Sunshine? Free Food? Concerts? Shopping? USC has it all. What I wanted from college was not only a unique education (as expected) but also a college experience.  I wanted to look back on four years to a place and not only remember everything I’ve learned but also what I did on the weekends, with my friends and after class.

Here are my favorite moments, one for  each year, for why I chose USC:

  1. Freshman Year: the housing! One of my biggest concerns coming into college was where I was going to live.  Looking through the housing pages and the virtual tours though, my worries were eased.  I wanted air conditioning and a non community floor bathroom which led me to Parkside.  I met some of my closest friends in Parkside and got to do a bunch of events planned by my residential advisor.  I got free chipotle, in-n-out and other food so I was never hungry for a moment.
  2. Sophomore Year: free concerts.  Not only does USC host two big concerts on campus (Conquest and Springfest) one of my friends won tickets to see Iggy Azalea and Demi Lovato live in a Hanger at Santa Monica.  Not only was the venue super cool but it was fun to go to be in a concert with friends randomly during the year. That year, I also went to see Imagine Dragons at the Wiltern.  LA has so many venues and performances going on year round, there’s never a bored moment.
  3.  Junior Year: lab and research. Junior year was when I started to really get a hands on experience in my classes for chemical engineering.  I took a few lab classes and got to enhance my technical skills and lab techniques when working with model distillation columns, analyzing flow meters and other equipment.  I also got to make gold nanoparticles, quantum dots and other nanotechnology devices like microfluidics.  Through these studies, I took the theoretical and applied it to the real world.
  4. Senior Year: I can’t just choose one!  Whether it’s participating in USC traditions like heading to Berkeley for the Weekender, going to all the football games, traveling LA and the surrounding area (both nature and city), dedicating time to my senior design project etc. every day was busy and unique.  I think why I chose USC in the end was that it provided me the perfect balance between work and play.

Just writing this blog was difficult in the sense that I could list a bunch of more memories that make me smile because at USC, I was always busy in a good way and got to explore my interests and pursue my passions.

 

[author title=”Author” author_id=””] href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Button Text
Hannah

Hannah

Chemical Engineering (Nanotechnology), Class of 2016, Learn more on her profile here!