<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 Dartmouth forum, I would think opinions would generally favor Dartmouth, but that's O.K. Let's assume a decision to go to Dartmouth would include pursuing an MBA program following graduation. I appreciate any words of wisdom.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in Wall-street D is known as a pipeline. We seem to always have students going through the recruiting process of the big ibanks. While I don’t really know much about the USC school of business, and thus cannot offer a precise comparison, I do know we are well known and represented in the financial sector and have a strong alumni network throughout business.</p>
<p>Depends on where you want to work. If you want to live on the east coast then Dartmouth. If you want to settle down in the west then USC.</p>
<p>^
That’s assuming that you’ll want to stay back and live in the general geographic area of your undergraduate college, right? May not make sense for a lot of people.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do. For consulting, banking, VC, etc I would go to Dartmouth all the way. For marketing in the LA area or something related to the LA film industry, USC would beat almost any school.</p>
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<p>Also depends on how hard you want to work. 'SC will be considerably “easier” than D, both academically and competitively. If you plan to reside on the left coast, the Trojan family is huge in SoCal and easily dwarfs any other alumni group.</p>
<p>It may also depend on whether you are interested in a broader education or vocational training. This is not to insult either: both have their place. I’m not familiar with the undergraduate business program at USC, or what access students there have to classes in non-business departments. But there is a difference between taking some distribution requirements designed for students who are assumed to have no serious interest in the subject matter, and classes in which you may rub elbows with students who plan to major in or go on to graduate degrees in the field.</p>
<p>There is also the issue of whether an MBA would be thea credential that you would really need to advance in your chosen field. If the MBA is what really matters, then you might be at least as well served by an undergraduate degree in a subject other than business. Not only on a personal level, but professionally. For example, several people I know who have been working in investing specializing in biotech have undergraduate degrees in biology or a sub-field thereof.</p>