feed.the.beat

i don't recommend it. it's not any cheaper, in fact i think it's pretty over priced, considering the location and the amenities.

first of all, all the grad housing is embedded in what is referred to as "frat row." so you will be living next to frat houses. and if you know anything about USC greek life you will know that you don't want to live there.

i've only been inside one grad housing complex and it was kind of depressing. plus it's not like you will be living alone, you will get matched with 1 to 2 roommates, not of your choosing.

for the same amount of money you can get a decent one bedroom apartment in koreatown or a really nice house share in echo park or silverlake.

like i said, come early this summer, sublet for 1-2 months and feel it out.

It's possible to get from some parts of Koreatown by public transportation, though a little unwieldy. If you live within walking distance of the Wilshire/Western or Wilshire/Vermont subway stations, you can easily ride that into downtown (7th/Metro Center) and get the Dash bus ($.25) straight to campus. There are other Metro buses that will get you to USC, but I highly recommend calling Metro and having an actual human being route you from various parts of town; their website will make it seem impossible.

Getting to SC from Culver City is hit or miss. You have the advantage of major east-west streets that aren't the freeway, like Venice and Pico, but even those can get backed up and it can be a long haul. Again, check with Metro to see what's possible from those parts of town.

Los Feliz and W. Hollywood are really fun neighborhoods, but I don't know anything about getting from there to SC by public transportation. Living near campus, while convenient, kind of sucks - you don't really feel like you're living in LA, there's very little to do/see in the area. That said, befriend the Dash - it will get you downtown, at least!

As far as cycling...yikes. Definitely get a helmet and lots of reflective gear. People do it, but the roads are not great and the drivers are pretty oblivious.

If you have a car and are commuting, you should either sit by your computer and pounce when the parking lottery opens, or resign yourself to parking at the Parking Center, which is a few blocks off campus. Kind of a pain, though there's a shuttle. I usually walked, but wouldn't do it late at night by myself since it includes a freeway underpass.

hope this helps! I did my master's at SC and am now UCLA bound...

Housing decisions at SC will come down to how much you can stand/need. Must you have your own bedroom/personal space, or can you share? Most graduate students don't live on campus per se, but rather in student housing nearby in the neighborhood. But again where in the neighborhood (or more apporopriately, how deep into the neighborhood) you are located makes a difference; some streets are safer/cleaner than others, and you'll have to pay for the safety/cleanliness, as well as for a "nicer" building. Bascially, if you want your own bedroom in a two bedroom apartment, or a studio, and in one of the better/closer buildings and streets you're going to pay about $920 (though prices are ever increasing--two/three years ago, $920 was $815). Even these buildings aren't that great, but you can survive a year (most people I know get out of housing after their first year, and many others don't bother at all).

The area is okay enough safety-wise if you keep your wits about and aren't out super early or super late (most of our crime reports concerned students out walking past midnight or before 7am. There's not much to do however except for the little University strip/center that has a Wendy's (great for a fast food fix), a grocery store (never bought my food there, but some students did so it seems okay), a sub par movie theater (again never went inside), Starbucks, and some miscellaneous shops. It's not much of a hang out, and most students get away on weekends/evenings to other places. There is a Ralphs nearby that has somewhat better food, and it's possible to walk or bike to it (but better to have a car). You'll often find students with families or friends (who live within a drivable distance elsewhere in So Cal) who bring food/supplies on the weekends for students to stock up.

You can survive without a car, but be prepared to be limited or find lots of friends who drive (which shouldn't be a problem ). If you do get a car, pay for a permit because trying to get a space on your own isn't fun. I knew international students who managed without a car by doing group trips on public transportation or, again, by getting people with cars to take them somewhere, but many of them were only staying for a year or so; those getting PH.Ds got cars eventually It can get depressing and frustrating if you're stuck around the area with no escape, as well being dependent on someone to get away. Lots of out of state people and internationals do graduate housing the first year; it might be worthwhile to do student housing for a year to meet people and become adjusted to the school. Still, a lot of people live in many other parts of So. Cal and commute (which isn't that bad or hard), and you should still have no problem meeting people should you opt not to do grad housing.

