You see, with its location and elitist image, USC maintains an outstanding community outreach program that utilizes its medical, dental, pharmacy & other professional school students to provide free community healthcare & educational services not only for the residents but also elementary students enrolled in those administratively dysfuntional, instructionally dismal LAUSD campuses around that area.

Its comprehensive scope, backed by its resources does earn USC the gratitude of the impoverished, crime stricken communities within which the campus locates.

A few years back, when my eye suffered a retinal tear, my ophthalmologist also referred me to USC's Doheny Eye Institute, affiliated with its Keck School of Medicine, for treatment & laser surgery.

Not that I couldn't insist on going to UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institure then.  But with the severity of the tear and the proximity of Keck School of Medicine's brand new medical complex closer to where I live, that was the one time I submitted to the "field enemy's" medical care.

They treated me well, not knowing I had my UCLA shirt tucked in under my jacket and bantered with me amicably to relieve my anxieties.  You can perhaps compare it to an enemy guard sharing his cigarette with a POW before pulling the trigger on him.  In my case, it was that laser device the Trojan retinal specialist trained on my dilated eyeball to seal the tear.

So I hope I won't get any "verbal grenades" hurled my way, or driving into some roadside explosives next time I come home ( just kidding ).  But I do feel that sports competition aside, USC's humanitarian work deserves our recognition too, much as we strives to maul them senseless either on the basketball court or football field.

The best counter to your friend's argument is that yes, USC reports higher SAT scores than UCLA, but that's because USC reports the highest "combined SAT score." That is to say, if you get a 700 on each section of the SAT the first time, but the second time, you get a 700, an 800, and a 600, USC reports your score as 700-800-700, while UCLA reports it as 700-700-700

Let's extend this analogy a bit farther.  The sun actually creates it's own light whereas the moon only reflects the sun's energy.  So perhaps USC is able to "shine" as it does because it's proximity to UCLA allows it to reflect some of Westwood's excess energy.    I have a few friends that went to USC for graduate work after finding it difficult to get into UCLA graduate schools.  Plus there is the aforementioned joke about UCLA and USC students both getting into USC.

However, USC is trying very hard to recruit students with strong admissions numbers.  When I was applying to and choosing between schools in 99/00 USC was the first acceptance I received, the first scholarship offer and the first recruiting weekend I could attend.  They made a very strong push to indoctrinate potential students early and entice them with money and perks.  In fact they were persuasive enough that I had my dad (an UCLA alum) buy me a future oil rag from the student store.  Fortunately I came to my senses, gleefully turned down the $20,000 + a year they wanted to give me and never looked back.  Unfortunately I'm sure some very good people were lured to the dark side by the $C song and dance.

BN is, among other things, a great resource. Don't waste the advice and knowledge provided.

The college experience seems a little nicer at UCLA than at justsc.

Or go to a game at the Rose Bowl, then make the long hike to Old Pasadena for an aperetif.  (I've done it, even though it's mostly uphill so anyone can do it.)  Tell her that once the security arrangements have been double-checked, you'll get in the armored personnel carrier to go from the Crapaseum to ... where?  Where you you go for a nice post-game snack or libation?  Julies?  That's just Crapaseum-east.

Or you might ask her the ultimate question.  Where would she rather go to school - UCLA or justsc?  An honest answer would be revealing.  But if she says justsc, she is beyond help.  As some said higher in this thread, if she really think justsc is a better place to spend her college career, then she really, REALLY better be a hottie.

I don't wish any misfortune for your friend, but I hope he or she gets improperly terminated, and then chooses to blow the whistle publicly.  The disgruntled employee, of course, is the great fear of any institution which cheats as a matter of course.  And it also puts your friend in a bullet-proof position:  "Cheatie Petie, I think I need a raise -- I'm starting to feel the need to call the same reporters at Yahoo who blew up bu$hgate."