Top engineering, medical, dentistry, music, theatre, and cinema schools. Nobel winners, MacArthur winners, top researchers. What more do people want? YES it used to be a mediocre school compared to UCLA, but times have changed. Glad my son will be a Trojan in the fall. Also, great diversity and first gen numbers. it may be “about the money” but they actually give that money to students in scholarships, including my son.
I think USC has surpassed Berkeley and UCLA at an undergraduate level. But academic reputations are built on research, graduate and professional programs. USC is still below Berkeley and UCLA in those respects, although it’s closing the gap.
While I’m very proud of what USC has achieved, I also get frustrated and embarrassed by the nonstop string of scandals that seem to occur at the school. My undergraduate school has never done anything to embarrass me the way USC sometimes does. I always dismissed calls for change at the top of the USC administration in the past, but now I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring in a new leadership team - one that doesn’t compromise on values while it chases rankings.
An article entitled “Scandal after scandal focuses scrutiny on USC leadership, culture” came out this morning in the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-usc-scandals-20180520-htmlstory.html
I’ll chime in as someone who lives in Southern California, knows many USC alums and some great kids either going there now or who were admitted this year. First, I can’t quite shake the stereotype of what USC used to be when I was growing up. But more recently, I was completely turned off by a very large group of USC students in a fraternity/sorority weekend bash on Catalina. I witnessed disgusting and outrageous behavior in public where there were lots of little kids around. Does that kind of behavior happen at other colleges? Yes, of course. But I happened to see it firsthand with these USC students and was appalled–and USC certainly hasn’t shaken its image as a very hard partying school.
But to get to the main question posed in this thread, I dislike USC–the only college I actively dislike–because I think top leadership has acted repeatedly with an utter lack of integrity in a way that has put students and patients at risk. The Puliafito scandal was horrendous and the board of trustees did nothing. The ability to fund-raise apparently was all that mattered. The latest scandal and cover-up is just as bad, if not worse. Those poor international students who had no idea of what was being done to them. I respect the USC students who are actively trying to force action. I do think change to the culture will only come from within–from a change in leadership at the top forced by current students and alums.
And thanks to the LA Times for its investigative work in breaking both of these stories.
It’s amazing to me how some people can dislike an entire school based on the actions of a few. I get the whole sports rivalry aspect, but to read these comments about disliking a school based on the behavior of a small subset of actors is ridiculous. USC is a large, diverse university with the vast majority of students, faculty and staff working very hard and doing the right things. I could list many great programs and accomplishments by USC affiliated people but I suspect that would not alter the fixed minds so intent on validating their unwavering opinions.
No doubt USC is going through a rough patch right now. The senior leadership has demonstrated a lack of sound judgement and questionable ethics, and yes, there are some students that exhibit bad behavior. But to stereotype and generalize this small group to the vast majority of amazing and inspiring people is unfair, and frankly, small minded.
Well said, @blueskies2day
I chose USC for the fantastic weather, a chance to get into the entertainment industry and to help people and change the world using the MSW I’m studying for. I’m a proud Dragon, Terp and now Trojan.
Sorry but USC’s med school is still way behind UCLA.
People on this thread put good responses as to why people dislike USC, so I won’t get into that.
I’m from Los Angeles and let me point out some unique or distinctive things about USC:
• Top-notch athletics at the NCAA Division I FBS level (only ~130 colleges can say this) with a superior performance in NCAA championships and beyond
• One of the 5 tier 1 research universities in Los Angeles area, along with UCLA, UCI, UCR, and Caltech (one of the 3 private in Cali, with Caltech and Stanford)
• I do data analysis a lot (am a Statistics major) on the side and USC has the largest alumni base from a private school in California, one of the top in the nation to go over 200K with schools like NYU and Harvard (LinkedIn)
• Located in downtown Los Angeles…get past the crime, run-down areas and facilities, and homeless people (who are chill in my experience), and the opportunities are endless
• Established itself with known programs (film, medicine, etc.). In other words, it has people referring to USC as (Oh I know a good X school! USC is one!)
