Day 3: USC / UCLA / LMU
Visiting USC was an incredible and inspiring experience. The University of Southern California is a very famous and prestigious university, located in the southern part of California. The international student percentage is 26.6 percent in the fall of 2024, so they are diverse and inclusive. USC is strong in both STEM and Humanities, so I thought that it would be a great choice for all students. They are also very athletic.
The first thing I noticed as I walked around the campus was the beautiful architecture and nature. One thing that stood out to me the most was the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library. The moment I stepped in, it was like I was in a whole new world. The architecture was amazing, and there were so many details put into every little thing. The library was very quiet, and it seemed like a good place to study. The building is huge and has 9 floors. Although this was the only library we could visit, there are 20 on campus. Also, there were many statues and fountains scattered throughout the campus so I thought it would be very easy to meet up with your friends. They had a big field where they held events. They have a farmers’ market every Wednesday, and concerts once in a while.
Another thing that impressed me was their strong academic program. They have 90+ majors and 90 minors, which allows students to have a wide range to pick from. I liked this because, I still have no idea what I want to major in, and having this diverse range of majors might help me find the exact major that interests me. Also, USC provides students with programs where they can learn abroad. There is a wide range of countries to pick from, and the cheapest program is South Korea, starting from $5000. You can go for a whole semester (4 months) or 1 month. If I ever go to USC, I want to go to a country I never have heard of using this system.
Overall, I loved USC! Go Trojans!
T.N (M3 Boy)
The University of Southern California is, in my opinion, a great school if you are interested in film, sports, business, and engineering. I'll save the academics for later. If these types of fields are of interest to you let me tell you quickly about how these areas are a strong presence at USC.
Following what I experienced at USC, the greatest impression that I have of the school is how great it is for those seeking the study of film. Top of the line right from the start: the students at the school get to see unreleased films for the very first time, as well as get to see the directors sometimes through the Q&A meetings. Students also sometimes get directors as instructors, with facilities far greater than what you would imagine them to be, giving people interested in the visual arts and cinema an amazing opportunity.
One of my friends did not know much about this school but did know it due to its football team: the USC Trojans. This team is incredibly successful and renowned for creating legends in the football world. Just as in football, USC provides a great environment in a wide variety of sports such as baseball, basketball, golf, tennis and volleyball. It has room for a whole community and has great facilities.
Business and economics is something I am kind of interested in and something I was happy to hear USC's, Marshall School of Business is one of the world's top global undergraduate business programs. Business, Economics and Finance are what people get extremely interested in and since USC has many great connections in such fields, they get more funding with funding than other organizations. USC also provides many networking opportunities for students. It hosts many successful individuals on campus this gives students a higher possibility of getting to meet new people and in some cases landing you an internship.
Finally a subject of interest of yours may be engineering. Similar to the Marshall School of Business there is something equivalent to engineering and it is; USC Viterbi School of Engineering which has an emphasis in AI machine learning, aerospace engineering, computer science and electric and biomedical engineering. These major programs have many opportunities for top-level internships with corporations known internationally offering students terrific career and internship opportunities.
USC emphasizes passion over being so rigid about being just right for a university. That said, when it comes to choosing students, it is likely the more passionate student will succeed over a similarly ranked but "regular" student. The USC Hiroo Graduate we spoke with recommended we concentrate on our GPA and SATs as well as our passions because at the end if there were a tie between a student with a low GPA and a student with a high GPA, the university would likely take the high GPA person. The Hiroo graduate also explained to us how crucial it is to ask questions within high school and when applying to schools like USC. He discussed how people who engage with teachers regularly are highly likely to be the same individuals engaging professors in college which leads to higher comprehension, grades and opportunities.
The final major point that made I learned is he importance of being able to let go of mistakes. Be it USC or any other university you are applying to, worrying about something in the past too much only adds up to unnecessary stress. Focus on the task ahead and make it better than the last.
I hope this information is helpful to you or made you interested in USC.
