Is USC seen as a good school in SF?

[BarcelonaFan]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Well, it's too easy to stay in your academic shelter, or ivory tower to get a degree. One has to actively look for exposure to the outside world and engage it as a choice.

What you said about the Ivies is often said about the London School of Economics - students might be very left-wing when in school, but once they graduate, they get jobs at big banks and corporations.

I never saw the Ivy students as left wing, except for maybe at Columbia University. Most Ivy students and top students in general I've met and having gone to a top ten school were trendy liberals, a bit crunchy but just generic Democrats.

To me left wing is what you might see in Berkeley or Oakland, a real progressive red type that listens to Democracy Now! radio, reads Michael Parenti or Noam Chomsky and supports Chavez in Venezuela or the Zapatistas. Beyond that they organize in their local community.

A liberal type that went to an expensive establishment school like Harvard or Stanford would think Steve Jobs was a great innovator, reads the Economist, is a die hard apologist for the Obama administration, and tries his hardest to come up with the next Microfinance type NGO scheme that they have to know deep down is just a band aid on a gunshot wound type solution.

The latter thinks the former is the "far left" when in reality the latter is just part of a liberal moderate center that just became the "new left" after the real left (which is the former) was effectively amputated from political discourse during the 90s with the advent of Clinton's "New Democrat" campaign.

These "new" Democrats are very pro- free market, technocratic, policy wonkish and very pro-establishment. It's the same thing that happened in the UK with Blair's kick starting "New Labour". Now investment bankers from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs think they're Democrats and can hang out in Labour circles.

[loloroj]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

I never saw the Ivy students as left wing, except for maybe at Columbia University. Most Ivy students and top students in general I've met and having gone to a top ten school were trendy liberals, a bit crunchy but just generic Democrats.

To me left wing is what you might see in Berkeley or Oakland, a real progressive red type that listens to Democracy Now! radio, reads Michael Parenti or Noam Chomsky and supports Chavez in Venezuela or the Zapatistas. Beyond that they organize in their local community.

A liberal type that went to an expensive establishment school like Harvard or Stanford would think Steve Jobs was a great innovator, reads the Economist, is a die hard apologist for the Obama administration, and tries his hardest to come up with the next Microfinance type NGO scheme that they have to know deep down is just a band aid on a gunshot wound type solution.

The latter thinks the former is the "far left" when in reality the latter is just part of a liberal moderate center that just became the "new left" after the real left (which is the former) was effectively amputated from political discourse during the 90s with the advent of Clinton's "New Democrat" campaign.

These "new" Democrats are very pro- free market, technocratic, policy wonkish and very pro-establishment. It's the same thing that happened in the UK with Blair's kick starting "New Labour". Now investment bankers from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs think they're Democrats and can hang out in Labour circles.

Some years back, I was a young, aspiring journalist in Los Angeles. My former career had come to an end and I had been lucky enough to find work with an independent journal that was supposedly "liberal." Anyway, I was given an assignment to cover the story of Sunset Hall, which was a retirement community for progressives and radicals who were quite old, in many cases, ninety and over. This was in the mid 90's, and I had never heard of the place, it's background, much of anything. What I was supposed to do was to get background as to why they were closing the place and what was going to happen to these old folks. Nothing to do with politics, just a human interest story.

I get there with my tape machine and start asking questions. Damn, these folks were amazing, to hear these old radicals, from the early part of the last century, talking about why was it that only a boss can tell you what "work" meant or is, why is it that only the bosses were the ones in charge of what your pay should be or it's value, why is the 40 hour work week the only one we should have, why are stockholders given money for doing nothing and it should come out of the workers pay, etc. Honestly, I had and have not since ever heard anyone talk about these kinds of topics, and having no real understanding of the issues they were talking about, I just let the tape run, as these old folks told me of the politics of their day, what motivated and inspired them, what many had died for, on and on. Far, far more radical than any of the so called liberals of that decade, and miles ahead of what I thought at the time. I had gone to just get sound regarding why granny and grandpa were being put out, and I came away with an education of labor politics of the early part of this nation.

Got back to work, played the tape for my editors, they wanted nothing to do with it, far too volatile for their taste. I never forgot that lesson, the difference between radical and liberal.

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

I fell in love with NoRCal and especially Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, SF, Berkeley. But it also seems like a very status conscious city where prestige in terms of employment and education. I am going to be going into a program at USC and was hoping to look for work and move to SF sometime soon. How is the school viewed in NoRCal? It will be in the comp field so I am hoping to land something near Silicon Valley but really anywhere in the area is fine.

Also can anyone name the pros and cons of living in SF or the surrounding areas?

Please return to the subject of the thread - thank you.

[BarcelonaFan]

Depending on how well I do at my current job and that nothing falls apart, I am hoping to remain in CA. Would graduating from USC be a goof ROI and staying in CA? If I happen to leave the State, who well do you guys think is USC's national academic recognitio as well as it's alumni strength?

[dalparadise]

Originally Posted by BarcelonaFan

Depending on how well I do at my current job and that nothing falls apart, I am hoping to remain in CA. Would graduating from USC be a goof ROI and staying in CA? If I happen to leave the State, who well do you guys think is USC's national academic recognitio as well as it's alumni strength?

USC is probably more highly regarded outside California, than within. That said, the alumni network from San Diego to San Francisco is unmatched. USC credentials will open doors in most fields throughout the West Coast as effectively as any school in the country. It's certainly not a handicap, unless the place you are headed has a heavy UCLA or Stanford bias. Even then, it's not that big of a deal.

USC students are known to be obnoxious and even hated for their presumed position of privilege over academic achievement in gaining access to the school. Those who graduate or do post-graduate work, however, are known to have attended one of the top universities in the country. It's a fine school. You should be proud to attend it.