<p>I am an international student from india admitted to these three colleges</p>
<p>My intended major is Mechanical Engineering but I might switch to Electrical Engineering.
I also want to minor in a business related subject. </p>
<p>I am leaning towards USC a little, but am still very confused</p>
<p>USC- Private- hence smaller classes, more overall prestige(I think). Has a minor in business administration, better overall college experience, most expensive of three, not so good neighbourhood.</p>
<p>UCLA- cheaper, better engineering, ranked a bit higher, better location</p>
<p>UCSD; best engineering program of the three.</p>
<p>You’ve got your info all wrong. UCLA and USC have equally good engineering programs and are far more prestigious than UCSD. If you’re searching for overall prestige for engineering, UCLA is what you want. BUT, USC offers a lot of benefits due to the Trojan family connections and the simply fact that it’s a private school!</p>
<p>UCLA is currently the most prestigious of the three (in the U.S and internationally) but USC has been rising fast in the last couple of years. You should visit both of them but honestly, you can’t go wrong with either. </p>
<p>I got into SC out of high school but could not go due to the $50k price tag. I couldn’t get them to give me more financial aid so I went to UCI. If I were you and money was =, I would go to UCLA.</p>
<p>@HeatZz Why would u choose ucla over usc. In india both are equally regarded. Plus usc is a private institute, hence has much more advantages.
It is not possible for me to visit the universities.</p>
<p>UCSD has a great engineering school. They recently introduced a business minor through Rady so I would definitely consider them. You really cannot lose by choosing one over the other.</p>
<p>Question is, does money matter in your situation. If going to USC is going to be costly for you in terms that you might end up with $100K+ student debt, then you should reconsider the option of USC. UCLA is indeed cheaper but tuition prices fluctuate cause its public, but I doubt it’ll ever reach USCs standard tuition in your lifetime. There is a limited amount of “advantages” for USC and class sizes probably won’t be one of them. In comparison to a majority of other privates, USC is huge in comparison the the number of undergrads. The greatest pro of it would be alumni network, but that would be useless if you plan on doing graduate school. In terms of engineering ranking, UCLA and UCSD would top USC. Based off NRC rankings UCLA for Mech. Engineering #19 program rank and #16 Scholarly rank; UCSD #6 and #3 respectively. Now for Electrical engineering UCLA #6 and #5 and UCSD #12 and #9. So they both are better than another in respects to which type of engineering you’re into</p>
<p>^For an International student who will pay approximately $55,000/year for UCLA or UCSD, the cost difference between a UC and USC will be about $7,000/year, or a total of about $28,000 over four years.</p>
<p>Please read some of the candid comments from poster, Viterbi Student, on this board. He gives you a good view of his experience at SC.</p>
<p>Keep in mind SC is not suffering from the budget cuts at either UCLA or UCSD. Also, the student/faculty ratio at SC is lower. There are no impacted majors at SC. </p>
<p>SC has alumni groups in India and an office in your country. The USC President and SC representatives have traveled to India and visited with prominent alumni and representatives of the Indian government.
Ratan N. Tata serves on the USC Board of Trustees.</p>
<p>Thanks Georgia Girl - I hope my experiences have helped people with this difficult choice!</p>
<p>To the original poster of this thread, I have some things I can share for you here too:</p>
<p>You mention possibly switching majors, and USC is a great school to choose for that. All you have to do if you want to switch is talk to your adviser. USC admits you to all engineering majors at the same time, and you can switch pretty freely without falling behind. There are also lots of resources like upperclassmen mentors and Viterbi events highlighting each major that can help you decide, since they know it’s a tough choice. This flexibility is one of the main reasons I chose SC</p>
<p>Another benefit is that you start to get taking classes in your engineering major first semester and have a steady stream throughout all four years instead of just doing general education for a year or two before starting engineering. I like this because it paces the curriculum well and it let me figure out right away whether or not my major was right for me (it was!).</p>
<p>You’re definitely right about our small classes here as well. There are ~2200 undergrads in Viterbi (spread across over 30 majors and areas of emphasis), which lends itself to a very strong student community and lets students get to know their faculty well. You will also not have problems getting into the classes you need here to graduate on time. USC has plenty of resources to accommodate all its students, and getting my classes has never been an issue at all.</p>
<p>The Trojan Family alumni network, as a previous poster mentioned, is also a fantastic resource. Between reaching out to our alumni and utilizing the USC and Viterbi career centers (we have our own career center just for Viterbi students that brings in over a hundred companies each semester to recruit), my friends and I have found lots of internships and job opportunities.</p>
<p>USC also has one of the most diverse campuses in the world, with students from over 100 countries, so there are a lot of opportunities to interact with students from every culture. This is different from the UCs where the majority of students are from California.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!
Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>I picked UC Irvine (part of the UC system) over USC in high school, not UCLA…I did not get admitted to UCLA out of high school. And I did it because I did not feel paying $50k for undergrad was worth it. </p>
<p>I also forgot you were an oos student. In your case I would just go with USC. I still maintain that UCLA has the better overall reputation and recognition currently (by a large margin) but USC has been improving at a crazy pace the past few years.</p>
<p>Since you like private schools, this seems to be an easy choice for you.</p>