Rivalries aside, there is no reason to disrespect USC. I personally wouldn’t go there because I don’t like private schools (this is just ME), but it would be one of the few I would go to if I had to.
To conclude, if you think this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California#Rankings) is bad, seriously? Get off your high horse
I’m not sure who presbuckley is, but I have nothing personal against USC. They just don’t quite have the academic rep of their aspirational peers. It takes decades to build rep – decades of successful and robust research, selectivity, faculty awards and successful publications, and being known for strength in many departments. Zero in on the academic rep ratings of USNews and in the Fiske guide to begin to grasp USC’s lack of rep compared to most schools ranked near them (and some ranked markedly below them).
But if academic rep is a relative weakness, they must be excelling elsewhere to be doing so well in the USNews ranking. Same with Wake Forest – I’d be interested to see where they are excelling.
@presbuckley, USC has a world class academic reputation. Why do you hate her so?
USC gives me the impression of someone who is trying too hard to impress others, almost seeming desperate in its pursuit. Sometimes the more desperate you look, the less people respect you. I get that frantic vibe here from USC defenders. There’s always that refrain that USC has plenty of money and therefore it will soon surpass the cash-strapped publics UCLA and UCB and be within spitting distance of Stanford in the rankings. Well, money is good, but it can’t buy everything. USC’s endowment is almost double the size of UCLA’s, yet it only manages to tie UCLA and UCB for 21st place in the latest US News ranking. How pathetic is that?
USC is a great university, but you gain more respect by doing the work while oblivious to its impact on your ranking. In other words, please churn out outstanding academic output, the rankings be damned. Stop being so self-conscious about your ranking and your “high selectivity”.
It’s a great university with lots of money, but pathetic because it wasn’t able to use its money to beat UCLA and UCB.
While I see your point, USC is my alma mater, and while I enjoy cc, I remain stunned by the legions of USC-haters here. And while certainly all schools have their detractors, none come close to USC. I also follow Michigan posts on cc–I’ve not seen a single anti-Blue post (though I’m sure they happen from time to time).
The mere fact that non-Trojans follow the USC thread section, then choose to post how “bad a rep” or “pathetic” they think USC is, is frankly very telling.
As to your last point, I expect this thread will be closed soon. I’d actually have let this thread die out, but posters keep attacking so I keep defending…must be that “other mother” thing 
@gyrase777, pardon me. Your op on this thread was clearly very pro-USC and positive all round. How silly of me to initially think othwrwise? Thanks and Fight On! :)>-
Totally agree with @10s4life This is a circular redundant conversation. Eventually there is someone that feels insecure and needs to defend their choice to attend a big public school or some other option, and attacks USC over and over again. Wash-rinse-repeat. Yawwwwn. Everyone knows when someone puts something down it is because they are insecure or lacking that in themselves.
USC people don’t feel that need to defend themselves or USC, they know they are one of the best and why. They also know there are other great schools out there. No insecurity there. If ya got it, ya got it. And if you go to USC, you get this.
@blueskies2day, great input as always. Also great input re today’s news in the other thread --very balanced and fair to all involved.
This thread was started by USCwolverine who, without prompting, started the thread ostensibly to defend USC from criticism that didn’t exist until this thread was started. In fact, I - a relative newbie to CC - didn’t even pay attention to USC until i saw this thread. So thanks to the OP, I now know that USC has lots of detractors.
@gyrase777, I don’t believe you, but I appreciate you spending your time and energy contributing to my thread nonetheless.
I actually made very clear why I started this thread, and no, it wasn’t made “without prompting.”
Please re-read the brilliant comment #4. USC has long been one of the most hated universities in the country. Many people associated with rival schools hate seeing it rise up through the rankings, so they feel the need to convince themselves, and others, that the rankings aren’t justified.
Public universities don’t need to focus on endowments the way privates do, because the publics get taxpayer money. Up until the last six or seven years, when it started a large fundraising drive to raise $6 billion, USC has only had a modest endowment. The UCs have had much more money available to them than USC has had.
That said, I do often cringe when alumni, or parents of alumni, work so hard to puff up the school to others. We’ll know USC has arrived when the people associated with it have enough self-confidence in the school not to feel the need to do that.