I had the pleasure of visiting the campus of USC not too long ago, and discovered this is a gem of a school hidden in the concrete jungles of downtown LA. Once you drive past the gates, it's almost as if you've traveled thousands of miles to some quaint city in the east coast. Many of the buildings stand their ground with brick walls and intermittent arches. I might sound like I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but it was nicer than expected.
On another note. Maybe it was common among LA natives - but during high school, we had enormous rivalries between UCLA and USC. We weren't even accepted into college yet, but we all had so much pride in whichever side we jumped on. People wore their respective colleges of choice's clothing, backpacks, carried folders, key chains... My best friend at the time, her dad would take us to campus and drop us off so we could hang out at the bookstore. Yeah, that's right, the bookstore. Do other kids do that? Are you sifting through your closet for your old Bruin/Trojan sweatshirt? Are you guilty? Maybe it was just my wacky high school. Looking back on it now, it was so silly. In the greater scheme of things, I've learned success does not stem from what institution you end up at, it's about what you make of yourself wherever you go, whatever you do.