USC vs. UCLA competitive admissions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>UCLA is more sought after than USC. It’s America’s #1 public dream school.</p>

<p>Personally, I always loved UCLA. I heard UCLA talked about in such a prestigious life my entire life and only recently heard about USC during sophomore year. I didn’t apply to USC, only to UC’s and got into every one including Berkeley and UCLA, ultimately choosing UCLA.
It just depends on preference. I think UC’s are much more GPA/AP etc oriented while USC is more holistic. Top students in my graduating class this year (in terms of weighted GPA) tend to go to top UC’s like Berkeley and LA while students going to USC tend to be more random/diverse.</p>

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<p>UCLA gets a lot of applicants because the UCs are one of the easiest universities to apply to ever! All you have to do is write 1 or 2 essays and checkbox all the UCs you want to apply to at once. LOL! It’s also the reason why UCLA got 80,000 applications this year vs USC’s 40,000. </p>

<p>Oppositely, USC requires you to write different essays and answer a completely different application form. So even though they switched to the Common App, just their different application is going to turn off a lot of lay-students who aren’t as interested in USC (vs. the UC Riverside-bound student who applies to UCLA just for the heck of it). The 40,000 kids who apply to USC are hardcore for USC. Of the 80,000 who apply to UCLA, I bet that half don’t really care for UCLA. That’s what I think. </p>

<p>And saying UCs focus more on GPAs or SATs doesn’t hold either - USCs stats on incoming freshmen are just as high as Cal or UCLA. In fact, I believe this year’s admission rate at USC was lower than UCLA. </p>

<p>I’m guessing the real reason you weren’t interested in USC is because 1) it’s a lot more expensive over 4 years, 2) you didn’t want to have to fill out the USC application. Those are perfectly legitimate reasons for someone who’s not hardcore for USC, like yourself. In that regard, USCs application is self-selecting IMO. </p>

<p>Both are great schools though; they’re both among the Top 10 dream schools for students. :)</p>

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<p>Grabbit nailed it.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I had the <em>exact</em> same experience with USC/UCLA as Kulakai. The UCs are only a great deal in-state. OOS is a totally different story. USC is very competitive with financial aid and offers a lot of merit scholarships, whereas UCLA and the UCs in general are incapable of even educating all the deserving in-state students they have.</p>

<p>The UC application distorts the overall numbers because (for me back the day, at least) you do one common application and check off the campuses you’re applying to. You just check off Berkeley, L.A., Davis, etc. without being able to tailor your application as to why you’d want to go to that specific campus and what specifically you would want out of it. Conversely, I had to write a bunch of essays for USC, all of which I have copies of to this day.</p>

<p>The University of Chicago for years had an admit rate of around 40% which distorted its rankings as well. They required a ton of unique essays (thus the term the “uncommon application”) which meant that the kids who actually completed the entire application were much more self-selecting than the kids who could just fire off one common app after another. But that only matters to the extent that you value the narrow definitions of quality that the various rankings offer.</p>

<p>Either way, USC is a great school that is only getting better. I have no problem whatsoever recommending the university to anyone. Conversely, I never really understood why it is that anyone applies to Dartmouth or Cornell these days, beyond the fact that they’re Dartmouth and Cornell. The areas around them are economically and culturally dead, while California is the engine that drives America.</p>

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<p>Oh please, UCLA isn’t the #1 public dream school in its own state much less the country. Then there’s the strong arguments you’d get from Michigan, North Carolina and Virginia.</p>

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<p>UCLA got 70,000 applicants for freshman. And when transfers are included, the total number of applicants goes up to 92,000. (it’ll probably break 100k applicants for fall 2013.)</p>

<p>Of the 70,000 applicants that applied to UCLA, over 21,000 were from OOS/ international. (up from 13,000 last year.) I certainly imagine that it will also increase next year for fall 2013 as well. I think that’s pretty large for a public university, and i think that’s because the UCs are becoming considerably more lax about admitting OOS/international students.</p>

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<p>I think he’s talking about this:</p>

<p>[College</a> Hopes and Worries Press Release](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/college-hopes-worries-press-release.aspx]College”>2020 College Hopes & Worries Press Release | The Princeton Review)</p>

