus. Hell for that price you can commute from USC.</p>
<p>I am not sure either niyrpv or g0ld3n are familiar with Thematic Option. It is an amazing program with very small classes (~8 - 24 students), the very best faculty at USC and one-on-one tutorials with your professors.</p>
<p>Saving nearly $200,000 on your undergraduate program would allow you to pursue a graduate degree (perhaps at Stanford) or have a significant amout of money availble to start up something upon graduation.</p>
<p>You have only *great *options to choose from - either way you will get a great education. Good luck with the choice!</p>
<p>pick USC and save $$$$ – if you’re good, then you can get into top grad schools. choose Stanford only if: 1. you will not go to grad school, and 2. $$$$ is no object for you and your family.</p>
<p>your $ figures are NOT stated properly i think. what is your cost of attendance at USC? is it zero? i think trustee is full-tuition, not a full-ride?</p>
<p>Agreed with above. Undergraduate rankings seriously aren’t a big deal if you plan to go to graduate school. You’d be better off with a 3.9 GPA from USC than a 3.6 GPA from Stanford when you want to pursue a graduate degree.</p>
<p>Unless like the others here mentioned, you are not planning to pursue a graduate degree and/or money is not a problem at all for your family.</p>
<p>The Trustee scholarship is a full-tuition scholarship which will rise if tuition rises. It is currently worth $42,162/year. Expenses not covered by the Trustee include room, board, books and expenses. All together those typically range from abot $12,000-$15,000/year. Considering the qualifications required for the OP’s admissions and awards, I would assume he/she will be bringing outside scholarships as well, which can be combined with the Trustee to as much as $8,000 more than the cost of attendance of $57,876.</p>
<p>My very good friend [who is on this forum…] is in the same predicament. Without going into detail, I would choose Stanford. My friend is choosing Stanford.</p>
<p>*just a correction: the person whom minniemouse is referring to actually received presidential (not trustee), so he isnt in the exact same predicament as you. as a result, i think his decision to go to stanford made more sense because it was going to cost pretty much the same to go to stanford or usc. i think, in your case, the decision is a little more difficult. </p>
<p>in my opinion, stanford might be a better option for polisci. but im not sure how finances are with you and your family.</p>
<p>Alamemom, regarding outside scholarships, I understood that the $8000 was the limit allowed over the tuition cost, not the COA. We had to look into this when D was an entering freshman. I remember this clearly because D was right on the line and there’s a stipulation of this rule somewhere on the USC site…unless USC has changed this recently.</p>
<p>The outside scholarships also have their own rules as to whether they must be used for tuition only or can be used for educational expenses (room/board/books/laptop/even travel for study abroad etc)</p>
<p>Every Trustee scholar at USC and many in the TO program turned down ivy-level institutions. So you will be among the very same peers as attending Stanford–even down to their school admissions. </p>
<p>As the mom of a trustee scholar (class of 2012), I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of chat among these students is how lucky they were to get this award, what a fabulous school USC really is, and how they got everything they wanted from this wonderful university. </p>
<p>As USC’s reputation continues to rise, large donations allow further growth and the hiring of even more extraordinary professors, and the caliber of the incoming classes is more than comparable to the top schools in the country, USC’s name will become more recognized among the most prestigious universities. Well… maybe not among UCLA boosters. heh. But if you liked what you saw at Explore, and you talked (or will now talk) to your department and got good feedback, how can you turn this down?</p>
<p>Honestly, USC’s alumni connections are much stronger. A Stanford degree doesn’t guarantee anything – but a Stanford degree! Grad schools would appreciate either school, and really, skills and value to a company are dictators of salary and success – not what school you went to! A Stanford grad could be terrible at his job, while a USC grad (or even a state school grad) could be more knowledgeable and a better fit.</p>
<p>Both are great schools, both offer different advantages. I would choose the free education (because that’s just me…) but it’s ultimately up to you. Where would you excel and be happiest?</p>
<p>*If an outside scholarship is designated as “tuition-only” (as is the Trustee Scholarship), then the total of the tuition-only scholarships cannot be mnore than $8,000 over USC’s tuition (in other words, USC will convert up to $8,000 of your Trustee scholarship to non-tuition purposes - NICE!).</p>
<p>BUT, if the outside scholarship is NOT designated as tuition-only, it may be combined with the Trustee up to the total cost of attendance (even nicer!) If you are lucky enough to be in that situation, you should contact financial aid for a budget adjustment - include travel expenses, a new computer, equipment for SCA, etc. I have heard of them going as far as $8,000 over the total cost of attendance in some cases. They will work with your to help you make the most of the awards you have earned as long as it is related to your education.</p>
<p>Come to USC if you plan to do grad school, which overrides undergrad. Im pretty sure you’ll get a higher GPA here than in Stanford, and you get to save a lot.</p>
<p>One more thought (not that it’s important, just interesting):</p>
<p>Two students from my school went to Stanford. (My high school is 15 mins away from Palo Alto and they had a “quota” of students they would accept to not overflow the campus with locals…blah blah blah.)</p>
<p>Both of those students are currently unemployed.</p>
<p>Conversely, from my high school, there were 20 of us that went to USC. One is still in school, maybe 3 are unemployed – the rest all have really great jobs.</p>
<p>I know the numbers are a bit skewed, but it shows that having a Stanford degree DOES NOT guarantee job placement anywhere.</p>
<p>My son just graduated from USC with a political science major and completed T/O as well.
He was very pleased with the department. He also enjoyed the quality of other programs such as Thornton School of Music (he minored in voice) and all of the E/C activities. There are many opportunities to be politically active at USC and LA. Many of his profs had played important roles in state and national politics. Several of the higher level administrators came to USC from Stanford so there is a certain parallel to many of the programs. You may meet them at the Explore session this month. Good luck with your decision. Both schools are extraordinary. By the way, I am a Stanford grad!</p>