<p>When will this magazine actually hit the news stands???</p>
<p>USC will pass Berkeley, proving that being surrounded by street gangs is better than being surrounded by homeless neo-hippies.</p>
<p>My prediction:</p>
<ol>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Columbia</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li> Penn</li>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> Chicago</li>
<li> Darmouth</li>
<li> Duke</li>
<li> Caltech</li>
</ol>
<p>Schmalz,</p>
<p>Have you ever toured the SC campus? It is in an urban area, but the surrounding blocks are being purchased by the university and there has been large scale new building in university park outside of the campus. Added have been the Galen Center, Gateway Building and new Catholic Center, among others. The huge University Village will encompass acres of land adjacent to the campus proper. </p>
<p>The campus has many landscaped areas with fountains and courtyards. Alumni park is shaded by flowering tropical trees as well as eucalyptus, evergreens and palms. There are beds of roses and other flowers. Walkways are lined with colorful plants and shrubs. Students enjoy outdoor cafes. By the Thornton School of Music buildings permanent music stands are used for outdoor practices. The campus has been the setting for many films and TV shows which feature the red brick buildings, courtyards and archways.</p>
<p>There have been large scale changes which have taken place in the surrounding area. These have added better shopping, green spaces, housing and rehabilitation of older structures.</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve been there. Just because there are lots of trees and fountains on campus and a demilitarized zone around it, it doesn’t mean there isn’t gang activity very close by.</p>
<p>But the information does not stop there. Unlike Penn and Columbia and other urban campuses, the neighbors around USC, including the alleged gangs, actually like USC and protect the school. During the Watts and Rodney King riots, USC remained unscathed. Why? Because unlike some schools, USC actually cares about its neighbors and hires them regularly. This fosters good will among the neighbors and gangs, who respect and admire USC and its students and alumni. It helps tremendously having a stellar football team to which young men in particular are attracted. USC was named Time Magazine’s College of 2000 in large part because of its community outreach. And unlike the East Coast, the “ghettos” of Los Angeles differ remarkably. The poor in South L.A. actually have houses and YARDS, including stand alone garages, something notably missing in the East Coast ghettos surrounding Columbia and Penn. South L.A. used to be a fairly affluent place (pre-WWII), and the modest homes remain. And, not many know this, but USC was built where it is today because in the late 1800s, it was an upper middle class enclave of L.A.'s wealthy. The “row,” which contains USC’s fraternities and sororities, was where most of L.A.'s rich lived during the Victorian years. St. Mary’s College next to USC also was a rich neighborhood. When the movie industry exploded, the rich relocated to Beverly Hills. You are much safer walking the streets surrounding USC at night than anywhere in Harlem or West Philly, both exceptionally dangerous places.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>you ever been to NYC/Philly and the areas around these campuses? It doesn’t sound like you have in decades. NYC is the safest big city in the US, Manhattan is the safest borough and columbia is in one of the safest neighborhoods in Manhattan. Look up some crime stats once in a while, it might help you realize how far off stereotypes can mislead you. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>again look up crime stats for Harlem and compare them to the average LA neighborhood. I’ve been in Harlem many times at night and I have several friends (alumni, grad students and a few current undergrads) who chose to live in the heart of harlem and love it, no issue with crime whatsoever. I have colleagues at my wall street firm who live in Harlem and they don’t need to for the money. Harlem is getting pricey quickly and for good reason. Your views are outdated by approximately 15-25 years.</p>
<p>
Indeed, they are. For example, over the past 15 years, Penn has become a leading national model as an urban university that has sucessfully engaged with and significantly improved its surrounding neighborhood, as described at length in this 2006 article from The Washington Post:</p>
<p>[Urban</a> Colleges Learn to Be Good Neighbors](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html]Urban”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html)</p>
<p>In fact, somewhat ironically given BostonTW’s post, Penn was recently tied with USC at the very top of a national ranking of colleges that are “good neighbors” to their surrounding communities:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> and Southern Cal Top Ranking of Good-Neighbor Colleges - Administration - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/PennSouthern-Cal-Top/48787/]Penn”>http://chronicle.com/article/PennSouthern-Cal-Top/48787/)</p>