<p>Notice that UCLA is the only public university to be listed in the ranking. Some people have made the point that USC appears in both students and parents rankings and UCLA doesn’t. However, Columbia, Notre Dame, NYU, Duke, Penn, Brown, and Cornell only appear once too. So i don’t think it’s too much of a jab at UCLA.</p>

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<p>Daughter was accepted to both, OOS. Was leaning toward UCLA, the price tag even with a small university scholarship was so high. We received enough aid from USC to make it doable. Not comfortable but a decent chunk less than UCLA. She likes the location of ucla but preferred the major at USC. She’s going to USC and is very happy about it.</p>

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<p>Describing students who apply to USC as “hardcore USC” is pretty accurate. I loved USC before I applied, and I loved it even more as I went through the process of applying (the application really makes you realize the passion you have for the school!). I was admitted to both UCLA and USC, but undoubtedly the USC application process was a lot more special and made me feel much more proud of my acceptance, rather than the UC’s check-and-send method. In short, I had no emotional attachment to UCLA’s acceptance.</p>

<p>Now, if only USC had offered me more doable financial aid… Even with a merit scholarship, the pricetag was way too high for my family. So heartbreaking.</p>

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<p>i’m currently a high school senior and I, along with many of my senior friends, notice a definite, almost formulaic trend of students who get into UCLA/Berkeley, that trend being a very high GPA/SAT. All I was saying is that students who got into USC tend to be much more scattered/random which leads me to believe its more holistic. Never said it was a bad thing, just pointing out the differences in admissions which is what the original question asked about. Now, I’m just pointing out facts I’ve noticed, not trying to attack USC or anything, just trying to answer the question on admission competition. I think It’s more common for students to be accepted to USC but not LA or Berkeley rather than vice versa. There’s that joke “What do a UCLA and USC student share in common? They both got into USC.” Probably not as prevalent as a situation as when the joke was coined (early 2000s)… but still holds weight. A student can get into USC with a 3.5 unweighted GPA, but thats nearly unheard of for admission into UCLA.
** USC’s average freshmen SAT score is also inflated because they superscore the SAT, UCLA does not (another thing to keep in mind).
Then again for USC, a more holistic approach also has its benefits. Leads to more diversity on campus etc. </p>

<p>You would be very surprised how many students consider UCLA their dream school, especially students of Asian descent (including myself). All of my cousins and their friends (all asian) viewed UCLA as their dream school, so I don’t find it surprising that it’s America’s #1 public dream school.</p>

<p>on a personal note, the reason why I admired UCLA so much was for its global name recognition and it being an amazing research university. It’s a research powerhouse, especially its medical center</p>

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<p>Lexapro wrote:</p>

<p>“All I was saying is that students who got into USC tend to be much more scattered/random which leads me to believe its more holistic”. </p>

<p>“There’s that joke “What do a UCLA and USC student share in common? They both got into USC.” Probably not as prevalent as a situation as when the joke was coined (early 2000s)… but still holds weight”.</p>

<p>Lexapro,</p>

<p>I go out of my way to be kind to fellow posters, especially students, but because these posts are read by others, accuracy is important. You state you are enamored by UCLA because it is a research powerhouse, yet fail to do even a minimum amount of data review. Below are the 2011 SAT’s for USC, UCLA and Berkeley. </p>

<p>USC</p>

<p>Test Scores – 25th / 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading: 610 / 720
SAT Math: 670 / 770
SAT Writing: 650 / 740</p>

<p>UCLA
Test Scores – 25th / 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading: 570 / 680
SAT Math: 610 / 740
SAT Writing: 580 / 710</p>

<p>Berkeley
Test Scores – 25th / 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading: 600 / 730
SAT Math: 630 / 760
SAT Writing: 610 / 740</p>

<p>Please note:</p>

<ol>
<li>USC displays higher scores overall than Berkeley.</li>
<li>UCLA is a distant third.</li>
<li>There is the least scatter for USC scores, especially at the 25th%. The lower end cutoff for USC is meaningfully higher than for Berkeley and especially UCLA.</li>
</ol>

<p>There is no objective basis for you assertion that the students who were admitted to USC are more scattered/random, at least in terms of academic potential. In fact, USC students are more uniformly capable, based on SAT scores.</p>

<p>You need a new joke. The one you provide is inappropriate and baseless. Yes, it is true that USC looks for exceptional people as well as exceptional students. As far as your data base (friends and cousins), you might consider trying to expand your horizons and develop friendships to include more of those intelligent, talented people in the world you seem less familiar with and demean.</p>

