Usc

[pathstudent]

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How good of a school is it? and what is the neighborhood like? I have heard bad things about the area. Are there any good parts?

 

[PrincetonRocks]

USC is an interesting school. I actually applied and was admitted into their B-MD program out of high school, but i ended up in princeton. The campus is not bad at all, and they have strong clinicals (LAC is a good place to learn). Even though I didn't enter the B-MD program, I am still applying to SC for admissions this year. The neighborhood at SC is a little scary, but it could be worst....you could be at Columbia. USC is pretty good about safety issues though. I wouldn't worry about it! I take it that you have been invited for interviews in October also. Well, go to the interview and learn about if for yourself. Good luck!

 

[Nutmeg]

My ex said that her cousin (who went there) said that the chances of getting your car broken into approached 100% after four years of attending. (Of course, this is kind of "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious." So I guess that can be taken with a moderately sized grain of salt.)

I've been there, and the neighborhood is a little sketchy, but I've certainly seen worse. Besides, I've seen much worse stuff happen in the suburbs than I ever saw in my many years going to inner city schools, so I don't necessarily think that going to school in a bad neighborhood is the worse thing that can happen.

 

[Rapid Decomposition]

USC med is in the east LA/Boyle Heights area, a predominantely Hispanic neighborhood. It's true that the area is fairly ghetto, but there are good parts around USC med, just not adjacent to the campus. You won't want to live in the area around the campus, but there are fairly nice areas kind of around there - South Pasadena, Alhambra, Monterey Hills, etc. But you would absolutely need a car, because while there are a million things to do in LA, none of them are near the hospital.

 

[jberg4]

My best friend went there for her undergrad and I visited her several times while she was there. Some parts were a little scary to drive through at night, but the campus itself is gated and is suposedley safe. My friend lived in campus housing in the immediate area and it seemed pretty safe. I can tell she really adjusted her level of safety awareness (i.e ANAL about locked doors). Actually, now that I am thinking about it there was one incident when her place was broken into in the middle of the night and a few things were stolen like a bike. Nobody even heard the intruder. I don't know...proceed with caution?

 

[RedBlanket]

I would call it more "barrio" than ghetto, although there are certainly some parts that I would avoid. I would hardly say that there is a 100% car break in rate. Does it happen? Yes, but I have routinely street parked my car in bad areas around campus and haven't had a problem (yet) and I'm in my 4th year. Mostly you can park in parking structures (a big one is free if you are willing to walk 10+ minutes to lectures) which are quite safe.

I live pretty close to campus (<5 miles) in a somewhat shady neighborhood on the border of east LA and Alhambra.

Upside: incredibly cheap rent ($750/month for a two bedroom house with decent fenced in back yard for the dog, garage, long driveway).

Downside: I'm a couple of blocks from some pretty bad parts of town. I've had SWAT teams in my yard twice in the past couple of years since carjackers, etc will often drive home while being chased, ditch their car and start jumping fences through people's backyards until they find a place to hide from the cops. Thankfully my Rottweiler tends to encourage them to keep moving.

That being said, I took the trade-off to live here. If I lived even a mile or two farther east I could be in nice neighborhoods, with little crime (I just couldn't afford a big place and my wife and I don't really want roommates).

Training at USC rocks, however it's expensive, but if you have a little money you can live in nice areas and afford to park in safe, close, patrolled parking structures by the hospital. And if you don't mind roommates your housing options really can be decent. But yes, you absolutely need a car.

 

[RedBlanket]

Originally posted by jberg4
My best friend went there for her undergrad and I visited her several times while she was there. Some parts were a little scary to drive through at night, but the campus itself is gated and is suposedley safe. My friend lived in campus housing in the immediate area and it seemed pretty safe. I can tell she really adjusted her level of safety awareness (i.e ANAL about locked doors). Actually, now that I am thinking about it there was one incident when her place was broken into in the middle of the night and a few things were stolen like a bike. Nobody even heard the intruder. I don't know...proceed with caution?

USC Health Science Campus and USC undergrad campus are in very different parts of town. I lived near the undergrad campus my 1st year of med school and it is in South Central LA. There is a little (maybe 1 mile radius) bubble of university "protection" around the campus, but there are still a fair number of break-ins, etc. Plus you are a 12-45 minute drive from our campus in East LA (closer to Pasadena). Neither neighborhood is the safest, but they definitely have different feels. And it's easier to find good neighborhoods within an easy commute of the med school campus (assuming you have a car).

 

[Rapid Decomposition]

Originally posted by RedBlanket
I lived near the undergrad campus my 1st year of med school and it is in South Central LA. There is a little (maybe 1 mile radius) bubble of university "protection" around the campus, but there are still a fair number of break-ins, etc. Plus you are a 12-45 minute drive from our campus in East LA (closer to Pasadena). Neither neighborhood is the safest, but they definitely have different feels. And it's easier to find good neighborhoods within an easy commute of the med school campus (assuming you have a car).

When you say "South Central" people think of Watts or Compton. USC undergrad isn't in Watts - it's just south of downtown in a decent area (an area nicer than where the med school campus is).

I agree that you will have better luck finding a nice, cheap place next to the med school than you will near the undergrad campus, though. But you are still looking at a 3-4 mile commute for the safer neighborhoods.

Unless, if you don't mind a couple roommates (i.e. 3 or 4 people in a 2 bedroom) there are some very nice, secure places downtown, approx. 2 miles from the med school.

 

[weirdo700]

Hi USC is a decent school that is not as reputable as UCLA, UCSF, Stanford, and UCSD, but it does have a decent reputation and program. I would say, however, that it has one of the better curriculums among the California schools. With regards to the campus it is in East LA. The immediate area around campus just requires alot of general good sense...I mean don't go down dark allies at midnight, leave money visible in your car, or get into arguments with someone with a gang of friends. The surrounding areas include Los Feliz (this is a very nice area, but it is also very expensive) and downtown. In addition there is Glendale and Pasadena which are also pretty nice cities. The area also has alot to offer in terms of cultural diversity. There are no exact demarcations but it tends to be that there is alot of Chinese culture in Alhambra, East LA has hispanic, Boyle Heights has Afro-American, Glendale has Filipino and other.