If you decide not to do grad housing, you have lots of options in the various cities/areas of LA county that I can go into more detail about if anyone's interested. Prices will vary depending on needs/wants again. You might even still be able to get away without a car (specifically if you live in the Pasadena area you can take the metro and 'SC bus to campus, and Pasadena has much more to do/safer than 'SC housing, but you'll probably want a car in the long run no matter what). You'll probably pay between $700-900+ for a place (maybe in the high 600s if you're really lucky but you'll need to really check out the location, building, and the apartment itself); but again all of this depends on what kind of quality you are looking for and what you can stand/deem as necessary. High 700s to low 900s is probably more realistic.

I went to 'SC for my master's. Lived in student housing for the first year then moved out (one year was enough) and commuted for my second year.

Thanks! I saw you are going to Duke which is amazing as well . Congrats!!! 

@feed.the.beat Congratulations!! USC is an awesome program!

So, the wait is finally over!
Columbia - MSc. in Data Science - Waitlisted  (No funding)
NYU - MSc. in Data Science - Waitlisted
USC - Applied Data Science - Admitted (with 13k/year scholarship! Woohooo )
NYU Tandon - Computer Science - Rejected and offered MSc. in Computer Engineering (Meh!)
Will probably accept USC if nothing great comes from NYU by late April!
 
 

Thanks @MrsPhD, @The Prince of Uncertainty, @brainlass for your replies! Just in case anyone wanted to know, I'm accepting Duke's offer. I'm so excited!! And so relieved to finally have made a decision

Hey, this is great. Thanks!!!
Here I found the word "WaitList" follows a similar pattern but with a certain delay.

Not funny rejection responses from the applicant (rejectee?) but from the universities themselves - 
University of Calgary (Philosophy, Masters):
"Your application has been cancelled for the following reason: More Than One Reason" lol, thanks for the info, that's very helpful... I agree.  If that was me, I'd be relieved to know that my rejection was thoroughly warranted on the basis of problems too many to specify by the university ... 
Harvard University (Philosophy, PhD):
Letter from Dean of Admissions: "Naturally, Harvard's doors are now closed to you, but I'll pass your file along to Brown." Rofl.  The applicant must be kidding on this one ... 
DePaul University (Philosophy, PhD):
too bad I got rejected from the "PhD Program program" I was really looking forward to getting a PhD in PhD programs I wouldn't stop there - I'm aiming high for the PhD in PhD program of programs.
Finally, Rutgers University (Philosophy, PhD):
I was taken aback by how kind and personalized the 11-word notification was.

University Of Victoria, History, Masters (F15), Rejected via Website on 25 Feb 2015
 
Hit a moose. Rejected the next day. Lost my hopes and dreams... and my car.

I wanted to post the following to the results page but discovered that lengthy notes are moderated. Nuts!
 
Highest weighted and unweighted GPA in the history of mankind. Perfect GRE scores, including for subject GREs both inside and outside of my field (just for fun). Exceptional LORs from the most acclaimed professors in the entire universe (3 from Earth and 1 not of this planet). A bajillion published first-author papers, short stories, full-length novels, and a zillion forthcoming. Volunteer experience out the wazoo. Hardly surprised. I knew 100% I wasn’t going to be accepted but applied anyway just to have options. Had I been accepted, I wouldn’t have chosen to go here fo’ sho’ as it would have been a TERRIBLE fit. In any case, I got way better offers (six-figure guaranteed scholarships + health insurance + deluxe flex meal plan + reserved parking spot) from every top-ranked school in the galaxy, including ones I didn’t even apply to, along with very personalized congratulatory hand-written letters from all the faculty and their immediate and extended family members, plus gold-leaf-framed oil paintings of their pets to boot.

Ok, there was one (not going to try to find it) that said, after an acceptance, something like,
 
"I saw a moose today and took it as a good omen. It was."
 
And then someone afterwards who was rejected, something like:
 
"Did not see a moose."
 
LOL.

