Dartmouth vs. USC Marshall School of Business

<p>I'm interested in soliciting some opinions. If you were accepted into Dartmouth and the USC Marshall School of Business, which would you choose and why? Being that this is a USC forum, I would think opinions would generally favor USC, but that's O.K. Let's assume a decision for Dartmouth would include pursuing an MBA program following graduation. Thank you for any words of worldly wisdom.</p>

<p>I’ve visited dartmouth, and it can be said as to be the complete opposite of USC. USC is a huge university in an urban area, while Dartmouth is a small college in small Hanover.
That’s one difference, and considering I like larger cities, because of the internship opportunities and setting, that’s one for USC.</p>

<p>Also, Dartmouth doesn’t have an undergraduate program for business, just economics. So, Marshall, being a top business school for undergrads, will also have to win here, so that’s two. </p>

<p>So, with those two factors, I would choose USC over Dartmouth.</p>

<p>^since he says he’d be pursuing an MBA program later, it wouldn’t matter that much.</p>

<p>apart from school type(size, location, etc) for me the biggest deciding factor would be money. if usc gave you half to full tuition, then it’d be on a more level playing field, probably leaning toward usc. but if money isn’t a factor, i’d probably pick dartmouth. as much as usc’s academic reputation has risen over the past 10 years, i don’t think its degree can still match up with one from dartmouth.</p>

<p>but for that location consideration, if you want to stay in socal, usc is the way to go.</p>

<p>^
Agree! I hope to have the opportunity to make that choice in April :-)</p>

<p>From a pure academic standpoint, any IVY for any major> USC.</p>

<p>I was gonna apply to Cornell for Applied Economics and management (their business program), but i didn’t complete some of the requirements :(</p>

<p>Disagree
Film and television - USC
Engineering and Business - competitive with Ivy’s
Music - USC considered to be one of the top in the country
Communications - USC Annenberg considered one of the top programs
Public Administration - USC again considered to be one of the top programs
And Princeton Review just named USC #1 for game design program</p>

<p>lakerforever24 is completely wrong (this is coming from a guy who never applied to USC and never will)</p>

<p>"From a pure academic standpoint, any IVY for any major> USC.</p>

<p>I was gonna apply to Cornell for Applied Economics and management (their business program), but i didn’t complete some of the requirements"</p>

<p>International Relations, Communications, Business, Film, and Music are all areas that are on par or better than many/majority of IVYs</p>

<p>i wasn’t talking about majors. of course USC has majors that are better or aren’t offered by some IVYs. i meant that no matter what your major is, you will get a better overall academic experience if you go to an ivy. it doesn’t matter if u choose the most useless or the easiest major from harvard. any degree from harvard is more impressive than one from USC. that doesn’t mean USC doesn’t have any good programs. they obviously do. the fact is, every IVY has a better academic reputation than USC</p>

<p>agree to disagree</p>

<p>Dartmouth if costs are the same</p>

<p>These schools or majors should be added to nauidiver’s list:</p>

<p>School of Theatre-Alumni or faculty are honored by Tony, Oscar and Golden Globes year after year. Considered one of the best in the U.S.
Occupational Therapy-Ranked No. 1
Physical Therapy-Ranked No. 3
School of Gerontology-Top researchers in a growing field of importance-
School of Dentistry-Outstanding faculty-New facilities to be added-Interdiscipliary research with Viterbi
School of Policy, Planning and Development-Top notch graduate school with many programs ranked at the highest level</p>

<p>^ i agree with all of the above, other than the school of dentistry. yes we got a huge new donation of $100m, but in terms of other dental schools, it’s not near 1st tier.</p>

<p>Again I have to disagree with lakerforever24 - as a hiring manager myself, I look very carefully at a persons major and the school they went to. I have hired USC graduates over Harvard and other Ivy league schools because their respective programs are considered stronger. I am more interested in how a person will perform at a particular job and USC graduates from some of the top programs (engineering, business and cinematic arts in particular) have been stellar.</p>

<p>i’m sure some of u might have seen this already, but here’s an article from yahoo from today that states that Dartmouth graduates make the most money 10 yrs after graduation. USC did not make the list. just FYI. not saying that USC isn’t good or anything…</p>

<p>[College</a> Grads: Which Ones Earn the Most?- Yahoo! HotJobs](<a href=“http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-college_grads_which_ones_earn_the_most-1103]College”>http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-college_grads_which_ones_earn_the_most-1103)</p>

<ol>
<li>Dartmouth College: $58,200 / $129,000</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): $71,100 / $126,000</li>
<li>Harvard University: $60,000 / $126,000</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd College: $71,000 / $125,000</li>
<li>Stanford University: $67,500 / $124,000</li>
<li>Princeton University: $65,000 / $124,000</li>
<li>Colgate University: $51,900 / $122,000</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame: $55,300 / $121,000</li>
<li>Yale University: $56,000 / $120,000</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania: $60,400 / $118,000</li>
</ol>

<p>If you want to work in California, you can’t go wrong with USC. The alumni network is amazing all over the state. Every USC graduate I know received their first job through the Trojan network.</p>

<p>Here is the complete list of the college graduate pay statistics. USC is #40.
[Top</a> US Colleges ? Graduate Salary Statistics](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp)</p>

<p>But, I think the pay scale is largely depends on the majors and the locations of the majority of the alumini. For example, Santa Clara U (engineering concentric and locate in silicon valley) is #19.</p>

<p>These median salary figures are interesting but they don’t tell you much about the value of the education or diploma per se.</p>

<p>Individuals with an expectation of higher income post graduation should be willing to invest more in their education. That is, if your family background etc suggests that you’ll have access to a well paying profession after graduation, you should be more willing to pay tuition and take other costly actions in order to earn a more valuable education/diploma.</p>

<p>That is, if you’re from rural South Dakota and you expect to stay there and takeover Dad’s insurance office, Black Hills State might have a higher expected net value than Dartmouth. On the other hand, if your mom is a private equity manager and your dad is a neurosurgeon you would expect to benefit from the Ivy League package.</p>

<p>Likewise, there is some correlation between the cost of living and the average pay by geographic region. Given that a lot of people choose to remain in a particular area, schools in high cost areas tend to report higher median post-grad pay.</p>

<p>What you really need is the difference between the medians for each school and that predicted by some reasonable set of controls, but I don’t think that you’ll find that. It’s just speculation but I’d bet that the flagship state schools would place high on such a list and the high cost private schools would rank relatively low. A very small number of the elite schools might do fairly well.</p>

<p>I want to major in finance and accounting and have shorlisted babson college and USC Marshall. Any advice?</p>

<p>College 792,
You have not indicated if there is a difference in the financial package, size and location of college, weather preference or if you have received a scholarship.</p>

<p>IF you are truly undecided and other factors are even I would suggest you consider the business training you will receive at SC. Babson is known for their entrepreneurship program. However, that is not your interest.</p>

<p>Consider: (Using the latest U.S. News Rankings)
Marshall is a top ten undergraduate business school. Babson is not ranked in the top group.
SC Accounting is ranked #5th in the nation, which is your intended major.
USC is a Tier I university. It is considered highly selective.
If you change your major SC has other premier schools and programs available. </p>

<pre><code>For weather, location, alumni network, faculty prestige, financial resources, faculty resources, academic quality and class size I think Marshall is the better choice comparing the two options.
</code></pre>