Talia’s Journey to USC

By: Talia Walters ‘20

After three finished years at USC, applying and deciding to come here feels like a distant memory. However, as I continue to trudge slowly through my senior year of college and as I see all of my friends in graduation caps announcing their future plans, I’m beginning to realize, much to my horror, that it might just be time to open those college apps again. In honor of a trying time for all of us, both high school and college seniors, I’ve been reflecting on my own journey to USC. I think my story’s a bit on the unique side, and I wanted to share it with everyone who might be worried about their upcoming applications or who might be regretting the commitment they made just a few weeks ago. Thus, I present: Talia’s Journey to USC.

I had started curating my list of colleges to apply to when I was in 7th grade. As the years continued, college names slowly made their way on and fell off my list as my interests changed. By the end of my junior year of high school, I felt a bizarre familiarity with the college application process, a beaming excitement to finally be at a point in my life I had been looking forward to for so long, and yet still overwhelming confusion as to my next steps. As a first generation student, I essentially had to do all the research for myself; my parents had never gone through the same process. In that sense, I had trouble finding schools that weren’t in Ohio or Ivy Leagues, understanding how financial aid even began to work, or what I was even supposed to be looking for in a school.

I grew up on the East side of the United States. My family is from Pittsburgh, and then I spent most of my life in Ohio, so I never expected to venture too far West in my life. In fact, I believe the most western college on my short list was Washington University in St. Louis. At this point in my life, I had never been to California, let alone had I imagined spending 4 years of my life there.

After what felt like months of slowly google searching schools with the majors I was interested in, located in urban places with a good reputation and job prospects (and don’t forget the debate team!), I handed off my list off to my dad who planned a summer vacation revolving around me and college visits. We proceeded to spend a couple of weeks doing a large circle through Pennsylvania and New York, visiting my family and various colleges along the way. And on this trip, I fell in love with what would become my first choice school. Everything about it was perfect - the perfect majors, the perfect debate team, the perfect location, the perfect traditional college look, and feel. I was smitten.

The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia became the only place I wanted to take my college career. Considering I’m writing this as a USC student, you all have the privilege of knowing how this story ends before I continue, but 18-year-old bright-eyed Talia knew no better.

I was so certain that I belonged at UPenn that I decided to apply Early Decision, a binding application that proved your commitment to the university to make them want to admit you more (or so I’m told). Because the application was binding, meaning if I was accepted I would have to commit to UPenn no matter what, my family and I decided to wait until I got my decision back before I sent in any other applications. I simply couldn’t imagine paying all of the application fees I wanted just to have to withdraw my applications a month or two later when I heard back from Penn, and my family didn’t quite qualify for fee waivers, so it made the most sense for me. Thus, Early Decisions came out on December 15th, so the next few months were nothing but a waiting game.

In November of my senior year of high school, I was invited to speak at the American Council of Teaching Foreign Languages by Education First. It was a really neat conference about the importance of language learning in sunny San Diego. My mother and I both flew out to California and proceeded to have one of the most amazing weekends of my high school career.

If you’ve never been to San Diego, I highly recommend it.

It was so amazing that I made the decision on the airplane home to apply to UC San Diego if I got rejected from Penn. And that was the plan.

The next few weeks were wildly uneventful, and then suddenly, it was December 15th. I remember scurrying home and waiting by my laptop for the fateful decision email. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever been as nervous as I was during college decision season, but that afternoon was one of the most brutal. Finally, after dinner, I got the alert, and my family gathered around my laptop as I logged into my account. I was asking every universal fate/deity/anyone who would listen for help in those final moments.

Deferred.

Okay, so it wasn’t an outright rejection, which I guess I was thankful for, but it did mean I had to start seriously considering other options. As I finalized my list of schools, I googled UC San Diego’s application information, and I was immediately devastated. It turns out all of the UC’s applications were due on December 1st, making me too late to join the San Diego party. While I was sad, I decided that maybe it was for the best, but I still wanted to throw in a school on the West Coast just to keep my options open.

And honestly, I wish my decision to apply to USC had been more picturesque. Maybe I knew the football team well, or I met someone who had gone there that convinced me to apply, but in all honesty, I just googled “Universities in California” and after a preliminary scroll and scan, I narrowed it down to either USC or Pomona College in Claremont. I had never heard of either school before that moment, and I didn’t know much about them beyond their location. From there, it was legitimately a coin flip, and I ended up adding USC to my final list. When I showed my dad, he said, “California? You’re not going to California.”

If only he knew!

I sent in all my applications, and I received my final acceptance list by the end of March. My five choices: Miami University in Ohio, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Rochester University, Northeastern University in Boston, and the University of Southern California. As you can see, UPenn is not on that list. That rejection stung the most, but after a tearful night, I didn’t have much time to sulk. I had my own college decision to make.

