My kids both graduated from USC (but not business–engineering & cinema). I’d seriously look at UDub if I were you. Your folks can use some of the funds they would have spent on USC to help you start your business or you can use those funds to get your MBA or other graduate degree from USC or any other U that you choose. USC is a very good school, but paying an extra $200,000 when you have a solid choice in your home state would definitely give me pause.
I agree with @HImom Both my daughters went to USC, and I have of course offered many positive posts about USC here on CC over the past 5 years, but that is likely too great a price tag differential… at least for most families.
Also, since your other choices are UCLA and UCB (both would be out of state tuition and UCB Haas admission is not guaranteed), UW is much cheaper and has many excellent programs, you should strongly consider UW. Congratulations in getting into all these great schools. Good luck.
BTW one other thing worth mentioning since here we go again with college costs and the value proposition - a number of major tech companies are questioning the value of 4 year college degrees.
Note that Tim Cook says that half of Apple’s current U.S. employees do NOT have college degrees:
https://www.businessinsider.com/top-companies-are-hiring-more-candidates-without-a-4-year-degree-2019-4
This is also my personal favorite rebellion against the B.S. education system and the credentialism that it implies - the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel is paying top students to NOT go to college:
https://thielfellowship.org/
Thiel is paying top students $100,000 to NOT go to college, to move to San Francisco and start a business, and to self-educate online.
These are the things you won’t see in fancy college brochures.
Contrast the above with an article written by USC’s previous president Max Nikias that looks down on young people who choose NOT to go to college.
https://presidentemeritus.usc.edu/can-you-afford-not-to-attend-college-2008/
Almost all of the engineering and management jobs are going to be filled by college graduates. Those without degrees are going to be cooks, janitors, security, delivery people, admins - those kinds of jobs.
I agree that you shouldn’t need a college degree to become a software engineer, or eventually a manager, but the reality is that right now, almost all companies require one for engineering and management positions.
I’m highly skeptical of that counter claim, actually. Obviously none of us has access to the HR records but companies like Apple and Google are more concerned with competence than academic credentials. After 6 months in the real world, most people know to take academic credentials with a SERIOUS grain of salt.
I’m a USC alum. My son got into USC. He chose UW (OOS). It’s still less $$ than USC. My son loves UDub! He is having a great time in Seattle! He enjoys his classes and has made great friends. He loves UDub sports, activities on campus, the gym, etc
I’d choose UDub if I were you!
S recently graduated from Foster and is working for a Big 4 firm. During his years at UW, he had summer internships with a Big 4 (couple of other Big 4 offers which he turned down), Amazon, another big high tech company and a big name insurance company. Many of his friends also had various summer internships with other companies such as Microsoft, Intel, other Big 4 accounting firms. My second S is at USC, doing great, and is about to get a summer government internship, after his study abroad this summer. Both schools offer vast amount of opportunities. As I previously mentioned, UW offers a lot of opportunities and majors and at least 20K+ cheaper per year.
I’m a programmer in the Bay Area (at least until I retired about three years ago.) Except for maybe five people, everyone in engineering and management I worked with over the last 20 years has a college degree. It wasn’t like that when I started working in the 80’s, though. Lots of programmers, and some managers, didn’t have degrees, and they were just as competent as the people with degrees. I actually hope it returns to that, but the reality is that at the moment, you’re very disadvantaged without a degree.
One comment about programmers and engineers: having a degree is better. However for a young person, with technology constantly changing, if the person is in those technical field, be aware that if you start a job now, 20, 30 or 40 years from now, it may be difficult to find a job in the technical field. Many young people as they get older, their technical skills becomes obsolete and the firm they are in will push them out for more younger, eager and up to date workers. This is so even if the older worker is updated in current technology because it is all about profits, i.e., in general, the older workers are too expensive relative to younger workers who are more up to date on technology. Many tech workers, who were my peers, may have to re-invent themselves like getting a business degree or into other fields.