Accounting School

<p>Greetings!</p>

<p>I was choosing CSUN or USC for Accounting School. I like CSUN because it's government, but I also like USC because of the strong family that I could be with during college. Although I believe that it is possible to have a strong family in CSUN or any college, I was wondering if there's any difference when it comes to employment opportunities upon graduating in CSUN or USC? </p>

<p>Anybody here graduated in CSUN or USC? If so, may I please know what you think is best?</p>

<p>Thanks so much in advance!</p>

<p>The name of the school has some inference for the FIRST job, after that it is all depends on experience.</p>

<p>USC has slight advantage over CSUN, that is how I see it, only if the GPA is the same.</p>

<p>@artloversplus is correct in saying this about the US, but if you return home it may be that prestige, name recognition, matters more than it does in the US. But USC is twice the cost of CSUN, even though CSUN charges out of state and international students $372/credit hour more than it charges in-state students. </p>

<p>Thanks so much! I appreciate it. </p>

<p>By the way, if you were the employer, would you pick a student in CSUN with higher GPA than the student in USC?</p>

<p>If you’d say CSUN, I might as well go for CSUN. How practical, isn’t it? </p>

<p>But I see that USC students are being trained for global concerns, and CSU’s general education rather for real life as they say. I think CSU’s meaning of real life is what currently is happening around us, but not necessarily much of global stuff. Please correct me if I’m wrong. And USC’s global style, is for students to expand their perception in the world–to be global. </p>

<p>Both are great, but I think it will just depend on the experience of the student indeed. The two universities I think quite differ in their general education requirements. </p>

<p>USC-prepares students to be global, to be able to contribute to the world, globally. More like being able to reach out to the world. </p>

<p>CSU-prepare students for practical inner talents to go out, to be able to contribute to society by being able to use the potentials that has been brought out during college. More like being able to understand self by realizing our talents, so we can help the world better than before.</p>

<p>This is only an opinion from my observation of seeing their General Education. I’m not yet a student of any, just a prospective student. Please correct me if there’s anything you think must be corrected.</p>

<p>Thanks again, and I appreciate it.</p>

<p>Does your family have the ability to pay $64,000 for 4 years for you to go to USC?</p>

<p>No jkeil911, I’m on financial aid, and is looking for scholarship.</p>

<p>So you have financial aid from home that you’re going to use in the US?</p>

<p>Have you checked to see if these two colleges offer scholarships to int’l students? If they do, can you provide your GPA, test scores, and extracurricular activities, please?</p>

<p>Ok, but I’m not an international student. My GPA is 3.19 on 21 units for now, and I’m currently attending community college.</p>

<p>Financial aid for transfers is limited. Scholarship is even more scarce.</p>

<p>oh, I wonder where I rec’d that idea? :-/ Transfer students usually have problems getting financial aid, but check to see what the policy at CSUN and USC is. I think both schools require you to have two years of general ed credits completed before they will accept you. USC will not likely offer you any scholarships with your GPA. In fact, USC may not allow you to transfer. You need to check this all out.</p>

<p>As far as domestic employers are concerned, they’re going to care more about your skill set coming out of college, your GPA, and your interviews with them.</p>

<p>What do you plan to major in? </p>

<p>Accounting. I just saw the Scholarship page of USC saying that they accept GPAs of 3.0 and up. And that money is not a barrier.</p>

<p>yes, USC’s webpage may say that, but in reality what percentage of the merit winners have a GPA of 3.19? not a very high percentage, I think. When they say money is not a barrier, they’re speaking about need-based aid, not scholarships.</p>

<p>Need-based aid is called financial aid, sometimes, and other times it’s called grants.</p>

<p>“Scholarship” usually doesn’t refer to grants but to merit aid.</p>

<p>USC promises to meet 100% of need for students with low income. Have you run the net price calculators to determine your family’s Expected Family Contribution. Can your parents pay the EFC?</p>

<p>I suggest the OP do what is called informational interviewing. Contact the local offices of the big 4 accounting firms and explain you are a CC student that is interested in meeting with someone to get advice about the best choices for your career path. Emphasize that you are not looking for a job or internship at this point, just want to meet someone for 30 minutes or so (suggest coffee) to get the point of view of someone in the field. This is an approach recommended in the perennial job-hunter book “What Color is Your Parachute”. At the meetings you can ask about schools, advice on entering the field, etc. You can do this with more than just the big 4, you could do it with other large accounting firms in your area.</p>

<p>Also, since you are already in college, you should be talking to the profs teaching your accounting classes to get their opinions. Many if not all probably have a background with the big firms.</p>

<p>True, thanks mikemac! I appreciate your advices. I do had one professor who I’ve been very close with said that USC is great if money is okay and CSUN is likewise great because they have big 4 recruiters similar to that of USC’s. </p>

<p>I’ve had another advice from another site saying that, fresh grads are equally worthless upon employment, so if a student who graduated in CSUN and USC landed in same job with same salary. It’s the funny part. But he’s not really telling me not to go to USC, he just explained what he observed from experience. </p>

<p>jkeil911, I’ve had finished 21 units; therefore, it’s too early to determine the scholarship acceptance because the units are yet to increase to 30. USC accepts students with 30 units for transfer I believe. </p>

<p>Thanks again for everyone’s helpful advices. And have a goodnight.</p>

<p>Anybody feels like giving more advices, you are welcome. </p>

<p>OP, check about numbers of credit units because my experience suggests they want 60 hours.</p>

<p>

@mariz576 , One other suggestion. From the grammar in your post I’m going to guess that English is not your first language. Your post is easily understandable, but many sentences have an error in them. So here’s my point. As a professional CPA you will be sending letters and emails that are seen by upper managers in the companies you work with. Many of them will never have met you face-to-face, so all they know about you is the image you convey in writing. Attention to detail is crucial in accounting, and the improper use of language sends a certain message. I’m not talking about picky points of usage, but the basics such as forming plurals correctly and conjugating verbs. Now I’d bet you are careful and conscientious, but that isn’t the message someone reading a letter rife with grammatical errors is going to come away with.</p>

<p>At your age, a college sophomore, this is something that you can easily improve over the next several years. A key is to read widely. Reading a daily newspaper is a good idea, as is reading books and magazines that are of interest to you. By doing so you will absorb the patterns and usage of standard English. </p>

<p>As an international transfer in accounting major with your stats, I don’t think either USC or CSUN will be a good choice. You should first finish your CCC program and get an AAS degree first then apply to wide varieties of AACSB accredited colleges and see who is going to offer the best package. Staying in CA will limit your options and potentially cost you more money to finish your accounting degree. Do not expect USC will give you scholarships that is affordable in total cost and CSU’s are not going to give you any thing as international transfer, so the COA may be too high for your budget.</p>

<p>Worst case scenario, you may be able to use your Associate degree to get a job who will sponsor a HB1 or Practical training Visa, which is going to be very difficult as well.</p>

<p>USC accepts a lot of tranfers from CA CC’s but you should definitely increase your GPA.
At this point, you haven’t been admitted to either, correct?
So my recommendation is to apply to both.
If you’re admitted to USC and it’s affordable, then I’d advise you try USC for the experience and the alumni network. CSUN is very commuter and it may take you longer to graduate, even if indeed its graduates do well after internships.
Most importantly, don’t limit yourself to these two schools.</p>