<p>Hi, I am a student at a prep school in Los Angeles, I am also Latin-American (all in the username). I have been accepted to several prestigious colleges, but I have chosen to stay in California. The options I am weighing are Cal and USC. I have almost a full ride to USC and at Cal I would have to take upwards of 10k loans. I fear the debt I will have after ONLY undergraduate school. I am a pre-med student and would definitely be looking at graduate schools. I also fear not receiving the same financial aid and class selection at Cal as the years pass. At usc, i fear being in a bubble the way that i was at Y prep school. I'm extremely extremely unsure of what to do.</p>
<p>With a near-full ride at USC, I do not see why you would hesitate - go to USC. It is an excellent school.</p>
<p>I agree with alamemom…USC is a great choice, especially given the financial difference. There are several other important advantages that you will have at a well-resourced private college versus a UC struggling with budget cuts: you will be more likely to get the classes you want, you will have more access to academic advising and you will have better support and recommendation letters as you apply to medical school.
I would not worry about USC being in a bubble…there are all kinds of kids there, and you will find a huge diversity of every sort.</p>
<p>Can you revisit USC and go talk to someone in their pre-med advising office?</p>
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<p>While USC is the better choice in this case because of cost and its own medical school (probably easier access to pre-med extracurriculars), the likely reason that USC can maintain more reserve capacity in classes is that it has more graduate students than undergraduates, which means a greater pool of TAs to add discussion and lab sections to large lectures in popular classes like biology, chemistry, etc…</p>
<p>I plan on revisiting. I am wondering, if there were no price tag on the schools, would your opinions differ? My way of looking at it is that I see instability in the UC system in terms of class availability and perhaps the financial aid I could end up receiving at Cal.</p>
<p>Pre-med advising has been excellent at USC for my D (current soph). You can drop in or make an appointment. My D has never had to wait more than a couple of days when making an appointment to fit her schedule and has dropped in several times as well. She’s seen a pre-med adviser (there are multiple) several times each semester in addition to her major adviser. There is a pre-health advising website that emails out information and puts on numerous events. </p>
<p>D has been able to get all classes she needs-- most at the times she wants. Not having to take an 8am class (which she’d sleep through) was important to her. </p>
<p>Most important, though, is where will you be happy (as long as money isn’t a huge issue- if it is, go with the $)?</p>
<p>The “class availability” problem at UCs is not so serious that it is a cause of delayed graduation as is commonly feared. What appears to be the main effect is not getting the desired time (e.g. having to take the 8am section of the class), or difficulty getting the most popular out-of-major breadth or free elective courses.</p>
<p>How is the grade deflation/inflation at USC realizing Berkeley has deflation and hard to get good GPA.</p>