<p>[2012</a> Best Colleges Preview: Top 25 National Universities - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/12/2012-best-colleges-preview-top-25-national-universities]2012”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/12/2012-best-colleges-preview-top-25-national-universities)</p>
<p>Top 25 universities are the same as last year, and once again, there’s a 3-way tie for 25th place (since there are 27 universities listed).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/09/2012-best-colleges-preview-top-10-national-liberal-arts-colleges?s_cid=related-links:TOP[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/09/2012-best-colleges-preview-top-10-national-liberal-arts-colleges?s_cid=related-links:TOP</a></p>
<p>Top 10 LACs are the same, except Davidson is out and Claremont McKenna is in.</p>
<p>phuriku,
Last year there were ties among the top 25 universities. There was a tie for #5, #7, #9 (3), #13 and others. There was a tie for #25 among Wake Forest, UVA and UCLA.</p>
<p>^ I am sure that phuriku is aware that there were ties last year. He is not commenting on how many schools in the top 25 may be tied, his point is that if there are 27 schools listed in the top 25, that means you can deduce there is at least one certain tie - there are 3 schools tied for 25th place.</p>
<p>So no new schools entered</p>
<p>
Not necessarily. It could be 4 at 24th, etc. Or Penn at 1st, the rest 26 schools tied at 2nd.</p>
<p>US News is releasing the rankings at midnight tonight. When will the magazines be available to purchase? Tomorrow?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>It is surprising that a clueless storage worker has not placed the last edition on the shelves of a Barnes and Noble yet.</p>
<p>If it’s like last year, they’ll release the list a few hours before midnight.</p>
<p>I’m calling the top 10 now:</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
</ol>
<p>My new top 25:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>WUStL</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Wake Forest</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>UVA</li>
</ol>
<p>
There have been multiple shootings just off Penn’s campus in the last 5 years, including during the day or early evening and at seemingly safe places like a diner and a movie theater. I remember the buzz on CC a couple of years ago when a Penn student was shot coming back from a frat party. </p>
<p>Penn has put a lot of money into the community, yes. Yale, Duke, and several other places have too. Most students enjoy those areas, and many alums are staunch supporters of their alma maters’ “bad” locations (I certainly am). At the same time, there’s no getting around the fact that certain colleges are in areas that are more dangerous than average. Some posters seem to think that if 50+% of students in an area are not mugged, it’s “safe.” I disagree. I particularly love the qualifiers that tend to do more to scare than reassure at some colleges. “We have the country’s largest private police force!” “We’re ranked the safest campus because we’ve installed gunshot detectors all around campus.” “As long as you don’t go more than two blocks north, one block west, or three blocks south, you’re totally okay.” Obviously I wouldn’t tell students to avoid such colleges, and I spent a lot of time as a tour guide convincing people to come to Duke, but I wouldn’t tell them it’s extremely safe off campus either. </p>
<p>As for USC, I won’t comment on crime, but I will say that I personally think LA is far from ideal for college students, due to poor public transit, exorbitant prices, and the sprawling feel of the city. The weather and beach are admittedly nice. I think it’s possible to balance a large city and colleges (Boston does it reasonably well), but LA hasn’t quite managed it, I think.</p>
<p>
In the case of the vast majority of these urban schools (Penn, Chicago, Columbia, Yale, etc.), it’s actually more than 99% who are not mugged. I know you were exaggerating for effect, but let’s not get carried away. Yes, urban campuses require levels of vigilance and common sense perhaps not reuired in more suburban or rural settings (although we all know of unfortunate violent incidents on even the most rural of campuses), but the vast majority of the tens of thousands of kids who attend these urban schools each year do so without incident, and enjoy and appreciate their urban campuses.</p>
<p>The kids at these schools could easily choose to attend comparable schools in suburban or rural environs, yet hundreds of thousands of the brightest high school students in the country continue to apply to–and tens of thousands of them choose to attend–these urban universities. If these urban campuses were as dangerous as some on CC try to make out, I seriously doubt that they would continue to attract the large numbers of top applicants and matriculants that they do.</p>
<p>But I know that warblersrule is well aware of that. ;)</p>