<p>Georgetown tends to have a lot of preppy kids from boarding schools(maybe that's where you perceived the snobbiness from?) USC definitely has a more laid back attitude. </p>
<p>Tourguide, have you ever been to usc? The area is not a ghetto.</p>
<p>I didn't know I would get a lot of sh** for the post I made, but the replies are even more rediculous.</p>
<p>For your information tourguide446, I've lived my whole life around USC, so if anything I have more right to make a judgement on someone whose critisizing the area. If you think the area around USC is ghetto or if anyone thought that, then the more correct assumption would be that it's coming from a spoiled little rich kid because they don't know any better than the life they're accustomed to, so anything below it is considered ghetto or worst. I've personally been within USC's area around 3 AM in the morning and never have once been assualted, robbed or stabbed. Nor has it happened to me in the real ghetto which is probably two miles south of USC, where south central begins(i'm not saying it hasn't happened to others)</p>
<p>If you think I should get out more, maybe you should get out more or live in la for more than 10 years and see it for yourself, when i say LA has everything you could need, then that's because I've travelled and have perseonally made a comparisson, it's not sh** that is coming out of my mouth.</p>
<p>for someone to say that it's the scariest area they've ever been around then that really does say something about a person's character. Have they ever actually been into a public school in true south central, or have walked the streets in real south central where you have worser conditions and environments than not having paved streets? Have they ever gone through not having text books to take home because they go to a school that can only afford a class set which is used by more than 200 students? I'm pretty sure they have, because frankly a place around USC is the worst right?</p>
<p>If that persons friend got stabbed around USC then they'd be ignorant to blame it on USC's area, because there's a million different places in LA where people have gotten stabbed including Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and other areas.</p>
<p>Georgetown. The students there definitely are more elitest than USC, but then again, since Georgetown is academically better than USC overall and most of the people at USC are rich anyway, it's just a minor detail.</p>
<p>There are a lot of middle-income kids at USC actually.</p>
<p>The area around USC is not really too scary, but it' s at best very, very plain. georgetown is in a great area, and if you do tire of it, you can take a train weekend trip to NYC or a shorter ride to Philly, or drive to the beach, or to Baltimore. Lots to do there.</p>
<p>Academics: slight edge to Gtown
Environment: definite edge to Gtown, unless you love LA.
Prep/laid back factor: slight edge to USC</p>
<p>Overall: Gtown.</p>
<p>thanks for the imput everyone...i am now a hoya :)</p>
<p>Good choice. In DC they make news. In LA they make movies and TV shows about people who make news.</p>
<p>TheU.com has videos on both those schools, check them out, it might help</p>
<p>tenenbaum,</p>
<p>Just curious, how did you make the decision? Did the input from posters here make a big impact in your decision-making process? Or you had an idea in mind already, just to check for some validation and justify yourself?</p>
<p>I am pretty pro-USC as I come from SoCal, but I also can say choosing Gtown over USC is not a really bad thing to do. Just that I want to know how much an anonymous poster can do to change a person's decision.</p>
<p>For all you USC fluffers out there: I'm sure USC, UCLA, Oxy, CalTech, etc, are great schools. But please try to understand that to a lot of people--and I mean a LOT of people--LA may be a great place to live, but it's NOT what they think of as a great place to go to college for undergrad. Too many distractions, too many alternative activities, weather not right for curling up with a term paper all weekend, too superficial an atmosphere, etc. In other words, a lot of the very things some people think are the advantages of LA are the very things a lot of people don't want to study there. Most of the most attractive colleges are in boring, dangerous, cold, and/or isolated locations, which should tell you something about students' desires. If warm weather and glamour were as important as you think they are, UCLA, USC, and UNLV would be the new HYP.</p>
<p>Tourguide,</p>
<p>You jumped out too quick. Can we wait to see if tenenbaum has something to say? Now I hope you won't deter him speaking up:)</p>
