<p>Random question, but I'm genuinely curious.</p>
<p>That is so funny… I was JUST thinking that when I saw this thread, since there ar over 143,000 posts on over 13,000 topics!</p>
<p>Search the forum, its been discussed many times. Most likely, the list was made before USC’s sharp rise in the rankings and hasn’t been changed since.</p>
<p>like AMX said, it hasn’t changed in years, and this topic has been discussed many, many times to no avail.</p>
<p>Through the years there have been notes, petitions, threads and letters to the website owners on this subject. The response has not been encouraging. It appears this list is “set in stone” and they have no intention of opening it to other universities, no matter how deserving.</p>
<p>Keep in mind this is just a list of colleges/universities. There are other rankings that matter much more in your college selection process. It is more important to find the best fit for YOU.</p>
<p>^^Oh, I have no interest in USC. 
But it is a good school. I just randomly noticed that it wasn’t on CC Top Universities and wondered why. No big deal. I guess I should have done a google search before I asked, though.</p>
<p>It’s one of those subtle slights we just have to deal with for now, Sailor. You might notice that USC has top programs in all sorts of 21st century industries like film/tv and video games but those completely fly under the radar of the usual rankings. Likewise, Stanford is more competitive on the undergrad level than Harvard is so that tells you what the long term trends are. Meanwhile, Michigan continues to be on these lists despite the fact that that school has been backsliding for years.</p>
<p>It’s annoying, but go over to the thread where incoming USC students list the schools they’ve turned down to matriculate here. Same thing - turning down other more highly-ranked schools to come here. That tells you what the long term trend is, as does USC’s rise in the last 2 decades, regardless of what the owners of one website say. USC is closely watched in academic circles precisely because it’s so dynamic and on the upswing.</p>
<p>What’s even funnier about this is that UCLA is ON the list!!! Anyone who knows the UC system will tell you that Berkely may be the only UC school that should even be considered at this point. The number of impacted classes, class sizes, availability, makes the UC system a virtual train wreck at this point. Then ad super-high costs for a public…and basically it’s a lose lose for them. USC is far and away the better value at this time than UCLA. The “list” is basically worthless.</p>
<p>Because before USC started buying it’s way up the rankings it wasn’t a very good school.</p>