Loved this:
"Today I've sent an e-mail to follow up the decision process. In response, I've learnt that I'm rejected. It was like Schrödinger's E-mail."

Hi all.
 
Tired of waiting for graduate committees’ decisions I estimated decision timelines myself based on gradcafe data. For each university and program in albums below you will find three graphs:
Decision timeline as a cumulative sum of decisions (accept, reject, interview, waitlist) as a function of time between Jan 1 and May 1 for the last five years combined. Boxplots of GRE Q and GRE V for people who reported both scores. Histogram of GPAs (from 2.5 to 4.0 with 0.1 step).    
Here is the list of programs I analyzed (some important notes below):
 
Computer science PhD https://imgur.com/a/cXaEs 
Computer Science MS https://imgur.com/a/u3joC 
Electrical Engineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/ra3Eh 
Electrical Engineering MS https://imgur.com/a/KUGrD 
Economics PhD https://imgur.com/a/NzlYm 
Economics MS https://imgur.com/a/JfgSk 
Statistics PhD https://imgur.com/a/mB5UC 
Statistics MS https://imgur.com/a/tXowL 
Mathematics (applied and pure) PhDhttps://imgur.com/a/d0821 
Chemistry PhD https://imgur.com/a/U5x91 
Physics (applied and pure) PhD https://imgur.com/a/35tTy 
Chemical Engineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/Tng2r 
Literature PhD https://imgur.com/a/LDKpT 
Anthropology PhD https://imgur.com/a/d5ub4 
Bioengineering PhD https://imgur.com/a/RpTSD 
Philosophy PhD https://imgur.com/a/ihoGS 
Biology PhD https://imgur.com/a/FWhoD 
 
How to use the graphs?
I used this data to decrease my own misery. Now that I know decision timelines of universities and programs I applied to, I can refresh gradcafe less and concentrate on more useful stuff more. Also, it is interesting to explore differences between different universities/programs. For example, some universities do gradual accepts rejects/accepts and others do it in waves. Some programs start early (chemistry) and some — later (CS). Keep in mind, that there may be errors in my analysis so use this data at your own risk.  
How reliable are timelines?
I personally trust them (but I am biased). In general, it depends on curve shapes and available data. If there are more than 100 observations overall — I would consider that data to be pretty reliable. If there are characteristic ‘steps’ — it is a good sign because may indicate internal deadlines for waves of accepts/rejects. But the number of admissions/rejections records in the data is definitely inflated by question records (i.e. ‘to poster below: what program?”). I filtered some, but definitely not all of them. Also, bear in mind that department policies can change.
How reliable are GRE/GPA?
Somewhat reliable. There is noise, mistakes (i.e. switched Q/V) and self-report bias. For example, salty people with good scores may more likely report rejections and lucky people with low GPAs may less likely report accepts. But for some universities which publish admission statistics (for example, Duke), calculated GRE/GPA medians are pretty close to reported averages (I didn’t calculate means, sorry). Also, we can’t affect GPA/GRE right now, so it is mostly for entertainment.
How did you do it?
Scraped and parsed all gradcafe results. Selected all records from Jan 1 2013 to May 1 2017 and combined data for all years together, so all data is based on five year period. For each university and program in question I built a cumulative sum of decisions as a function of days since beginning of the year. For analysis of GRE I only chose records which included both Q and V scores. For analysis of GPA I used only 4-point scale grades and didn’t convert other scales to it (i.e. 10-point). Selection of universities/programs was done by regular expressions so there can be some noise added by incorrect parsing. For example, “University of Washington” may both mean Seattle and St. Louis. I tried to avoid it the best I could but there can be mistakes nonetheless. How did you choose universities/programs?
Voluntarily, so there are a lot of omissions. Sorry, if your university/program is not there. Also, bear in mind that programs may overlap (for example ‘Computer Science’ and ‘Electrical Engineering’). Finally, I excluded uni/program from analysis if there were less than 30 observations.
Will you share your code/data?
I am thinking about it, but undecided yet.

Hope it helps and good luck with the admissions!


 

Ah, the annual wave of excitation is almost over…