Uni in the USA: A British Guide to American Universities and Colleges > All New: Colleges and Universities Added in 2009 > The University of Southern California (new review!)
Los Angeles, California
Undergrads: 16,400
Grads: 17,000
How many USC students does it take to change a light bulb?
None – they don’t bother, it’ll just get broken again at the next party.
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The University of Southern California is where you go if you want to live like in the movies. Life here is a realisation of all the classic stereotypes of Los Angeles college life – the rich white kids, the parties, the fraternities, the drugs, the lack of work, the sun, the beaches and the beautiful girls. The most centrally located of all the LA universities, USC enjoys a stellar reputation, a huge and well-endowed campus, and one of the most dazzling (or terrifying, depending which way you see it) party scenes in America. If you want to learn something at college, it is certainly possible here, but it’s not the main reason the kids apply here in droves.
The Campus
On 300 acres not far south of downtown LA, the campus at USC is little short of superb. With some incredible facilities, beautiful and well-spaced buildings and over 40 fountains, USC is so aesthetically enticing that hundreds of high-profile films, TV shows and adverts are filmed here every year. Did you admire Harvard in Legally Blonde? Did you think Berkeley looked good in The Graduate? What about the school in Forrest Gump? All were actually filmed at USC, as were parts of The OC, the West Wing and Jeopardy.
The university benefits from huge endowments from incredibly wealthy alumni. George Lucas himself donated a fantastical 175 million dollars to the film school, one of five nine-figure sums USC has accepted. The huge wealth of the college has kept the campus in perfect condition, as well as providing for the most up-to-date learning facilities imaginable. The 22 libraries contain about 10 million publications (over half on microfilm) including world famous collections for studying natural sciences, philosophy, international relations, Korea and Latin America. Even more noteworthy are the world’s largest collection of testimonies of Holocaust-survivors (over 50 thousand), and the legendary studio archives of Warner Bros, also the largest of its kind.
The university states on its website that “Finding housing will be one of your main challenges when you arrive at USC”. Accommodation is generally unloved by the students, though there is fierce competition to get a place in official university dorms, and a new massive block of apartments is being rapidly constructed to house even more students in 2009 or 2010. Almost all freshmen live on campus, but the numbers drop off in the later years.
The main downside of the campus is its location, bang in the centre of the sprawling urban mess of Los Angeles, the immediate surrounding district is not pleasant; some students use the term “ghetto” to describe it. The huge number of community services schemes engineered by the university involving about half the student body have helped to improve matters though. And on the brighter side, short journeys (by car – don’t count on the public transport) will take students to all corners of the city, where every kind of activity can be found.
The Trojan
Students at USC – or the University of Spoiled Children as it is called by its rivals at the state-funded UCLA - are harder to categorise than you might think. Undoubtedly, a huge proportion of the student body (which itself is enormous) come from privileged backgrounds, live in California and are WASPs. But if you look a little harder, you find that USC has the largest number of international students (5,900 – almost 10%) of any US university, and that hefty chunks of the student body are at the school on scholarships and come from financial backgrounds that don’t involve sports cars.
Known as Trojans after the school’s Trojan warrior mascot, USC students are a rapidly evolving species. With unprecedented applicant-pool sizes in recent years, the school has become more diverse, work conscious and liberal. Trojans are still united by their fierce pride in their school, but the greater variety of student backgrounds and personalities is a welcome one. All this said, the majority at USC can still be said to conform to the Orange County spoiled child mold. Parties continue to dominate work. Greek life is important; with only 20% of students a member of a fraternity or sorority, the Greeks hold disproportionate influence over the school atmosphere – and an even greater monopoly of the good parties.
The classic Trojan is competitive, especially when UCLA is involved (sports matches are often marked by inter-campus vandalism), laid-back and traditionally conservative. The school was the only one in the State that Republican Governor/movie star Ronald Reagan could visit without protection in the 70s and 80s, and indeed Republican Governor/movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the graduation address in 2009. A large number of USC alumni were in the Nixon government when it fell from grace in 1974. Yet nowadays the official USC Democrats outnumber the USC Republicans, and the majority voted for Obama in 2008.
Students often look at USC, and rightly so, as a “big club” which gives them an advantage when entering the workplace. The networking opportunities are phenomenal. Big-shot USC alumni who run major businesses like to hire fellow ex-Trojans, and ex-Trojans in turn are much more likely to secure a place for their own children at USC.
Hitting the Books
The whole spectrum is possible here. Students of certain subjects will find their work cut out; others will coast to earn their degree. Students give mixed opinions on professors, class sizes, work load and work ethic. What is for sure is that certain schools such as engineering, architecture, business and journalism are consistently ranked among the top 20 in the country, and that students can achieve much in almost every field of the broad range available if they are willing to ignore the laid back attitude of their peers and put in the work required.
And that’s just what’s happening. The growth of the applicant pool has meant even more selective admissions and an ever more-work-conscious student body. This in turn has begun to attract even more distinguished professors. USC’s academics seem to be on an upward curve, and they continue to base their teaching on “integrating liberal and professional education”. Several professors among the giant faculty have gained international awards and recognition, including one Nobel Laureate chemist.
If you want to be a big shot in the film-industry, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better option than USC. The School of Cinematic Arts is generally recognised as among the best institutes for film studies in the world; it is certainly the oldest and largest. Originally only for the best among industry professionals, the film school finally opened its doors to the whole university in 1998, and now undergraduates can mix with the folks who run nearby Hollywood. George Lucas graduated from here, and the likes of Stephen Spielberg are regulars.
Social Life
Few dispute USC’s status as a party school, and for anyone looking for the classic American Pie-type extravaganzas, you won’t get much closer than here. The fraternities are especially debaucherous, and serious substance abuse can be an issue. Nevertheless, USC parties are the envy of other colleges, even if they often occur mid-week due to the local students’ tendency to go home on the weekends.
For those who prefer a less hectic approach to socialising, it’s easy to get caught up in the other activities on offer. There are over 600 student organizations, fantastic musical and theatrical productions and a generally vibrant campus life, driven by the infectious school spirit.
USC benefits – or not, depdending how you look at it – from its relative proximity to all the major attractions of Los Angeles, a city which is not particularly attractive but is exciting and extreme enough to make for a thrilling student experience. There are world-famous beaches, ideal for anything from sun-bathing to surfing, and good connections to other major cities. The local public transport takes a lot of getting used to and is normally ignored by the students in favour of cars; a much more convenient method for crossing the second largest urban sprawl in the America.
Getting In
Very, very tough. Recent application success rates have been below 20%. International students can take heart that there is a comparatively high proportion of overseas applications accepted each year but should be warned that factors such as having alumni parents can be a big advantage for locals. A rigorous high-school academic background is very important, but the college also states that they "are particularly interested in learning about our applicants' activities outside of the classroom". Interviews are optional, and can often be conducted abroad by alumni.
Some people mistakenly believe that USC is part of the UC chain of California public schools, but it is in fact a private school. Overseas applicants do not qualify for needs-based aid to help with the high fees, but thanks to the school’s enormous endowment, there are ever-more scholarships on offer. Definitely worth aiming for one of these.
Famous Grads
John Wayne, Will Ferrell, O.J.Simpson – three of the many famous actors
George Lucas – famous director (Star Wars)
Neil Armstrong – took one small step for himself, and one giant leap for mankind