H.K (M3 Boy)
USC is one of the most famous universities out in the west. With a population of 47,000 students and 21,000 of them being undergraduates. It was built in the 1880s and is home to many great facilities, for example, the libraries of USC. In total there are 20 libraries in USC, 16 physical and 4 digital. The one we visited on the tour was the Doheny Memorial Library. It is the main library of USC and has 9 floors. From the tour I learned a lot: I learned that USC has a rich tradition that started from the 1880s and how they still have the first building ever built standing in their campus.
When I first got there I was in awe of how big it was. The buildings of USC seemed to stretch out for miles and I couldn't see the end of the campus. There were many buildings and facilities that I thought were amazing, but my favorite was the Heritage Hall. This hall was the hall of achievement for the athletics program in USC. As an avid fan of sports I was really amazed at how much the USC athletics program has won in different varieties of sports. Another thing that interested me was the word "Fight On" This is because during the tour a lot of people kept saying fight on to the tour guide. This action of saying fight on is amazing to me as it shows the closeness that each student has and how they all work together instead of competing with each other.
Overall, I really loved USC. It has a beautiful campus that seemed to stretch out for miles and the atmosphere was really nice. I really think that a lot of people can strive to be their best at USC and it motivated me to work hard and go to an amazing university like USC.
K.I (M3 Boy)
When I visited the campus today, I first noticed the diversity of ethnicity in the students, compared to the other colleges that we had visited. In USC, 25% of the students are international students. Talking about global prospects, they offer various kind of study abroad programs, short term and long term.
USC is surrounded by lots of entertaining places, located close to the Hollywood, Disney and Universal. They also offer free metro cards, which are helpful to access downtown LA and the beaches.
As soon as we walked into USC, we met a Hiroo Gakuen graduate who studies cinematic arts. Of all the advice that he gave, there were few pieces of advice that had stuck into my mind:
1. The importance of communicating with teachers and getting close with them. Use them as your resources. It doesn’t have to be our homeroom teacher.
2. Do not care about dramas and beefs between others. Leave them and just mind your own business. Do not involve yourself around dramas.
3. Things can change at the last minute. For example, if you think you have an idea of the major your want to apply to, there can be a chance that you start changing your mind and swapping the major you want to apply to.
USC has been one of universities that I want to go to, as it has one of the top business schools in the world: USC Marshall’s.
Not only do they focus on academics, but the students in USC also engage actively in athletics. They are known to have the most olympians of all US universities, winning over 300 Olympic medals, over 120 national championships and holding a strong football team.
In addition to their superior athletic career, USC also offers numerous large events that engage the student to be involved and connected to each other. They hold events such as concerts, spring festivals, welcome back parties and football season parties.
Through the wonderful opportunity of getting to know USC better through interacting with the Hiroo Gakuen graduate in USC and the campus tour, my feeling of wanting to get into USC has gotten stronger than before. With their wide variety of business majors, the strength they put into balancing athletics and academics, frequent school events, close interaction with Hollywood and their accessibility to entertainment and beaches, I feel like this school is the perfect fit for me.
UCLA
When I visited UCLA, I had a lot of high expectations for this school as they are one of the highest ranked schools in the US, and known as a prestigious school with an acceptance rate of around 9%. From visiting the school in person and getting to know the personalities of some of the students that go here, there were some aspects of the school that I thought were so interesting and unique, and other aspects which weren't really in my line of interests.
Firstly, about the campus. UCLA is actually the college with the best campus food in the US. Although we didn’t get to eat the campus food, we did eat our store bought lunch in one of the food court-ish areas where there were some famous restaurants such as Taco Bell and Panda Express, as well as healthier options such as an açai bowl shop. There is also a robot that delivers food from nearby restaurants to your dorm room. (Kind of like Uber eats but just for the UCLA students) One of the things that I thought were unique about the UCLA campus was their efforts to make the campus more sustainable. For example, UCLA has a sustainable music festival where the students ride bicycles which in return, powers up the instrument that is being played. Another example would be the patio/outdoor umbrellas that the campus has on many of the outdoor seating areas. These umbrellas have solar panels which makes the umbrella be able to charge the students’ computers. I think one of the cons about the campus is the fact that it was very big, mountainous, and had a lot of stairs compared to the other colleges. This can make it more difficult for students to move from class to class since not only are the classes further away from each other, it is also more difficult to use electric scooters, skateboards, and bicycles.(Although, there were a couple of people using those means of transportation as well) However, students at UCLA can also get a free public transportation pass which can make it easier for the students to get to the heart of LA easily and cheaply.
