WHy is USC better than UCLA?

<p>i just wanted to make sure your sample was isolated to something, seeing as how i wont probably be going to washington, either for work or grad school, so it may not be as applicable to me, even though i may look at grad schools on the east coast and just from a school/degree standpoint want to have comparable good placement considering my competition, but unless i was considering Georgetown, i dont think i'd find myself in washington.</p>

<p>Just to fill in the other side, I think USC has the advantage over UCLA and Cal in the East and Midwest in terms of business. For UCLAri and the poly sci degree, it is probably the reverse (my sister did poly sci from UCLA, then UCLA Law, so I have a view on this). But, for example, whenever you listen to the business summary on NPR (a notorious liberal media outlet), the summaries are prepared by the USC School of Business. Similarly, in many businesses USC graduates from the school of engineering are common, and the prestige of USC fars outweighs UCLA in engineering.</p>

<p>So, while I agree that the major you take in college may not seem critical, the degree you get (business, engineering, poly sci, history, etc) is really important in how your education is seen afterwards by others.</p>

<p>In my view, the top two are Stanford and Cal Tech (usually for different reasons), followed by a top three of USC, Cal, and UCLA in that order, for overall respect.</p>

<p>USC above Cal on the East Coast? How did you come to that conclusion? And I've said this a million times, but here we go again...</p>

<p>It's pol*i* sci, not poly sci. It's the study of politics, not many sciences.</p>

<p>That's right, I said Cal is full of communists. (sarcasm)</p>

<p>When I said Cal represents negative aspects of our society (i.e. communism), I meant that there are a good number of students who do not like the capitalist environment that America is in. If you dispute that, then you're ignorant. Of course Cal is not full of communists. It would be impossible to make such a blanket statement about such a huge school, especially when the largest registered student group is the Cal Republicans. But the anti-establishment, anti-capitalist, anti-Americanism is alive and well at Berkeley, and that's why I would never go there. If you would like to know more, you should read "Radical Son" by David Horowitz. That same mentality can be found at UCLA, but I wouldn't think it's anything like Cal.</p>

<p>Fight On!</p>

<p>FresnoTrojan,</p>

<p>That kind of element is to be found at any college. Some, you have to look harder for it.</p>

<p>Who cares what those students think, anyway? Does it hurt YOU in any way? You're there to study and learn. </p>

<p>As JS Mill said, the only way to improve your arguments is to challenge them constantly.</p>

<p>UCLAri ~ I guess I've arrived at my conclusion by living a bit longer than you...I started four companies, run several others, hired over 500 college graduates in all fields from all schools, lived (for years) in each of LA, SF, Chicago, Boston, DC, and overseas...</p>

<p>I take the point of poli sci! And UCLA is excellent in that area.</p>

<p>Fair enough. I've not found it to be true (having lived in many places myself, albeit lacking your experience.) But, I can certainly respect the different outlook.</p>

<p>Although I certainly wish USC had a much larger name outside of CA compared to UCLA from what I've gathered, in some circles its on par with UCLA or better (such as Wall St. Representation), though often it is not.</p>

<p>And Berkeley? Berkeley is just too much of a name for either UCLA or USC to compete against. Again, this isn't going on quality of school, merely name popularity, name recognition, and perceived prestige.</p>

<p>Eh, who cares. In the end, it's YOU who makes the difference. I for one plan on being quite successful, despite my school's name, good or otherwise.</p>

<p>yeah reasonabledad, thats kind of what i was wondering as far as the degree i was earning goes, and i'm not surprised seeing as the specific program is one of the best on the west coast, so it should be one of the mroe noticed.</p>

<p>what does surprise me though is the "overall" resepect thing you said you've experienced in your line of work, pleasant to know, but intersting.</p>

<p>If you are in California, growing up there, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the rest of the country respects California schools the way the west coast does...</p>

<p>I grew in So Cal, and was shocked to learn that people in the east would compare, say PennState to UCLA or Northwestern to Berkeley, and even more they would sometimes feel the Califronia schools were second in the comparison! It really ticked me off as a Californian, especially since so few of my friends had considered these eastern schools as being meaningful (I knew lots of stuff at 16 that didn't turn out to be exactly like I thought it was...).</p>

<p>Anyway, I personally think UCLAri is 100% correct when he says that your schooling is what you make of it. I also suggest to every near-freshman that I meet that they try to plan for one or two things that they can talk about that show how they used their undergrad college to the maximum, whichever college it may be. So if it's USC, go try to do a program in thier cinema school, or the school of CS with the video game expertise (forgot what they call it).</p>

<p>At UCLA or Cal there are many fabulous things to tap into. But the key thing is to actually do it...get the best that the school has to offer, while you're there for the 4 years. Do something that you can talk about for the next ten years!</p>

<p>reasonabledad,</p>

<p>You don't think that the reputation of the West Coast school has changed with the younger crowd on the East Coast? I just find it hard to believe that so many people I've met here in Washington are lying to me about my school's reputation.</p>

<p>I definitely believe that it's possible, but improbable.</p>

<p>UCLAri,</p>

<p>I honestly thought you were lying about asking around DC how reputed UCLA is, but it seems you really did it. C'mon, how can a person say "your school sucks" to a kid's face.</p>

