<p>Hey :)
I've read countless threadss emphasizing USC's positives and how great the school is, but this is a thread for those to comment about things that may not be so good about USC! Ex: dorms, dining halls, You Name It!</p>
<p>It's just so I can get a whole other perspective on this school :) </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>bumpp</p>
<p>Unlikely to get answers for this because if anything is posted that is negative, the moderators of the forum pull the post, which is why it has a Pollyanna feel to it. It’s all rainbows here. CC does not operate under the freedom of speech principles. It is regulated, just fyi…I suppose they are trying to keep it in a positive helpful tone, but a lot of reality is edited out from many school sites, not just USC’s. Let’s see if the thread lasts for more than a day or two…</p>
<p>blueskies,
What evidence do you have that negative posts are pulled from this forum? The long time volunteers here are just that…volunteers. Moderators are from CC and have no affiliation with SC. There have been occasions in the past when a volunteer asked CC owners to remove a post due to obscene language which is not allowed on the CC website.</p>
<p>I think you should visit the campus if you can to decide your “fit” Something that may seem “bad” to others may be plus for others. Most preferences are based on class size, social life, academic intensity, opportunities. If you like a mid to large size school with all around opportunities (socially and academically) I presume USC would fit the mold. If you are looking for a small LAC type school and don’t care for sports, that would be a reason many choose Pomona…so preference is just personal. Other than that, you may want to compare your major at USC vs the other schools.</p>
<p>@Georgia Girl. Experience. I posted on the appeals thread a couple days ago that if they had to ask other people what to put in an appeal, then they probably shouldn’t be appealing. Also told them the original poster that they were asking help from hadn’t been around for over a year. I worded that “OP had left the building.” No colorful language, I suppose that statement about appealing was harsh, but it was an opinion that should not have been deleted. That post lasted an hour or two before it was deleted - in which case as you describe the “volunteers” asked moderators to delete it. Not just mine, I have seen others disappear. That is one of the problems with the USC forum on cc, it is much too regulated by the volunteers, cough cough, I mean moderators. People should be able to speak their mind, not deleted without justification - obscenities, racial insults, the regular unacceptable stuff of course should be deleted. For as progressive as the school is, I am surprised free speech isn’t represented better here. You can go to any other site and see real conversations about issues, positive or negative. </p>
<p>USC is a good school. For us the financial aid was poor (it would have cost us about $50,000 more over four years than Vanderbilt), and the on-campus housing is limited. </p>
<p>There are some aspects that I thought needed improvement but those things may not affect you and your education, its hard to say broad generalizations that don’t hold true for every student.</p>
<p>OP, your question is a value judgment and as you can imagine, the world is filled with college kids who represent a wide spectrum of such values. I’ve always thought it significant that USC has a reputation of having so many varied Schools and majors and types of students, and yet—it also has a large number of happy students. I infer from that that USC works hard to make a lot of disparate type of students satisfied.</p>
<p>Other ways to guage the good vs. bad at a school is to note the number of students who transfer out. Perhaps if applications to a school are declining over a number of years, or if the yield goes down (meaning a lot of admitted kids don’t attend) that might or might not be a sign. But none of that matters. It’s about what you want in a school and if a certain school has a good track record in providing that. It might help you to think about what are the most important qualities to you–then post specific questions about those qualities. Best of luck.</p>
<p>South Central. :)</p>
<p>
@blueskies2day - The post you are looking for is right here: <a href=“How to write USC Appeals? - #36 by blueskies2day - University of Southern California - College Confidential Forums”>How to write USC Appeals? - #36 by blueskies2day - University of Southern California - College Confidential Forums; . You must have missed it when you looked for it. As you say, there is nothing in it that should have caused it to be deleted, and it wasn’t.</p>
<p>The girls are very “bad” (if you know what I mean).</p>
<p>@Bouncer</p>
<p>Stereotype alert. </p>
<p>The school spirit can be elevated to near cult-like status at times and the campus has a drinking problem (like many universities with entrenched fraternities and sororities), but it’s still pretty awesome.</p>
<p>Hmm well USC is a great school overall and I’m certainly happy with my college choice, but parts of it have alwasy rankled me, as someone who didn’t grow up in Southern California going to games at the Coliseum. I’ll be curious to hear what others have to say.</p>
<p>1) USC is full of itself. There are plenty of great schools out there but they don’t all magically believe that their stuff doesn’t stink. People choose to go to other schools for plenty of valid reasons, and it’s not because they didn’t get in to USC or weren’t qualified. I know plenty of people who never applied because they just didn’t like the school. It can come across as very stand-off-ish and cliquish to outsiders.</p>
<p>2) As mentioned above, USC doesn’t have nearly enough housing. They advertise nationally and globally but don’t have enough housing to accommodate even the domestic students who stay year-round. Being in a major city, students don’t necessarily go home for the summer (they work internships in the city) but the university somehow still operates that way.</p>