Next, about the academic part of the school: Research is heavily funded at UCLA, with around 1 billion dollars being donated every year. This allows for not only STEM majors, but some humanities majors such as communications to conduct research as well. I really liked this part about UCLA as most of the schools that we visited didn’t have research options for humanities or, the research wasn’t their main strength. Like USC, UCLA takes their location and connections with people working in Hollywood to their advantage, allowing students to watch movies even before they officially get shared to the public. However, unlike any of the other UC schools, UCLA offers music majors and minors. They also offer celebrity office hours for the music majors and minors. This is when famous artists that the school has connections with (Ex. A$AP Rocky) to fill in the office hours your professor couldn’t come to. Although I’m not that interested in music, I think this is a great opportunity for music students to get to know more about the music industry and ask helpful tips from successful professionals in the industry. One unique thing about the school system of UCLA is the fact that it follows a quarter system instead of a trimester system like our school and most of the schools that we visited. A quarter system means that each year is separated into 4 quarters; one quarter for each season. This means that students can take more classes, which means that the students don’t have to stress too much about their GPA for each class as the GPA is dispersed over multiple classes. A quarter system can also mean that each student will be able to spend less time on classes, which means students can spend more time on extracurriculars. (Ex. Part-time jobs at college such as being a tour guide or a barista, internships, research, etc…)
This extracurricular part plays a huge role in UCLA’s social life as well which I will be talking about now. Students in schools such as the Claremont Mckenna college tend to have their social life focussed around their dorm. For example, each of the dorms have mini events such as board game nights after exam seasons. However, in UCLA, the students’ social life is more focussed on the extracurricular that one does. One of the main things that I think UCLA prioritizes is trying new activities and following your passion outside of class. This can be seen by the school’s use of the quarter system and by the characteristics of some of the students we met. We met a couple of Hiroo graduates at UCLA and although they were probably joking to a certain extent, they were saying sometimes they had to skip class and listen to the lectures at their own time instead, as they had stuff outside of school that they wanted to spend their time on. I feel like this characteristic represents the school’s characteristic of giving quite a lot of freedom to the students and wanting them to pursue more extracurriculars than learn in a classroom 24/7. However, this is not to say UCLA isn’t academically rigorous in any way. Of course, UCLA students have to deal with a lot of stress especially during exam season. That’s why UCLA offers many activities and foods in their library to release the students’ stress. (Ex. Coffee, cookies, goat yoga, silent discos, etc…) They also offer free group classes for activities such as yoga and Pilates so that the students can be more motivated to work out and move their body even during exam seasons.
Overall, I think for students interested in STEM, research, music, or the fine arts, UCLA has amazing opportunities, programs, and internships. However, for people interested in other majors, there probably won’t be many opportunities unless you really look for it.
Y.I (M3 Girl)
On the third day, we toured the University of California, Los Angeles, also known as UCLA. It is one of the ten UCs (University of California) and is a part of the public university system. UCLA is the smallest UC in terms of land area, but it has the largest student population, where the student body consists of 33,040 undergraduate students.
I have always admired UCLA because of its high reputation for academics, athletics, and competitiveness. Being able to tour around the campus really helped me to learn more about the university and how their system works. For example, our tour guide informed us about how students are able to build their own schedules. Students may choose to spread out their classes throughout the day, while some may choose to have them grouped together. Personally, I really like this system because it allows students to freely plan out their own lives and adjust their schedules to fit their lifestyles, which differ from person to person.
