As a graduating senior, I have a real swirl of mixed feelings going into my last week of college. I’m excited about my future, despite its uncertainties. I’m ready to leave LA and spend more time back home with my family, who I’ve missed quite a bit over the last three years. I’m not particularly upset about leaving USC, but I have been grappling with a strange sadness over the last few weeks, less for what I’m leaving behind and more for what never happened. 

If you haven’t figured out your housing for next semester, you might be feeling panic or anxiety. With groups of roommates signing leases before the fall semester is over for the following year to get the prime apartments, it’s easy to feel swept up in making rash, impulsive choices in the name of having housing for next year. But the housing situation around USC is pretty bleak. There are a few major companies that seem to own all the available apartments and houses. They all offer unfavorable terms, sky-high pricing, and a slew of bad reviews on Yelp.

The LA Times Festival of Books is impossible to miss if you visit USC’s campus in the second to last week of April. Every year, campus is overtaken by stages and white tents in the week leading up to the weekend-long book fest that spans genres, age groups, and the entire campus. After three years of watching the assembly of the event, and being a lifelong major book lover, I decided to check off another senior year bucket list item and visit.

I’ve been very guilty lately of pouring my end of semester-graduation-moving anxiety into endless doom-scrolling. When you’re anxious, it can be hard to focus or find a sense of relief from your whirling thoughts. You can’t work on school projects or studying for all of your waking hours (or at least you shouldn’t), so here’s some inspiration for where to channel any finals stress and anxiety that you’re feeling as the end creeps up.

When I transferred to USC, I had no clue what to expect from the university or LA. I was honestly so shocked and excited that I got into such a well respected school and niche program that I didn’t think twice before accepting a place at the school. Having only been to college on Zoom for freshman year, there was a lot I had to learn about being a college student and USC all at once. Despite all my fellow sophomore peers starting on campus for the first time at the same time as I did, our experiences ended up being largely different because I transferred whereas they started at the school from the beginning. Since I can’t go back in time, let me give you the wisdom on transferring I wish I could tell my past self before she committed.

Congratulations to our newest Trojans on joining the family. I know you’re eager to get to campus, choose your dorms, and make shopping lists for the big move. Or maybe you’re just arriving in the Fall unsure of how to meet people or how to get to your classes; which dining hall has the best breakfast?

Putting anything in a vending machine instantly makes it more interesting, so the new gold vending machine sitting outside of Trader Joe’s up against the elevator bank immediately caught my eye. Actually a revival of a project started in 2019, the USC Pharmacy and USC Student Health have installed a “wellness-to-go” vending machine in the USC Village to give students 24/7 access to over the counter medication.

One age-old piece of college advice is that you should never under any circumstances enroll in an 8 AM class unless you want to hate your life for an entire semester. Even though I’ve always been an early riser, I’ve done my best to heed this warning. Throughout my college career, I’ve started no earlier than 10 to keep a safe distance from the dreaded 8 AM. It made sense. I liked my quiet, slow mornings even though I regularly woke up early enough to make it to a lecture at the crack of dawn.

ANTH 202: Archeology: Our Human Past ranks among the favorite GE-C options for fulfilling one of the two Social Analysis requirements to graduate. This likely comes down to the beloved professor at the helm of it, Tracy Mayfield.

As someone who transferred to USC as a sophomore, I completely understand how confusing and disorienting it can be to start at a new university without the safety net of dorm life and special welcome events to fall back on. It can be hard to jump right into your classes while still trying to learn where the lecture hall is or where to get lunch. Hopefully Trojans360 can help soften your LA landing by providing a roadmap of practical advice and wisdom from those who’ve transferred to USC before you.

One of my favorite parts of living in California is the ready access to incredibly fresh fruits and vegetables. One of the easiest ways to access them is by shopping at farmers markets. LA has an incredible number sprinkled all around the city (my favorite is in Brentwood), but if you don’t have a car, don’t worry! USC brings the farmers market right to McCarthy Quad most Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m throughout the fall and spring semesters.

We have all complained about the GE system at USC. Whether it’s having to read tons of books as a STEM student or remembering how to do math as a musician, GEs often put us in uncomfortable spots, take up a lot of time, and feel entirely unrelated to both our current work and our future careers. There’s no denying that there are many flaws in USC’s general education system from just how many of these credits you have to take and the money you pour into them, the lack of options with pages worth of WebReg dedicated to classes only open to certain majors, and the amount of work and expertise that can be expected in a field you have no background with. Trust me, I’ve done my fair share of complaining. But as a senior this year, I’m learning to embrace the GEs and make the best of the situation.