<p>I wasn't very keen on defending LA, USC, UCLA, CalTech, etc actually. You could've have been more secure about yourself.</p>
<p>BTW, I am not aware that there are weather-discriminating people out there. You are a good one. Do you mind to count how many Nobel Laureates have been in the warmer weather for recent years? Then think again about your weather theory.</p>
<p>In the back of my mind, I think I knew I was going to Georgetown. In terms of what I want to do, either pre-med or IR, Georgetown won, not to mention the sweet oppurtunities in DC, (im already in the process of getting an internship with Barack Obama)The big draw for me with USC was the overall attitude, and I'll gladly admit, the weather. (Anyone who has ever experienced a Chicago winter will understand how key this really is) I ultimately figured that I could find chill people anywhere and that Georgetown was the best choice for what I want to do academically. That being said, I think that all of your imput definitely helped me weigh the advantages and disadvantages of both schools and validate my decision when I finally made it. so thanks again! and btw...im not a him.</p>
<p>Good to hear that from you, and I am glad you blew off TourGuide's weather theory:)</p>
<p>I had a feeling that you leaned to Gtown, and USC didn't blow you away by any chance, or it didn't have the chance, just being a backup plan. It doesn't matter either way. When it is approaching the deadline, it's indeed hard to make a big change of heart. I am glad you made a happy and sound decision. </p>
<p>I was actually concerned about high school students getting online to ask for help to make life decisions. It is not about the behavoir itself, just how the interaction affects the decision making. As a teenager, little people have the keen eye necessary to screen information from this kind of modern media. An anonymous poster sitting behind his/her monitor can give you wrong information. Sometimes, it is merely out of the poster's lack of knowledge, not exactly of malicious intention; sometimes it is the case the poster has an agenda. Even the information is reliably passed to you, it may still be misinterpreted on your end. I just hoped you had the awareness when getting on line. This kind of misinformation or miscommunication will actually happen often whether you get into medical service or IR.</p>
<p>CC does help people in a lot of ways, especially it can give you other people's perspectives, experience, etc. But you just have to be cautious of false information.</p>
<p><< In DC they make news. In LA they make movies and TV shows about people who make news. >></p>
<p>Did you not pay attention to anything that happened on May First? L.A. was at the heart of the nationwide movement. </p>
<p>I adore DC, but it seems like you've got a pretty big bias against LA. </p>
<p>Also, I've never heard anyone say, "Oh gee, I'd love to go to this college in California, but I'll never be able to study because it's sunny there! Oh dear, how can I learn with such beautiful weather?" In fact, I sat outside for an hour in my backyard today, studying for my AP World exam.</p>
<p>Note that post #29 is focused on undergrad...by the time you get to grad school (or faculty) level, it's a whole different world, so environment doesn't matter anywhere near as much. So the Nobel laureate thing doesn't apply.</p>
<p>Day Tripper: nice strawman argument in your last paragraph in post #33. </p>
<p>Anybody who's gone to a cold-weather college (which doesn't sound like any of you) knows how much more difficult it is to stay focused on the books once it turns warm in the spring. I've gone to college in Boston, Toronto, and Honolulu, and I found a clear difference in the way the weather affects one's eagerness to stay focused on the studies.</p>
<p>I wasn't trying to speak for Tenenbaum. Obviously my post didn't preclude her from also replying.</p>
<p>If I sound anti-LA-for-undergrad, I mean to be. There are probably a lot of high school kids out there who might be prone to getting blinded by the sunshine and glamour, and want to go to college there for all the wrong reasons. I'm just voicing a counterpoint to all the sunshine-and-movie-stars! sentiments you read on cc. The fact that nobody else has made the warm-weather-isn't-the-best-thing-to-promote-studying argument doesn't make it invalid. I have had the privilege of studying and teaching at a variety of colleges (13 in total), and am therefore in position to make a comment based on actual experience instead of pure theory.</p>
<p>Nice spin. But you do remind me of one poster on CC, TheDad, who was one of the main reasons I joined in.</p>