I enjoyed learning about the rich histories of the buildings on campus. For example in Boelter Hall, the foundation of the internet was invented. I thought it was interesting how such an important creation was made in a lab at a university, and students use the same place today to do their experiments. I also enjoyed my time at the UCLA store, where they sold the university’s merchandise. During the campus tour, I saw many students wearing UCLA branded clothes and items, and it gave me an impression of a strong school spirit and a sense of pride for their school.
I was able to talk to the graduates of Hiroo Gakuen who now goes to UCLA, which I think was a valuable experience since they are international students and I could go through a similar path as them one day. I really admired how they were all passionate about their major and had a vision of what their future looked like. After hearing their stories, I was relieved to know that I still had time to think about my major and work hard for my extracurricular activities.
Our visit to UCLA was definitely worthwhile, because I was able to imagine myself in a university one day, and I gained the motivation to be diligent in my studies so that I can achieve an educational and social college experience. UCLA was an amazing university and it lives up to its high reputation, so it is definitely worth considering.
L.K (M3 Girl)
UCLA has something for everyone, offering over 140 majors and 90 minors. UCLA brings a diverse campus life full of unique experiences, making your years at UCLA a once-in-a-lifetime experience, full of fun and excitement. The Interesting thing about UCLA is its commitment to being eco-friendly and integrating entertainment. They have events where they line up a lot of exercise bikes to generate electricity for Music festivals, where the instruments and equipment are powered by the students riding the exercise bikes. They also have umbrellas with solar panels to charge students’ electronics while studying outside.
UCLA offers restaurants like Taco Bell and robot delivery to make students’ lives easier. They provide a free public transportation pass all over Los Angeles to make your downtown visit stress-free. Its campus has some mountainous areas, which keep students fit and active. I was surprised to hear about “Celebrity Office Hours,” where celebrities come to teach instead of professors, which I found very interesting. UCLA also offers unique and exciting events like goat yoga, where students have yoga classes with baby goats running around the campus, and concerts. UCLA's dormitory has a 4-year guarantee, though most students move out of campus after some time.
What I found the most interesting is the special scholarships they offer. UCLA offers a “left-handed scholarship,” which is for left-handed students, with a few thousand dollars off each quarter. The best thing for me is that you can take more classes in summer for less time, which will not add much weight to each class for GPA, which can help us a lot. If you’re interested in research or spending your campus life with unforgettable fun memories, become a Bruin
S.O (M3 Boy)
Loyola Marymount University was the last stop of our trip, and my first impression there was that there were so many vast grass fields, and the entire campus felt very spacious because of how open it was. There were many facilities other than classrooms like a gym, beach volleyball courts, cafes such as Starbucks, etc, and you can see the whole city of LA from the highest point, making LMU even more of an extraordinary environment to study.
Personally, the place that stood out to me the most was the chapel, since no other universities we visited had one, and the stained glass artwork was very pretty.
LMU puts a lot of strength into marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship, and also provides safe housing for students, so it is a great school especially for people interested in those areas of study.
H.H (M3 Girl)
Three places at LMU left a particularly strong impression on me. The first was the research lab. It was incredibly spacious, and I was struck by the sight of many students gathered there, actively discussing their projects. I think it provides an excellent environment for those interested in biology or research. The second was the chapel. Among all the universities we visited on this tour, LMU was the only one with a chapel. Since it was my first time ever stepping into one, it was a unique and memorable experience for me. The last was a scenic viewpoint where you can see a breathtaking panoramic view of Los Angeles. By walking a short distance from the main campus to its highest point, you can take in a stunning view of the entire city. There’s also a café nearby, making it a perfect spot to take a break from studying while enjoying the scenery. Additionally, I noticed a Little Free Library, a small wooden box where donated books are available for anyone to take for free.
Moreover, LMU has a highly international environment, with students from over 90 countries, providing plenty of opportunities to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. The university is well known not only for psychology and marketing but also for its strong programs in science and engineering. It seems like an ideal school for those interested in these fields, as well as for students who want to balance academics with hobbies like music or sports.
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