Which one is easier to get into? Which is better in the long run? Which school has easier courses/more grade inflation?
Which school has better sense of community?
Say that hypothetically, I get into both schools and money is not a problem for me.
Better for what? What’s your intended major or career plans after college?
Which is easier to get into will also depend on your intended major.
something to consider is where you prefer to work/live after college. Certainly both degrees are highly transportable but the regional influence in recruitment, job offers and networking will strongly be S California or the Midwest.
I’d wait until you get into both schools before you agonize about choosing between them.
Notre Dame and USC are not peer schools at all, not even close.
ND has around 12,000 students, at least 75% are undergraduate. USC has 43,000 students of which around 40% are undergraduate.
Only 20% of ND students live off campus, while 67% live off campus at USC. ND’s residences are like the British House system.
Notre Dame’s campus is over 1,200 acres USC’s is 230 acres.
I don’t think reputation-wise USC can stack up to ND when it comes to undergraduate education.
It is tempting to view them as peers given they have national sports teams but culturally and academically not similar schools. USC has more in common with big state schools.
Notre Dame has roughly 25% of USCs student body yet ND’s endowment is at least twice as large. So do the math per student.
It does depend on what you want to major in and where you eventually want to live. Want to live in the Midwest? Go to Notre Dame. Want to live in California? Go to USC.
I’d call them peer schools, as they’re both in the US News top-25. ARWU has USC in the top 50 world universities, while it lists Notre Dame as in the 201-300 range. USC is the harder school to get into. Still, most people view them both as football schools.
I’m a UCLA fan, so here’s hoping you go to USC.
@simba9 I don’t think that attending ND limits one to staying in the Midwest. The school has a national reputation. For example I live in NY and ND has a huge alumni network here. For full disclosure, my H and S both went to ND and both had no issue finding jobs in NYC after graduation.
Neither school will limit you, but Notre Dame will carry more weight in the Midwest, while USC will carry more weight out west.
I’m not sure where I want to live when I grow up but I currently live in a suburb of NYC and would love to return here or to NYC after college! LA is also nice so I wouldn’t mind going there either.
I do agree with @happy1 though. Both schools have national reputations and their alumni are spread all throughout the country and even the world.
Also, can anyone answer the questions about easier courses and the closer knit community?
ND is the “harder school to get into”:
2014-2015 Common Data Set
SAT (MID 50%)
ND 1340 - 1520
USC 1280 - 1480
ACT (MID 50%)
ND 32 - 34
USC 29 - 33
2015
SAT (MID 50%)
ND 1400 - 1530
USC 1270 - 1480
The 2015 mid-50% SAT scores I’m seeing for enrolled students are 2000-2280 for ND, and 1920-2200 for USC. ACT scores look right.
But there’s more to admissions than SAT and ACT scores. There are a slew of parameters used when considering admission, and each school weights them differently. USC has an 18% admission rate, while ND has a 21% admission rate.
I did go to USC, BTW.
@simba9 ND is harder to get in. USC just gets more applicants presumably that are not qualified. Since ND is a Catholic school the pool is different. Kids from Catholic high schools just don’t apply there to take a shot because many know its a waste of time and still ND doesn’t attract many Asian or minority applicants. But, ND has higher acceptance standards.
On the east coast ND is viewed much better than USC.
@ScaredNJDad1, I think you’re speculating on who applies to ND and USC. Pretty much by definition, a school with a higher admission rate is easier to get into, and there’s no reason to believe Notre Dame is an exception to that rule. Why would you think unqualified students would be more willing to waste their time and money applying to USC than ND?
I do agree that ND is viewed much better than USC on the east coast, but that’s because ND is a lot closer to New York than USC is. When I worked in New York, some people had never even heard of USC, or they thought I was talking about South Carolina. That goes back to my point about going to school in the region you eventually want to work. If your school is better known in the region, it will make it easier to get a job there.
In California, ND will be viewed in the same vein that Midwestern schools like Indiana, Ohio State or Wisconsin are. Respectable, but nothing really special. On the other hand, out here USC is more and more being lumped into the same tier as Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA.
Let’s not forget that the desired major ought to be part of the decision. USC has some programs that are among the best in the world, and I’d expect ND does, too. It’s not just about the name of the school.
Doesn’t it bother anybody that the OP is focused on which school is easier and has more grade inflation as their criteria for which college to go to
@simba9 The average Californian is very provincial, where as people in the Midwest and East Coast are not.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the average Californian thinks that way but people that make hiring decisions don’t. Notre Dame would be held in a much higher tier than any California school except Stanford, which by the numbers is more or less a peer school. USC, UCLA and USB are not, especially undergraduate. ND reports 91% of the class with an ACT above 30, UCB is 63%, UCLA 53%, USC 73%, Stanford 88% and Pomona 83%.
Due to population, proximity to Asia and the relative lack of private schools in California, it is a safe bet that on average, more applicants are low outliers.
You see this in the Claremont schools too. I would take acceptance rates for California schools with a grain of salt.
^ Especially USC’s “acceptance rate.”
@simba9 I disagree with you. I have lived in the NYC area my entire life and ND is perceived very differently than Ohio State/other Midwestern State schools. It is held in very high regards on the East Coast or at least the Northeast.