What school is USC?

Answer 1

cardinal red and gold

Answer 2

A better response:

First off USC is full of rich bougie people who don't care about anyone, but themselves and their money. Meanwhile UCLA, is a community, a bond, and a family that is beyond the point of being broken. UCLA has an average SAT Composite Score of a 2026 and their average freshmen has a 4.34 Cumulative G.P.A. Meanwhile USC has an average of a 1970-2180. USC has a range of their average SAT, but UCLA knows there average. The admissions office at UCLA accepts students who aren't that 4.00 student. They realize that its more to a person that just a G.P.A. and a test score. UCLA overall is just better than USC. USC only looks for the 4.00 student. On top of that, people want to go there because of football. Football at USC is good, but their arena is old, it hasn't been updated, and UCLA is better. UCLA is ranked number 55 and USC is ranked 165.

How good is USC? Well I lived in Southern California during all my primary and secondary school years; therefore, I am very familiar with the reputation of USC. The reputation of USC is as follows: Students with brains go to UCLA while students with money go to USC. What I have learned since my youth follows: USC does have a very large and committed following who touts the respectability and recruitment of their alumni regardless of their qualifications other than attendance at the school. Shamefully though even the lesser students may be selected for employment over better students who attended less financially taxing schools much to the dismay of unsuspecting employers. So the social respectability of USC (the thought that you must be good if you can afford to go to the school) seems to work well for those who graduate the school to get them in the door of many employers (I guess this does help to prove the old adage - you get what you pay for). So the lessen here for employers = look further than the school...look for the substance just in case Daddy bankrolled his less than brainful child to attend an over priced school. Not to say that everyone attending the school is not brilliant..but the opinion that just because someone attended USC that they are worthy of employment without looking any further into the character of the person could be a dangerous endeavor for an employer.

A response... The answer provided earlier perpetuates stereotypes. USC is the highest level Carnegie research institution. Medical school, law school, architecture, engineering, education, public policy, business... Its graduates include former secretaries of state (Christopher) senators (Webb), supreme court justices (Kenard), astronauts (Armstrong), Olympians (too many to list) and even military generals (Schwarzkopf) and an academy award winner in each of the years the Oscar has been presented.It is expensive (but what private university is not) and the Trojan Family at graduation rivals any alumni net of the Ivys...But this nonsense that brains go to Ucla and rich go to USC is about as one-dimensional an answer as I have ever seen.

Another response from a USC Grad Student. . .

The first post is biased, polemical + inaccurate. Reputations always lag behind actual statistics. I have friends at both USC + UCLA and I know for a fact that both schools are fantastic. In the past 8 years, USC has jumped twenty spots in the rankings. Expect that to continue as the California State Legislature butchers the education budget. Anyway, here are some numbers that speak for themselves:

1. USN&WR in 2009 ranks UCLA #25, ad USC #27 respectively as national research universities

2. UCLA's undergrad acceptance rate was 21% and USC's was 25%

3. USC ranks in the top five schools in the entire country for matriculated National Merit Scholars

4. USC has the largest international student body in the entire country with more than 7,000 students

5. The median SAT at USC is 2100 and the average GPA is 3.8, putting it above every California school except Cal Poly + Stanford

6. Here's a handy breakdown of some programs (mostly graduate) in 2009:

Law School: #15 (UCLA) v. #18th (USC)

English departments: #10 (UCLA) v. 1 of the top 5 Literature + Creative Writing PhD programs in the nation, according to the Atlantic Magazine (USC)

Natural science + math department: #10 (UCLA) v. -

School of Film Studies: - v. #1 (USC)

Engineering: #32 (UCLA) v. #7 (USC)

Medical school #11 + #4 (UCLA) v. #36 (USC)

Business School #14th (UCLA) v. #10 undergrad/#20 grad (USC)

Education: #3 (UCLA) v. #38 (USC)

Policy Planning + Development: - v. #7th (USC)

The point is, both of these schools are fantastic. While UCLA used to be the better school 30 years ago, things have changed a lot since then. Now both schools are peer institutions, each specializing in certain academic disciplines + competing with each other in others. Rich kids and smart kids go to each school in similar numbers for many of the same reasons. These old generalizations no longer apply. Either school is awesome frankly.

2011 update: The most current USN&WR ranks UCLA #25 + USC #23