University of Southern California Top Questions

No, not all students are rich. Many are on some type of financial aid.

No, not all students are rich. Many are on some type of financial aid.

USC is stereotyped as the school for "rich, white kids" but it really isn't. USC's student body is just as diverse as other institutions in the country. In fact, it has one of the highest percentages of international students. People from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures can be seen around campus. It's what makes USC really great!

However, both stereotypes are very limiting and misleading. While USC does embrace its sports culture, the school also boasts its already strong and still growing academic strength. Music is also popular here, with weekly live music on campus, and aspiring musicians holding events throughout the year. Visions and Voices hosts a plethora of arts, music, and literary events, with world-renowned speakers, artists, musicians, and authors. USC Spectrum is another organization that hosts a number of art/music-related events. The stereotype that USC is filled with rich and spoiled kids is completely false and misleading. While the school does have a number of well-off students, there is definitely not a "rich-society" culture. In any class, you can find students from all walks of life. I've personally met students that were very well-off and students who were depending entirely on financial aid. With almost 3,000 students matriculating each year, it's impossible to have a homogenous student population. You can find people from all walks of life here.

USC's student body is so diverse that representatives of every stereotype out there can be found but overall, the best way to categorize Trojans is: 1) Loyal 2) Intelligent 3) Passionate 4) Driven

Wealth is taken to a new level at USC. While obviously not everyone hails from a Fortune 500 family, there are way more rich kids, many of whom are spoiled, than I imagined. As far as apathy, I'd say that we are actually a relatively politically active campus. A large chunk of students get involved with groups such as CALPIRG, CCU, etc. and do some great projects. There are others who can't even stay awake in their Social Issues class, let alone join a grassroots movement.

Spoiled:To a certain extent this is true. You can see some kids driving in daddy's brand new mercedes or bimmer with LV bags. But every school has rich spoiled people, since USC is an expensive private school there are probably more, but there are also many people here who come from well to do backgrounds who are down to earth. The school has also been trying to attract diversity from race to economic background. USC currently has the most international students out of any US university. One thing that I have noticed is that many of the undergrads who are from overseas tend to be relatively wealthier than domestic students, some are spoiled some are very hard working. Expensive: Yes it's something like 55k/yr now? but if you don't have enough money or are really smart the school will give you money to come here. Ghetto: Yes, it's not as nice as westwood but it's never really been an issue (for me anyways)

Mostly yes, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It always shocks me that the kids on my floor will all go out and have a good time, but Sunday afternoons and school nights (except Thursdays, when everyone goes out) are always pretty quiet in the dorms, with everyone diligently working on school. Plus, people really are beautiful! Also, there are definitely some very privileged students here, but few flaunt it, and there are greater numbers of students on scholarship or from more modest households.

Not at all. I`m not going to say that there is NOBODY who is rich and stuck up, but honestly on the whole I have met very few people who portray these characteristics, and because it is such a small percentage- you can just choose not to hang out with them. As for everyone being from California- not true. I think the percentage is like 51{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}/49{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} but you don't really notice it. Most of my friends are from all over the country- again, there are so many people that you can choose who you hang out with. And as for going home on weekends, campus is never really completely dead (except for the weekender!), but yeah- sometimes people go home, but they are always friendly and will welcome you into their homes, and not everyone goes home at the same time so you don't really notice it nearly as much as I thought I would.

The neighborhood is, in fact, as bad as you think; in spite of the fact that the administration has been promoting the fact that the area around campus has become more gentrified in recent years, crime directly surrounding campus is still pretty high. As for the stereotype of rich, bratty kids, it varies--USC is very diverse and has students of all different backgrounds, but the "spoiled children" are definitely a visible part of the community, if not the majority.

Generally, yes. There are a lot of spoiled kids at USC and the school is extremely expensive. However, the USC Financial Aid department is more than generous, and USC has students from all sorts of backgrounds (some of my best friends are international) and almost anyone who gets in can get a lot of financial support from the University if they can show they need it.

Well, I am part of the Greek system, and I think you are more likely to find stereotypical Trojans there: rich, self-obsessed people who just want to get through college having as much fun as possible while avoiding having to work too hard. The strange part is that while you will find more stereotypes fulfilled in the sororities and fraternities, you will also find that they hold the campus' most motivated leaders, brightest students, and the most down-to-earth people. As for whether we just didn't get in to UCLA, Stanford, etc.- I think USC offers an experience that is unparalleled. There are students that got into other top-tier schools and chose USC for the breadth of experience that it offers.

In some cases: we have one of the most culturally/ethnically/socio-economically diverse campuses in the world;so, it's hard to stereotype a USC student (even though many people do).

Yes and no. In regards to being wealthy - out of the many many people I met while attending the Masters program film school, I only stumbled upon three rich people and they were all nice and down to earth. In regards to being Republican - a friend of mine is a student assistant for the undergraduate classes and he says about 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of his students are in fact, republican.

The greek scene is a bit immature, but the "independents" around USC make up for it. Most USC students are very smart, aside from the business, communications, etc majors.

In my experience, yes and no. The freshman dorm floor I stayed at had a lot of freshman who were wanting to pledge sororities and fraternities, since that's one of the most obvious routes to having a social life at SC. Even though this is true, you can find people who aren't like that... it just takes a little more time. There are the daddy's girls and ridiculously rich here, but mostly everyone I've met at SC deserves to be at this school. I'll admit, you do come across the random person who has no drive and very little intelligence, and you wonder how they got in when some of your diversified and genius friends got rejected, but that could be true anywhere you go and overall I'd say this stereotype is not true.

Of course there are some people like that, but a lot of my friends only can afford USC because of scholarship money or grants. Also, it's not that preppy and there's a lot of diversity at USC. It's true that everyone is pretty smart and talented.

Well, USC isn't cheap, so there's truth to that part. I haven't encountered any more arrogant people at USC than at any other place. The school overall IS football-crazy, but what's wrong with that? For those of us who don't dig the sport, it at least yields a quiet saturday afternoon every few weeks in the fall.

Some of them definitely are, but you will find all of these types of students at Universities across the country; however, I think because USC is in LA, there are a lot of shallow, stuck up people at USC who think they are god or really cool and can act like their still in highschool, trying so hard to be noticed.

Since I don't hang out with a lot of rich, white kids, I can't agree with that stereotype. I didn't try to avoid them, but since I'm not in Annenberg or Marshall, they are easy to avoid. If you do major in one of those schools, then you will encounter a lot of spoiled children. You also see them at football games and Greek Row, but since I don't go to either of those places, I don't see them. There are a lot of Asians but not as much as the UC's. This school can have a conservative attitude because many students come from rich, conservative families. I agree wholeheartedly that we have an apathetic attitude. No one cares about things here. People don't vote in the elections. I could go on about this but there is no drive on this campus to change things. There are a lot of intelligent people at this school, but sometimes I feel that I came to the dumbest top 30 school. We are a party school, but it's definitely died down since I was a freshwoman three years ago.