<p>And how insecure you are about UCLA to interrogate people with this kind of stupid questions:) Back to one of my previous posts, those people who answered your questions are disgraces to those organizations, which, by my standard, are not any better. </p>

<p>UCLA is not a bad school, but just overhyped, by some Californians, who know nothing, but UCs.</p>

<p>Woah, woah, wait a second. First off, I'm living in Washington, so it's quite easy. Secondly, it has just come up in idle conversation with a couple of people when they ask what school I attend, so it's not like I'm interrogating anyone.</p>

<p>"What school do you attend?"
"UCLA"</p>

<p>And then I get my answer. So it's not like I'm passing out a flyer expecting an answer here. And how are organizations like NSC and Brookings of low quality? They're both, in many respects, the top organizations at what they do.</p>

<p>"the school of CS with the video game expertise (forgot what they call it)."</p>

<p>it's ITP (information technology program) and actually i'm in it for video game design and production :). Was going to go all the way for the minor but they kind of screwed me so i'm just getting certified (but hey, i get to minor in something else now).</p>

<p>but anyhow, i realize what you're saying but i still care about the respect thing, especailly for getting into an east coast grad school (because there is a very high placement rate for east compared to west in that case, and i dont think geography has everything to do with it).</p>

<p>but if what you say about the east truly not really giving props to the west schools as much is true, and yet people STILL respect the USC business program on the east coast, then thats pretty swell for me i suppose.</p>

<p>spincut,</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry about grad schools. Unlike the general public, most universities know full well that the West Coast offers fantastic schools. Just look at the pages of grad programs out here, and you'll find that there are a good number of grads from schools such as USC, UCLA, Pomona, and Cal. If anything, we do really really well considering the issues of geography and whatnot. </p>

<p>Who cares about the average guy on the street when admissions are concerned, no?</p>

<p>And how is ITP?</p>

<p>Just to be clear, easterners do respect the best coast schools. And the respect is well-deserved. It's just that there are so many excellent schools in the east, that the easterners generally think something along the lines of "good school, sort of like XXXX" and then fill in the name of one they know more about. No one is awed by USC or Cal or UCLA in the east, not when they know relatively lots of Ivy/Duke/Michgan type grads...and remember that not too many native Californians do what UCLAri and I did and actually move east for work. So we're sort of ambassadors of civilization to the hinterlands (UCLAri, tell that to a New Yorker and watch them go berserk! LOL).</p>

<p>Oh man, so true! I was talking to a student at Barnard, and she went on for like an hour about how inferior UCLA was in every way to every school on the East Coast.</p>

<p>I responded with, "Dear, did you get into UCLA?"
"No."
"Oh."</p>

<p>That ended the convo really quickly. I don't care who thinks poorly of our schools in CA, they can keep their snow and tornadoes and whatnot. Granted, my dream school for grad is GTown...</p>

<p>"Just look at the pages of grad programs out here"</p>

<p>when you say out here i assume you mean where you are on in the east, honestly i think i did once and i saw almost no west coasters, maybe a couple from stanford, i think it was grad admits for one of the ivys, i couldnt generally find undergrad school admission profile for grad program pages most of the time though. And like you said, not alot of people make the geographical jump aside from that so i suppose i'd have that going for me.</p>

<p>anyhow, as for ITP, i like it, especially since i was an engineering major before i switched into business so it's nice to still be connected with the engineering school (plus it lets me take advantage of another one of the universities many top programs).</p>

<p>The video game program is very new though, and Tudor hall has just finished so they havent taken advantage of that yet and make a video game lab out of it like they did in one of the older halls.</p>

<p>but we do have some very nice equipment and connections. We have two labs now that is updated every semester (i've probably seen 4 seperate mega PC upgrade of Dell XPS and alienware desktops over the past couple years), complimented with trinitrons and plasma screens hanging from the walls. We get some interesting speakers, like heads from Xbox dev. and EA head designers for games like metal of honor, twisted metal ect.</p>

<p>I also got to be in on the World of Warcraft initial beta (which was a big deal to gamers).</p>

<p>-all in all the program is fun and a refreshing compliment to a business component. Sure it aint like earning a dual business/engineering degree, but it's still neat.</p>

<p>-i also get to go to E3, which is a bonus, especially this year :).</p>

<p>E3 rocks, doesn't it?</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry about reputation. I've spoken with grad students and profs in departments ranging from Harvard to Columbia about us Westies, and it's been nothing but positive. Contrary to the CC snobs' beliefs, we're not in a constant state of idiocy just because of geographical difference.</p>

<p>Nonetheless, I don't meant to say that competition isn't fierce. As a USC or UCLA or whatever grad, remember that you are competing against students from otherwise better known schools on the East Coast. There is no doubt that Ivies love Ivies. HOWEVER (key word), they love people who will enrich their programs more than anything. I've even seen grad students at Yale who graduated from Pomona without honors, so it happens.</p>

<p>And really, who on earth wants to leave California? All the people out here are just jealous, don't forget that.</p>