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<p>I’ve never thought very highly of UCLA students because the students are mostly number-oriented drones whose greatest imagination for a dream school is UCLA. (Yes, I question how academically stellar your friends/family are if their dream school is UCLA. Most of my Asian friends would laugh at that.) OR, they couldn’t get into anywhere else like Berkeley or any of the Ivies, because their numbers were good, but not good enough and they couldn’t write a great essay or didn’t have the extracurriculars/experience that private universities usually like to see. </p>

<p>UCLA also gets twice as many community college transfers as USC, so it’s not like only the smartest people get to go to UCLA. In this regard, they admit plenty of “bad” or “lazy” students. USC has this “problem” too, but everbody knows it’s much more prevalent in the UC System. Kids go to junior college for 2 years, then transfer to a UC. It’s the classic way to play the system, but it kind of puts a damper to what could be a much more intense academic environment. </p>

<p>When I interviewed at USC, I could tell that the student body was very unique…but smart too! When you walk around at USC, you know that each student has a unique story to tell. It’s kind of cool when you think about it that way. Each student is there for a reason and wants to be there. That’s the difference. </p>

<p>So congrats on going to UCLA next year. Don’t go to the library. Ching chong ling long ting tong.</p>

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<p>You are missing stats regarding Unweighted and weighted GPA. I am almost certain that UCLA’s freshmen average GPA is higher than USC, both unweighted and weighted just from observing my recent graduating class (our rank 1 and 2 are going to UCLA, along with top ranked students from nearby local high schools). Also- USC uses superstore. The section breakdowns for USC are the best scores taken from every SAT sitting, not one SAT sitting. Superscoring does tend to inflate the average a little.</p>

<p>UCLA has a larger history of being more focused on research. The internet was born at UCLA, HIV/Aids (forgot which one but think the former) was discovered here, the first open heart surgery was performed at UCLA etc. I would have to strongly disagree that they’re equally seen as prestigious. Look at any prestige ranking and you’ll see huge differences between rankings in both universities, and they’re usually in UCLA’s favor. The Regan MEdical Center is a very well respected center. UCLA’s hospital is the “best in the west” (#1 in Cali and the west), and 5th in the nation. </p>

<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/ronald-reagan-ucla-medical-center-rated-one-top-010404805.html[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/ronald-reagan-ucla-medical-center-rated-one-top-010404805.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It is undeniable that UCLA is a research powerhouse.
UCLA has a really strong international reputation (no one can deny that). It’s international reputation is ridiculous. Reputation wise its ranked 9th, academics ranked 13th. I don’t even see USC anywhere on the list in regards to international name recognition, prestige, and academics. </p>

<p>[Top</a> 400 - The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-2012<a href=“ranked%20#13”>/url</a></p>

<p><a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp[/url]”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]Top”>World University Rankings 2011-12 | Times Higher Education (THE))</a>
(ranked #13)… USC is 46 behind UC Davis and UC IRvine</p>

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<p>and by the way I got into UC Berkeley as well grabbit. For you to state such a comment is ridiculous “OR, they couldn’t get into anywhere else like Berkeley.” Many students who get into UCLA also get into UC Berkeley and vice versa. Actually, this year 17% of california students were admitted to UCLA, and around 21% to Berkeley. Many of my friends got into Berkeley, not LA although it is usually the other case around where they get into Berkeley and not LA.</p>

<p>And my observation is from my graduation class this year. 5 students chose to go to USC, 3 of them had below a 4.0 weighted GPA. around 9 students chose to go to UCLA, all of them had above a 4.2 weighted. It’s observation! I’m just putting out there.</p>

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<p>Medicine:
[|ARWU</a> in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/FieldMED2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/FieldMED2010.jsp)
UCLA: 5
USC: tied for 51-75</p>

<p>Science:
[|ARWU</a> in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/FieldMED2010.jsp#]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/FieldMED2010.jsp#)
UCLA: 6
USC: tied for 51-75</p>

<p>Mathematics
[|ARWU</a> in Mathematics - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/SubjectMathematics2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/SubjectMathematics2010.jsp)
UCLA: 10
USC: tied for 51-76</p>

