UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
STUDENT BLOG
-
![]()
Navigating Your First Year as a USC Trojan
by Lanie Brice
-
![]()
Navigating Your First Year as a Spring Admit
by Lanie Brice
-
![]()
How to Balance Your Social Life During Finals
by Donal Buckley
-
![]()
Study Tips and Habits to Get Through Finals Season
by Lauren Liang
looking for something to read?
How To Deal With An Unideal Housing Situation 101
By: Esther Cho ‘23
There’s nothing worse than coming home and feeling like your space isn’t really your own. Nothing quite like the air of an awkward silence as you try to study for your econ midterm in the same room as (what you feel like is a) complete stranger.
Imposter Syndrome and How to Not Let it Define You
By: Sydney Fiorentino’24
USC is filled with students who do everything: work part-time, hold an E-board position on multiple clubs, perform research, all while being a full-time student. Some students are even able to party hard on a weekday, and wake up early the next morning to take a test and get an A. The habits of other USC students may feel like you are not accomplishing or doing enough to match others’ level of success. However, should you let what others are doing impact how you feel about yourself or if you belong in a certain environment?
Take It From One Who Knows
By: Dara Udobong ‘23
Media depictions of college tell us that we’ll be having sleepovers every other day, party-hopping on Thursday nights, and having the best time of our twenties surrounded by our new built-in best friends. For some of you, this might already be your life. For others, none of this might feel familiar at all. If this is you, you’re not alone: a lot of USC students have shared their stories (of their successes and failures) at making meaningful friendships during this very peculiar semester.
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Transferring to USC
By: Cherise Clough ‘24
USC was my dream school because I thought it was the perfect school for me. I got rejected when I had applied to start there for my freshman year of college and that rejection broke my heart. Two years later, I decided to apply to transfer—choosing to give myself one last chance at trying (even though I didn’t have much hope that time). Fast forward to 2021, and here I am living my dream, but has it been everything I expected? Here are just a few things I wish I knew before coming to USC as a transfer.
3 Ways to Get Out of a Rut in Life
By: Nathan Kim ‘24
As we are reaching the midway point of the semester, it’s easy to become unmotivated and exhausted from the ever increasing pile of work. I know that for me, I’m finding it harder to get up each day and consistently keep up with balancing my school, social, and personal life. It’s a constant battle to not feel burnt out and keep working hard each day, but I’ve tried to combat this by utilizing methods to regain that drive again and get out of this rut in my life. So here are 3 ways you, too, can escape that feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward.
Making the Most of It
By: Dara Udobong ‘23
I started my USC journey back in Fall 2019. I had almost no idea what to expect: I’d only been to LA once before, barely knew if I was even ready to do this whole school thing again (after the most restful gap-year experience ever), and knew almost no one that was starting at USC in my grade. People from my high school rarely (if ever) came all the way out to the West Coast simply because it’s too far away from home, so I already felt like a fish out of water from the jump.
My Moving Journey: What I Learned (Part 2)
By: Sydney Henry ‘24
Welcome back! This is Part 2 of My Moving Journey, so make sure to go and check out Part 1 first before reading this one. Part 2 is going to be all about the actual plane ride and touching down in LA! The best part!
My Moving Journey: What I Learned (Part 1)
By: Sydney Henry ‘24
Welcome back everyone! It’s a new semester, everyone is back on campus, and everyone is still not over the end of summer break. My last post of the spring semester talked about me getting ready to move cross country from New York to California to attend USC, and let’s just say I both did and didn’t follow my own advice. Yikes! But, as I said in that last post, this is a learning experience for all of us, and I definitely learned a lot. A lot that I can share with you all.
A Graduating Senior’s Advice to Incoming Students
By: Star McCown ‘21
As a graduating senior, I wanted to offer advice to the future generations of incoming USC students. Most of this advice is based on my past experiences, and while I’m not certain what campus events will be like when school reopens for Fall 2021, I hope that this blog post can offer some drops of wisdom that you find helpful.
How I Found My Freshman Year Roommate
By: Claire Wong ‘23
My roommate and I are ACTUALLY best friends. Yes, it is pretty miraculous. We may be a rare case, but here are some things I did to find my roommate!
Bullet Journaling Can Fix Your Life
By: Karla Leung ‘22
Now that the semester is coming to a close, you might have realized that your current system of organization might not be working for you. Whether you might want to start getting things organized in time for finals or start for the new year/semester, bullet journaling is an amazing system to organize and keep track of everything going on in your life. Starting to bullet journal this semester has helped me organize my life and keep track of everything that needs to be completed. Although bullet journaling has a defined system, the premise of bullet journaling is to make it your own and be creative!
5 Lessons for My Freshman Year Self
By: Ellice Ellis ‘20
Here’s a secret about me— I’m a senior. And yes, I’m stressed about paying back student loans, finding a job after college and senioritis has consumed my entire being. Despite the beautiful mess that is the end of my college career, there is a multitude of experiences and lessons to be grateful for. So for my freshman, sophomores, and even juniors, here are some lessons you can pull from my college experience, and hopefully, you’ll come out on top.