I’ve always felt like everyone around me had a dream school for college. I applied early to USC, and it was always high on my list of schools, but it wasn’t necessarily my dream school. I didn’t have a dream school, as no school stuck out to me that much at the beginning of applying to colleges, and I felt that placing all of my hopes on one acceptance would be very stressful.
USC aligned with a lot of my desires for college, with the more surface-level ones of being in/near a city, as I wanted to stay in an urban environment, a big school, and a school with active school spirit, like athletics, “Fight On,” The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe, and many more. Other large schools were similar to USC in location and school environment, but as I learned more about engineering at USC, my decision was cemented. Viterbi was appealing to me for many reasons. I really liked that the engineering class was small, with only around 410 freshmen, as I was apprehensive of attending a large university, and a (relatively) small engineering school can offer more opportunities to a smaller number of students. I love that Viterbi has programs set up like CURVE and SURE, and I appreciate the spread of pre-professional activities that are frequent and approachable.
I am passionate about contributing to solutions to climate change, and USC has opportunities like CURVE, a research fellowship that matches students with mentors and labs, and more. The research project I’m helping with is focused on optimizing the organic photoredox catalyst design for CO2 reduction, which would have a major impact on utilizing captured carbon.
When evaluating engineering at various schools, the appeal of the close-knit, not cut-throat or excessively competitive, engineering education at USC easily beat out any other program. In the end, pursuing chemical engineering at USC was the best choice for me, and it wasn’t even close. Fight On!