Enjoy the fancy meals while you have them because the dining halls at USC are terrible. And although a lot of freshman love to flex Patagonia and wear AirPods everywhere, that doesn’t mean they’re actually rich and most of the time they’re just faking.
@piranhavator Did your room mate issue get resolved in any way? I just saw the thread on that. ugh. I hope that is not ruining your entire experience. Room mates can be way more important/influential than the physical traits of a building.
Most school’s dining halls start out great and by this time of the year, they are all terrible as people are sick of them. My kids had and have full meal plans but even as freshman ate at a lot of other places to keep it fresh.
@CADREAMIN thanks for checking in. My suite mate and I have been pretty clear with him that we are unhappy with some of his habits. He’s gotten a little better, not much though. But I only have to deal with him for another two months so I’m just sucking it up until the end of the year.
Re: dining halls, my son and I had lunch at USC and dinner at UCLA on the same day a few weeks back. USC was very mediocre and UCLA was shockingly good. Go figure.
Ya, UCLA has always had good food reputation. No room mate matching and too many triples but better food. At USC it also depends on which hall you eat at, there are two known to be way better than the others, which I suppose means the others aren’t so good.
@piranhavator Ya, a sucky room mate is brutal. My D got into an just as weird a situation as well this year (even though she knew her room mates going in) and was able to switch to a single in the fall - thank goodness that worked out. Yours sounded like a situation where you just have to see your room as a place to sleep and that’s it. Sorry that happened. Frankly, I think a lot of students from every school find themselves in that situation every year. It’s not always like a Disney movie that’s for sure. I hope you are set up well for next year and can put this behind you!
I know three students with Trustee scholarships at USC (one in Thorton’s School of Music, the other double majoring in engineering/pre-med at Viterbi and music at Thorton, and the third – with a strong background and interest in theatre --is in the Iovine Academy.
None of these students are are “rah-rah”/fraternity types – in fact, quite the opposite. All are highly collaborative learners and none exudes wealth – extreme or otherwise. They have not described a competitive vibe at USC – in fact, quite the opposite. All are enjoying their experiences at USC, have found their respective “tribes” and have absolutely no regrets in making the choice to attend USC. My D, on the other hand, turned down the Trustee Scholarship as she did not feel that USC would be a good fit for her socially (that said, she liked it more after attending Explore USC than she thought she would before she went). When it came down to it, however, she had other full-tuition merit options at schools she felt might be better fits for her socially, had the UCs as a fallback, and had been accepted to H, Y, P, S, UChicago, and Duke, so she had a number of choices. That said, I have no doubt whatsoever that had she gone the USC route, she would ultimately have found her tribe and would have flourished there.
The Honors College at the Village looks pretty darn nice and I’ve heard good things about some of the other special interest Residential Colleges.