<p>Ok, im down to these two, and I'd love some objective opinions, here are some facts:</p>
<p>Not yet sure what type of engineering but leaning towards mechanical.
Tuition for pitt would be free, USC would be around 7 grand a year (not including living expenses, but money isnt a huge issue)
Live in Pittsburgh, have a family member in pitt engineering faculty.
I'd prefer if we only took into academic factors into this.
Accepted in Pitt Honors</p>
<p>I'm going to post this in both threads to try and get some objective answers. Here is my comparison of strengths so far.</p>
<p>For Pitt:</p>
<p>Co op
Price
Research Opportunities</p>
<p>For USC:</p>
<p>Alumni
Location
Prestige</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I think you’re right on the money with Alumni being a big strength for USC. I don’t know much about Pitt’s alumni network, but ours is awesome and has already helped me multiple times. Sunny LA is great too. I grew up in Wisconsin and definitely prefer the weather and opportunities here. And there’s no denying the prestige of a USC degree either.</p>
<p>In terms of the other things you mentioned, I just posted a reply to your other thread about internship opportunities for Viterbi Students (there are lots - and some people work part time during the school year). There are also a ton of research opportunities here. I legitimately don’t know a single person here who is looking for research and couldn’t find a lab to work in, regardless of major. I’m not saying it just rains research jobs, but if you talk to your professor and put a little effort in, you’ll find opportunities. Check out some of these student blogs about their research:</p>
<p>[Attending</a> a research university](<a href=“http://viterbivoices.usc.edu/rob/attending-a-research-university/]Attending”>http://viterbivoices.usc.edu/rob/attending-a-research-university/)
[New</a> Research Projects](<a href=“http://viterbivoices.usc.edu/gavin/new-research-projects/]New”>New Research Projects - Viterbi Voices)
[USC</a> in a Word: Visionary](<a href=“http://viterbivoices.usc.edu/rob/usc-in-a-word-visionary/]USC”>USC in a Word: Visionary - Viterbi Voices)</p>
<p>This site is also a great starting point for finding out about Viterbi research and opportunities: [USC</a> - Viterbi School of Engineering - Research](<a href=“http://viterbi.usc.edu/research/]USC”>http://viterbi.usc.edu/research/)</p>
<p>Another USC strength is class size - you can definitely get to know your professors. There are about 400 new freshmen each year and my individual engineering classes typically run from 10-35 people and even in my larger classes where we do have 100+ people (like physics/chemistry/bio) the professor is still very much approachable and those I visited in office hours did get to know me, and my engineering professors (I’ve had several of them more than once each) definitely know me.</p>
<p>If you’re not sure what engineering major you’d like, then another strength is that once you’re admitted to Viterbi you’re admitted to all the majors and emphases so you can pretty freely change between them and finish on time as long as you work with your advisers, and there are a ton of resources provided to help you choose your major. You also get to take engineering courses your first semester, so you could take intro to Mechanical to try it out or the Engineering 101 class which goes over all the majors.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>@viterbiStudent Thanks a lot! This was exactly what I was looking for.</p>
<p>I’m originally from Pittsburgh and have a TON of Pitt grads in my family. It was actually a private school through the 1960s and is now “state assisted” rather than a full on state school, meaning that it receives funding from the state but maintains its own independent board of trustees. Same with Penn State, although the dinky smaller state schools like California PA and Indiana PA are all governed by a central board of trustees. Pitt was actually founded as a western branch of the University of Pennsylvania and its name through the 1910s or so was Western University of PA.</p>
<p>ANYWAYS… I wouldn’t go there these days unless you’re doing something specific that they’re good at like philosophy (top 5-10 department) or its medical school (top 10-15). Pitt’s medical school is the one that’s put things like baboon livers in humans, monkey heart valves, etc. Both Pitt and CMU also do a lot of homeland security research.</p>
<p>I just wouldn’t necessarily go there besides those things. It’s a region that’s bottomed out whereas USC is <em>booming</em> and has been for a good 2 decades now. Engineering is definitely one of USC’s better schools and it’s just a great place to go to school now. I don’t know how much Pitt’s honors program will give you (kudos for that, though) although overall USC is a much better school nowadays and you’ll have much better interactions with your peers and much better alumni support afterwards. If the difference is $7000 a year that doesn’t sound like much to me. You can also work part-time on the side to help cover your living expenses as L.A.'s a world-class city so the possibilities really are endless. ;)</p>