Starting at USC is like stepping into an expansive gym, equipped with every tool and resource imaginable. The opportunities are what you make of it: you can stick to cardio (the basics), dive into the pool and sauna (exploration and relaxation), or challenge yourself with the heavyweight section (pushing boundaries). The shift from a structured high school environment to the relative freedom of college can feel overwhelming. Just like a gym, your experience depends entirely on how you choose to engage with it.
My name is Akshay Manglani, and I am a senior at USC studying Finance and Computer Science. I started in the Business of Cinematic Arts program—what I thought was a great workout routine—until I discovered new routines that better matched my strengths and interests. That's the beauty of USC: you're not locked into one machine or routine. Over the years, I’ve realized college isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. It’s a place to design your own roadmap. If I could rewind to my first year, here’s how I’d approach things differently. These hard-learned lessons will help you adapt and thrive—and build a truly meaningful college experience.
As it is with a gym, at USC, you can stick to what’s familiar and safe, but real growth comes from embracing discomfort. Here’s how I’d frame it:
Push Your Limits: Take challenging quantitative courses. For me, that was like statistics, machine learning, data science, and economics. These will sharpen your critical thinking and analytical skills - which are valuable no matter your career path.
Find Synergy: Complement rigorous technical coursework with qualitative classes in writing, psychology, history or sociology. These will help you develop creativity and empathy, giving you the tools to think beyond your discipline. And don't hesitate to venture out solo to events. One of USC's greatest strengths is its welcoming culture. No matter which space you enter, even if you're completely new to it, people welcome you with open arms.
Experiment: Join clubs, explore research opportunities, and step into environments that feel unfamiliar. It’s in these spaces that you’ll discover what you’re truly curious about.
Your goal isn’t to master every piece of equipment, but it's to understand what resonates with you—and also what fields you don’t like, which is important to understand.
Three Things to Prioritize
Read More: Books, articles, shareholder letters, industry news. Immerse yourself in learning. The goal is to discover where you want to build domain expertise in your career. Whether it’s fashion, media, finance, or tech, knowing your field deeply will give you an edge. Reading also sharpens your thinking and exposes you to ideas that can spark innovation.
Talk to Professionals: Be curious about every industry. You can reach out to people in entertainment, media, marketing, entrepreneurship, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, investment banking, consulting, technology, design, and software engineering thanks to incredible resources at college-specific and the university-wide Career Center, such as the Trojan Network. The goal isn’t just networking, it’s understanding how people think, how they make money, and whether their work resonates with you. Every conversation is a step closer to finding clarity about your path.
Dedicate Time for Deep Work: Block time daily to think, reflect, read, write and make high quality decisions. These moments of introspection are where you align your goals with your actions. College is about having the time to think deeply about what you want to do and why. Take this reflective practice a step further by evaluating your journey at the end of each semester. Consider what you did well and where you can improve. This periodic assessment will help you create a clear roadmap for the upcoming semester.
The Three Intelligences
Success at USC—and in life—requires more than just academics. Strive to develop three types of intelligence:
Analytical Intelligence: Hone your problem-solving skills through rigorous coursework and projects. These are the building blocks of generating superior insights, whether in the arts, humanities, social sciences, finance, technology or any other discipline.
Practical Intelligence: Learn what makes people tick. Whether in clubs, group projects, or internships, college is your training ground for developing interpersonal skills, understanding others and navigating relationships. Work in teams with people from different backgrounds to seek new ideas, build cultural understanding, gain new perspectives and explore new ways of thinking.
Creative Intelligence: Build, create and innovate. Join a startup, write a screenplay, compose music, start a podcast or design a product. Push yourself out of your comfort zone and into a creative zone. As Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
Leverage USC’s Multidisciplinary Nature
USC’s structure allows you to take courses across schools. Use this to your advantage. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, don’t limit yourself to business classes. Study engineering, computer science or design to gain the skills needed to actually build products. Consider psychology and sociology to understand people or writing classes to communicate effectively. Business might seem too broad on its own, but there are classes in specific areas. For instance, within Finance, you have Valuation, Venture Capital, Private Equity and Hedge Funds. Beyond that, there are specializations in Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Real Estate and Risk Management, to name a few. Pairing business with something like math, statistics or microeconomics can give you "lollapalooza effects," where multiple disciplines converge to create a synthesized, powerful understanding. If you’re in the arts, take business classes to learn how to market, manage or monetize your craft. And don’t overlook fun electives like surfing, yoga, golf or tennis; they’re for decompressing and connecting with students from various backgrounds.
USC's diverse community and courses create an education framework that’s as multidimensional as your ambitions.
Remember: it’s not just about the class. It’s also about the professor. Find professors who are passionate, engaging and push you to think critically. Bet on the jockey, not just the horse.
Choose the Right People
You’ll meet hundreds of people in your first few weeks. By the end of the semester, only a dozen will become friends, and a few will truly matter. Choose carefully. Surround yourself with those who share your values, challenge your thinking and align with your principles. College friendships shape the person you become.
Invest Early
College, just like life, is compound interest. Dive into your journey now. Meeting new people, working part-time, networking and participating in meaningful extracurriculars pay off exponentially over time. Balance work with fun, but don’t overdo it.
None of this works without balance. I have learned that if you’re too serious about being too serious, you’ll burn out and not get much done. Follow the Trojan Triad for well-being:
Good Sleep: Rest is fuel. It’s the biggest factor in productivity.
Good Nutrition: Take care of your body; you are what you eat.
Good Exercise: Stay active to maintain physical and cognitive clarity.
Hopefully, you can avoid the mistakes I made and use these years to discover not just what you want to do, but who you want to become.