College admissions scandal: some non-locals seem to think UCLA and USC are mediocre "state" schools? (San Francisco: dorm, community college)

[CA4Now]

Heads must have rolled at USC as a result of this.

"Sloane, the water systems executive, paid Singer and an alleged accomplice $250,000 to ensure that Sloane’s son, who attended the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, was admitted to USC as a recruited water polo player.

In court documents littered with brazen examples of Singer’s handiwork, the plan he and Sloane concocted was particularly barefaced: Sloane purchased a water polo cap and ball on Amazon in June 2017, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court and, after taking pictures of his son wearing the gear, enlisted the help of a graphic designer to Photoshop his son’s face and torso onto an image of a genuine water polo match.

With the doctored photo and a recruiting profile that falsely said Sloane’s son played for the “Italian Junior National Team” and “LA Water Polo” team, the boy was admitted to USC in March 2018. In truth, Sloane’s son did not play water polo and his high school did not field a team, prosecutors say.

When a counselor at the Buckley School questioned how he had been recruited as a water polo player, Sloane fumed, telling Singer in an email that “the more I think about this, it is outrageous! They have no business or legal right considering all the student privacy issues to be calling and challenging/question [my son]’s application!”

Prosecutors say Donna Heinel, a former administrator in USC’s athletics department, smoothed over the flap by writing to USC’s director of admissions, saying falsely that Sloane’s son played water polo in Europe and that his stature belied his strength and speed in the water."

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...513-story.html

[BennyPhoenix]

I could have gone to Yale, Harvard or Stanford....had I been accepted.

[Angelino19]

Originally Posted by Burkmere

Nothing special really about UCLA or USC. Decent schools for sure, but not that big of a deal. At least a couple hundred or more colleges across the country just as good. Computer science is computer science. Engineering is engineering. Calculus is algebra. World history is world history. UCLA's version is no different.

You say "Nothing special really about UCLA or USC," and I'm sure some would agree with you, but just try getting into either of those schools. You'll quickly realize the competition is fierce and few make the cut.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by AnnaGWS

Princeton is in a safe and affluent area, but it is not too far from Trenton. Penn is in a not so safe area.

Urban universities tend to be in unsafe areas because they need a lot of cheap land to build out their campuses.

Urban areas aren't really cheap land - because they're built up. It can be very difficult to redevelop them due to community concerns, regulations and zoning.

Columbia University is an urban school which owns a lot of real estate property spread over several areas. Their health sciences campus in Washington Heights wanted to raze the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 - and ran into a lot of community opposition for decades. They finally managed to strike a compromise for redevelopment of the site into a biotech research center where part of the ballroom was preserved with a commemoration (and got his widow, Betty Shabazz, onboard with it).

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Urban areas aren't really cheap land - because they're built up. It can be very difficult to redevelop them due to community concerns, regulations and zoning.

And most "urban" universities in blighted areas were there before the area around them became blighted. They didn't just up and say "let's build a world-class university in the middle of da 'hood because cheap land." If anything the land around them is more expensive than it would be precisely because developers and speculators bank on the university wanting that land some day and/or because of increased housing demand caused by the student body.

[sean1the1]

Originally Posted by BennyPhoenix

I could have gone to Yale, Harvard or Stanford....had I been accepted.

"Accepted" or "played"

[3shipguy]

Originally Posted by Cane Guy

One would have to consider the US News rankings as somehow valid.

Ok, please show me another “valid” ranking that states that these schools are mediocre then...

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by vincenze

If somebody wants to be a programmer, she can check results of programming competitions among universities and select a university with a higher score.

The most prestigious is ICPC. Students get programming tasks. The more tasks a team solves, the higher a score.

Here are the results for SoCal.

Caltech fares very poorly: the 13 and 16 places.
Though, students from community colleges couldn't solve a single task.
Scoreboard

Here are the results for World.
https://icpc.baylor.edu/scoreboard/
1 Moscow State University
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3 The University of Tokyo
4 University of Warsaw
16 University of Oxford
26 Harvard University
30 Stanford University
59 Princeton University
65 University of Southern California


You can probably study for $2,000 a year in Warsaw.

But what language would instruction be in?


5th place goes to National Taiwan University. You could study cheaply in Taiwan, too, in a beautiful tropical environment, with great food, lol! Who needs Warsaw?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Heads must have rolled at USC as a result of this.

"Sloane, the water systems executive, paid Singer and an alleged accomplice $250,000 to ensure that Sloane’s son, who attended the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, was admitted to USC as a recruited water polo player.

In court documents littered with brazen examples of Singer’s handiwork, the plan he and Sloane concocted was particularly barefaced: Sloane purchased a water polo cap and ball on Amazon in June 2017, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court and, after taking pictures of his son wearing the gear, enlisted the help of a graphic designer to Photoshop his son’s face and torso onto an image of a genuine water polo match.

With the doctored photo and a recruiting profile that falsely said Sloane’s son played for the “Italian Junior National Team” and “LA Water Polo” team, the boy was admitted to USC in March 2018. In truth, Sloane’s son did not play water polo and his high school did not field a team, prosecutors say.

When a counselor at the Buckley School questioned how he had been recruited as a water polo player, Sloane fumed, telling Singer in an email that “the more I think about this, it is outrageous! They have no business or legal right considering all the student privacy issues to be calling and challenging/question [my son]’s application!”

Prosecutors say Donna Heinel, a former administrator in USC’s athletics department, smoothed over the flap by writing to USC’s director of admissions, saying falsely that Sloane’s son played water polo in Europe and that his stature belied his strength and speed in the water."

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...513-story.html

That's a lot of hoops to jump through, to make sure Johnny gets into USC. Good way to teach Johnny, that money talks, and money is everything, too. Way to go, dad!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by TravelingBoat

And USC is smack dab in the middle of gangland. Why do people want to go to school there?

This is what mystifies. me. No one in NorCal (who's actually from there originally, not from SoCal) has heard of USC.