I knew I didn’t want to stay in Ohio, and I didn’t really want to move to Minneapolis, so those two were easy to cross off. Rochester was pretty, but the city isn’t as big as Boston or Los Angeles, so I knew I wouldn’t love it as much as other places. This narrowed down my choices pretty quickly to two entirely different sides of the country. We only had the time to visit one of the two places before I had to commit, and my mom and I knew immediately without question that we wanted to visit to Los Angeles.

A few weeks later we jet set off to Los Angeles, staying fairly close to the campus. On our tour, things just felt different than they had at other places. I hadn’t even felt this way at UPenn. The best way to describe it isn’t even excitement, but for me, it was an overwhelming wave of “rightness”. I wish I had better words to encompass the feeling, but it was what I can only imagine people describing as finding their perfect fit college. Everything just made sense, and I felt like I already knew the campus as we traipsed around Doheny and meandered through McCarthy quad. It was almost home-like, even in the heat I had never liked and the palm trees I had never seen before. I loved it.

After the tour, my mom and I decided to wander through the bookstore as one does. We found a few cute things to point out, got a picture with a tiny foam finger, and eventually found the large T-Shirt section of the store (yes, you know the one). I found a shirt I liked and so did my mom, and we found one my Dad would like and also one for my brother and suddenly we were going down the escalator to the cashier with a pile of USC gear when my mom said, “wait, are you going to USC?”

I stared at the pile of t-shirts in my hands and started getting teary with excitement and pride and just said, “I guess so!”

Her response? “You’re telling your father.”

If I needed any more reason, I got accepted to the Thematic Option Honors Program later at lunch, and we met a mother who told us all about how much her daughter loves USC. I made my decision, and I was so happy with the school, the vibe, the home feeling that I couldn’t wait to go back. Freshman year couldn’t come fast enough.

And to top it all off, on our way back to Ohio, my mom and I were in line for security with our newly bought USC t-shirts on. The woman in front of us turned around and asked my mom if she was an alumna, and my mom politely said no but mentioned I had committed that weekend. In some sort of cinematic-like glory, the woman smiled all big, came over to me, placed her hand on my shoulder and said, “Welcome to the Trojan Family.”

Like c'mon! I actually sobbed like a baby afterward from just how warm, welcoming, and prideful the connection had been. Being accepted into such a large community almost entirely thanks to chance and fate is something I would never change for the world.

In hindsight, if I had gotten in UPenn, I think I would have been sad there. A few of my friends moved to Philadelphia, but I think that would have isolated me from the new experiences I got when I started over in Los Angeles. I’ve met so many new people, especially people who are going to be in my life forever (Alicia, Asia, Makenzie, and Isaac - this one’s for you ✌), and I’ve done more things and had more opportunities than I could have imagined anywhere else. And if I had the time to apply to UC San Diego or had chosen to apply to Pomona instead, I think I would’ve ended up in Boston and not in California, which would have been a whole other experience entirely that I truly believe I would’ve liked less than what I have at USC.

I think there are a couple morals of the story. Firstly, if you’re going through college applications in the upcoming year (undergraduate OR graduate), go with whatever flow is handed to you. Find a plethora of schools that make you excited and have what you’re looking for all over the country, don’t limit yourself, take the acceptances you have and choose what feels right. I’m a strong believer in the fact that the universe will put you wherever you’re meant to be and wherever you will thrive, so take rejections with a grain of salt and move forward with the knowledge that you’re going to do whatever is right for you in the end. Don’t sweat it too much (and if worst comes to worst and you just don’t click with the college you chose, then remember that transferring is an option!).

Secondly, everyone has a different path, and that’s okay too. I was a little concerned when I first arrived because USC has always felt like a legacy school. At the very least, I always heard the hyperbolic example of the girl who’s a fifth generation USC student. Her first onsie had a tiny song girl skirt on it, and her room was decorated cardinal and yellow before she could even say fight on. I was super afraid that I was going to be left out of the tradition of it all, but then I’ve met tons of people who all came to USC from different directions. One of my best friends dreamed of going to USC like I dreamt of UPenn, one had a sister graduate just a few years before and knew it only felt right, and one transferred from San Francisco after she realized she wanted to go to Vet School. We don’t all have the same reasons to go to USC, and we don’t all have the same story, but we’re all here for a reason, and that’s all super cool and okay!

In the end, I love USC, and I’m glad I’m here even though it wasn’t even on my radar until my college application season had already started. And while I’ve been critical as of late, it’s kind of like when a child is annoyed with their parents. A lot of decisions and news have frustrated me because I know we can be better, but at the same time, we’re a family. I wouldn’t change my time at USC for anything in the world. As I enter into my next college application season (and so many others begin their own process), I hope we all find a place just as loving, welcoming, and home-like as USC has been to me the last three years.

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