#blessed

Wow... I'm amazed that I managed to make it into USC. The levels of intelligence here are incredible. Of course, I'm no premed or predental student, so it's possible that I'm just hanging out with smart people, but I'm pretty sure I'm just incredibly lucky to get into here. It's also possible that this is just because I'm now in California, where the education seems to be slightly better than Funchester. Whatever it is, the people I'm meeting are definitely in another class from me, with regards to intelligence.

I'm just becoming more and more humble every day. This process began with an offhand discussion with a few suite mates about SAT scores and financial aid now that we were all at USC. A couple of my suite mates had managed to pull off SAT scores that rival Tomy's only by taking a few practice SAT tests. In fact, one had managed to pull off good enough scores as well as a combination of other factors to get a full ride to this very expensive school (normally ~$60,000 a year). After that, I attended a couple of christian organizations and met a few people. I started chatting with those people and then, once again, learned that one was here on a full ride and the pastor of the church that the organization had on campus had also attended USC on a full ride and had even managed to make money as he was attending. Fast forward a couple of weeks to today where I learned that another one of my suite mates was planning to go to either Duke or Brown for predental. Not only that, but most of the top 20 had actually gone to ivy league schools! He had been near the top of the ranks at his school, like 4th or something, and had decided to go to USC at the last minute... I'm just not worthy. I'm sure it doesn't really matter, but I feel so incredibly humbled by the fact that all these people have come here after being around such incredible people and being good enough to get into schools way better than here.

I didn't really understand how incredible this school was when I was applying here. That being said, I'm sure I would have met just as amazing people if I had gone to any other school. Speaking of other schools... I'm slowly wondering if USC is the right school for me. I mean, I love it here, but I'm wondering if this school is worth the monetary problems I could potentially be putting my parents into. Perhaps I should just try and get a scholarship for UVA and go back to Virginia... This thought will develop more as the year continues. I may or may not still consider this in the next few months.

-Sam Rho