<p>Business/Econ
[|ARWU</a> in Economics / Business - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/SubjectEcoBus2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/SubjectEcoBus2010.jsp)
UCLA: 17
USC: 35</p>

<p>Social Sciences:
[|ARWU</a> in Social Sciences - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/FieldSOC2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/FieldSOC2010.jsp)
UCLA: 13
USC: 39</p>

<p>Life Sciences:
[|ARWU</a> in Life and Agriculture Sciences - 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/FieldLIFE2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/FieldLIFE2010.jsp)
UCLA: 22
USC: tied for 51-76</p>

<p>*OVERALL:
[|ARWU</a> 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp]|ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp)</p>

<p>UCLA: 13
USC: 46</p>

<p>Mind you, these are NOT small gaps, but rather, very large differences in ranking. And keep in mind, this is ranking based on academics. In terms of reputation, UCLA is ranked 9th in the world. That is why UCLA is my dream school, pretty impressive to me for a school that is lacking state funds yet still manages to maintain such a high reputation amidst the budget crisis. </p>

<hr>

<p>US NEWS 2012 Graduate School Rankings: </p>

<p>Business: UCLA 15 / USC 21
LAW: UCLA 15 / USC 18
Medicine: UCLA 13 / UCLA 34
Engineering: USC 12 / UCLA 16
Education: UCLA 6 / USC 15
Social Work: USC 11 / UCLA 16
Public Affairs: USC 6 / UCLA 23
Fine Arts: UCLA 4 / USC 36</p>

<hr>

<p>These are other comments on CC I found pretty relevant: </p>

<p>“UCLA is actually a good school, from 1919 to 2012. People study here. They do great things afterwards and contribute toward human society. USC, from 1880-1990s, was a school for rich, dumb kids who couldn’t get into a decent college so their filthy rich parents paid for them to go here. When you put a bunch of rich, dumb kids together, they do nothing but party and be dumb. In the end, they end up being successful anyways because they inherit daddy’s fortune 500 company. USC has only been a decent school since the late 1990s/early 2000s. At this point, I would say USC is comparable to UC Irvine or UC San Diego, with the UC schools being slightly better, but in the past, USC was worse than UC Riverside.” </p>

<p>“Also, while not particularly meaningful, is how UCLA doesn’t attempt to “buy” students as USC does by throwing vast amounts of money via their trojan scholarships to about 25% of their student body and then selectively admitting weaker students in their spring admits program and having their stats excluded from fall.”
**^ I found this above statement to be very true. Around half going to SC were admitted in the spring and had significantly lower stats. Half of those were legacy students who had parent alumni as well.</p>

<p>*docfreedaddy, you should really be doing YOUR research and stop glorifying your overrated, “prestigious university” USC, University of Second Choice, University of Special Connections, University of Spoiled Children</p>

<hr>

<p>1) <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1262514-most-overrated-underrated-universities.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1262514-most-overrated-underrated-universities.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2) <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/818350-most-overrated-underrated-colleges-your-state.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/818350-most-overrated-underrated-colleges-your-state.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Most overrated school in california? USC.</p>

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<p>Lexapro,</p>

<p>SAT scores are used to create a level playing field for academic potential prediction. Discounting SAT’s or ACT’s to compare students entering from various high schools (public vs. private/grade inflation vs. stringent) is not valid.</p>

<p>Are you an entering graduate student or undergraduate Your references are all to graduate school? </p>

<p>In either case, based on your posts, yes, I agree, you will likely be very happy at UCLA.</p>

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<p>Hahaha. I can’t take you seriously anymore. You’re clearly a little biased. Sure you don’t have an inferiority complex? ;)</p>

<p>I think most of your UCLA cohorts would cringe at your zeal. You know, hold your arms behind your back while you flail and try to spit some more statistics for god knows what reason. Meanwhile we Trojans are pretty chill, don’t get riled up by whatever rankings list you throw at us, and generally don’t even really think about UCLA, except when it’s football season!</p>