<p>3) USC is annoying and elitist. Corollary to #1. USC seems to only care about academic excellence to the extent that it’s reflected in rankings rather than in, say, intellectual curiosity. You won’t see stupid / funny / clever things like Stanford’s band or Caltech’s many pranks at USC. What you will see are more than a few BMWs (this being the culture of Southern California) and people who think they’re better than you, along with the incredibly pretentious mascot of a Trojan knight riding around on a white horse waving a sword. You won’t ever see something stupid / funny / clever like Stanford’s tree or UC Santa Cruz and its banana slugs.</p>
<p>4) USC always seems to have one ethics scandal after another. A year or two ago the engineering school was accused of fudging the number of national academy members which affected its departmental rankings in U.S. News. Then there was the whole nightmare of O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush. The basketball coach Kevin O’Neill got into a fight (?) in an elevator during the Pac 12 tournament. Those sorts of stupid things.</p>
<p>5) USC’s medical school is not nearly as good as UCLA’s. USC’s is top 30-40 whereas UCLA’s is top 5-10.</p>
<p>6) USC has a lousy history of anti-Semitism. During World War II, its president Dr. Von Kleinsmid was rumored to be a Nazi sympathizer, which of course worked wonders for the university’s relationship with the Jewish community. One of the past presidents of the board of trustees was Stanley Gold of Shamrock Holdings (affiliated with the Disney company) as an effort to help mend that relationship, but historically the Jewish community has sided with UCLA rather than USC for that reason.</p>
<p>7) USC buys talent but can’t grow its own. The university is 130+ years old and only had its second Nobel Prize this past year. It also gives out a lot of merit aid which others see as a desperate attempt to climb the rankings.</p>
<p>On balance I still think that USC is a great, great, great school but of course no school is perfect. USC also has a brilliant future ahead of it although the above things have always annoyed me about the school. I’m happy with my choice, although there are plenty of people who loathe USC for the above reasons.</p>
<p>As someone who is familiar with USC having grown up in SoCal and numerous family and friends attending, I will say some drawbacks recently have been: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>An obsession by the administration in rankings. </p></li>
<li><p>Campus has a very sterile, generic feeling. Has a Disney-esque planned vibe that just seems make-believe to me. Plopped down in middle of an auto-centric city with super wide boulevards and massive parking structures. Not a very pedestrian friendly off-campus environment.</p></li>
<li><p>Lane Kiffin hiring and firing. Steve Sarkisian hiring. Seems like they’re settling for unproven coaches. Too much reliance on insiders.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I like USC because I have to say it’s a million times more original than Westwood High. </p>
<p>Thankfully, many of these bad things have been or are being addressed:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>USC Shoah Foundation is more indicative of USC today than the views of a long gone administrator. (sfi.usc.edu/)</p></li>
<li><p>Stupid / clever / funny things include Skull & Dagger’s annual prank, student-run satirical website Sack of Troy (<a href=“http://www.sackoftroy.com/”>www.sackoftroy.com/</a>), and the new basketball mascots (<a href=“Story Archives - USC Athletics”>www.usctrojans.com/blog/2013/11/tt.html</a>; the more persnickety fans are still warming up to them).</p></li>
<li><p>USC’s acquisition of its hospitals and ongoing cash infusions from the W.M. Keck Foundation support continued improvement in the med school.</p></li>
<li><p>The lack of student housing should be alleviated by USC Village, though that’s years and years from completion. (village.usc.edu)</p></li>
<li><p>Re pedestrian friendliness, the MyFigueroa project should help. (<a href=“http://www.myfigueroa.com”>www.myfigueroa.com</a>). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>And some of these bad things, I think, will ultimately lead to good. For example, “buying talent” accelerates the creation of environments conducive to producing homegrown ones – that applies to both faculty and students. To be the best, you learn from and work with the best. </p>
<p>“Nikias has articulated a vision and set a strategy for USC to attain undisputed, elite status as a global research university”; that’s straight from usc.edu. As USC moves closer to that goal, the administration’s preoccupation with rankings should naturally wane. Rankings will be of less concern once USC finds itself perennially among the top.</p>
<p>Some other things are personal preference. As an undergrad, I was pleased with USC’s safe and sterile campus. As a grad student, eccentric and organic Berkeley suited me just fine.</p>
<p>Bad professors. Not unique to USC at all, but at every major university you’ll find people who shouldn’t be teaching. Whether it’s a section of 15 or a lecture of 150, USC should heed more attention to feedback and make reviews more accessible. They tried a few years back and I think funding got pulled when it made their ‘claim to fame’ professors look bad.</p>
<p>Luckily, the new digital anonymous feedback system does give comments to professors and admins. Hopefully the professors who could stand to improve will care enough to improve their courses and provide more valuable learning experiences. I think this will increase quality at multiple levels over the next few years.</p>
<p>The bad: hoards of transfer students, too many spring admits, several tiers of students (true freshmen, transfers, spring admits), too many undergrads (Nikias wants USC to be larger than Penn State), </p>