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<p>Lexapro,</p>

<p>Help me out here. I couldn’t find the research you cited:</p>

<p>" 1) Most Overrated and Underrated Universities</p>

<p>2) Most OVERrated and or UNDERrated Colleges in your State ?"</p>

<p>Those links were to a few individual posts on cc.</p>

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<p>First of all I think Grabbit is being a little too biased in order to have an argument that is somehwat valid.
Now, yes, I am a ucla student, but I will try to keep my opinion unbiased. I was accepted to both institutions and there are many many reasons why I chose UCLA, but there are also many many reasons why I should’ve chosen USC as well. Ther are both great institutions, but I have my reasons.
First off, UCLA obviously accepts twice as many students as USC due to sheer size of the respective institution. With that in mind, it is hard to argue the who has the better SAT range argument. Second, UCLA has the duty and obligation under the state of california to serve the top ten-to-twelve percent of students in CA-- USC does not. Therefore USC has an advantage when it comes to SAT scores: the smaller the class the more narrow the threshold to enter in terms of gpa. Another thing, USC superscores SAT scores-- the UC’s do not superscore. I have not seen anything published that fixes this making the SAT score debate semi-invalid.
The argument that USC’s application is more difficult than the UC’s is BS. I filled out the common app, and the only difference was that USC has like ten one-sentence-answer questions like “what’s your favorite food? what’s your favorite book?” and why you chose your major. EASY. Therefore both applications are as much of a “joke” or “difficulty” as the other.
From what I remember UCLA’s acceptance rate was around the high 17% and USC was around 18% for 2012. That is near equal and the true difference probably does not matter.
USC does surpass UCLA on a few rankings-- most famously US News National but 23rd USC 25th UCLA. But there is also the US News international ranking that places UCLA in the thirties and USC in the 130’s if that makes any sense. It does not. I have seen UCLA beat USC in the majority of undergraduate rankings that I have seen-- but that depends on how YOU the STUDENT view the criteria for each ranking. If you think US NEWS is perfect, so be it; if you think it’s a sham, so be it. YOU, the student, possess the ability of discernment. USE IT.
USC does have advantage in sports and in my opinion has the advantage of pride. UCLA students are very very very very proud too, but USC’s pride is almost scary. They also have the advantage in local Los Angeles love due to their football. But that’s a stupid argument considering the average person who wears a ucla or usc t shirt doesn’t even know where they are located in the City of Los Angeles. UCLA has a more national and international recognition than USC AT THE MOMENT. Yes I’m aware of the fact that USC is rising in fame, and yes I’m aware that USC may surpass UCLA’s prestige, but in terms of the PRESENT, UCLA still holds higher world wide prestige.
USC is better for getting a job right out of school due to real world classes. UCLA is better for going to graduate school for the liberal arts and breadth focus.
USC also has easier academics than UCLA because UCLA is more cutthroat and more curved on grading, whilst USC has that private school advantage.</p>

<p>Either way both are great schools and all arguments are stupid because in specific areas one may have the advantage of the other but overall it’s hard to even tell. Their buildings are even the same architecture!
Thank you. I know it was lengthy, I apologize.</p>

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<p>It’s harder to actually quantify the important aspects of a college-- the faculty, the classes, the real students behind the numbers, the research, and the resources. THAT’s what really matters. Not stupid SAT scores or sports teams or acceptance rates. And really, you cant attend every single class at each college and determine which is truly better.</p>

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<p>UCLA does not have a duty to be open to the top 10%+ of California students. Until this past admissions cycle, UC spots were only guaranteed to the top 4%. This changed for the incoming class, to top 9% state wide. And those students were only guaranteed admission to either UC Davis or UC Merced.
As far as GPA, keep in mind the UC’s use their own GPA–sophmore and junior year grades, weighting only 8 semesters.
UCLA’s acceptance rate was 20.5% (see the LA Times). The admit rate for California applicants only was 17.7%, of course both UCLA and USC admit students from outside California. (see the Daily Californian)</p>

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<p>Transfer students are in no way less intelligent or less qualified than freshman students. In fact, many of the transfer students i met were extremely intelligent. They just had to transfer because they had various personal problems that affected them throughout high school. (for transparency purposes, i’m a transfer student.)</p>

<p>people who hold this position are essentially ‘transferists’ who are just prejudiced and have no evidence to support their beliefs.</p>

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<p>How’s it playing the system? Transferring after two years from a CC is in part what the UCs were created for. That’s why they all have preference for CC transfers above other ones.</p>

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<p>As far as i can tell, it’s not a few, but one. Find me another reputable ranking where USC is ranked higher than UCLA. I’ve yet to find one.</p>