I’m a transfer student, and literally everyone in my business, econ, accounting, and applied calculus courses told me that their dream school is Marshall. Therefore, when I was admitted for Business Admin, I thought of it as a huge accomplishment. However, my father claims that it’s a really easy university to get into…? I considered Marshall to be one of the best business schools in the nation, almost equivalent to HAAS. So just how prestigious is USC’s Marshall School of Business?
It is very prestigious, and most particularly if you wish to stay in Southern California. For the east coast, certainly less so, but undergraduate business schools can be regional like that. If you had chosen an east coast college, it would be vice versa. So, don’t worry about it, and congratulations.
Please let your father know that USC is listed as “Most Selective” as far as selectivity. This year 51,700 seniors applied for spots in the freshmen class.
The business school is known for some innovative programs, notably the World Bachelor of Business program, combined programs in CS and BAd, Cinematic Arts and BAd, LINC program and the highly respected Leventhal School of Accounting. The entrepreneurship center was ranked #1 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Other centers in international business and real estate are ranked in the top five nationally. Marshall was recently ranked #9th for best business schools for veterans. In the Jindal School of Management business school research rankings Marshall moved up to 7th globally.
Another asset of Marshall is the location in the heart of a city which is a leader in aerospace, fashion, entertainment, trade, biomedicine and tourism. It offers prime internship and service learning opportunities.
Fertitta Hall, the new state of the art complex for Marshall undergraduates, will open in 2016.
thank you! I’m trying to decide on which school to attend, and of course prestige is quite a big factor in my decision, so thanks again!
Marshall (and USC in general) is fairly easy to get into as a transfer.
Marshall is well respected in Southern California. Outside of that area, not so much. USC is a regional school and doesn’t have the national prestige/reputation of places like Berkeley, Georgetown, etc…
I wouldn’t say Haas is equivalent to Marshall, I think the vast majority of people, even USC students, would agree that Haas is much stronger
I would never consider Haas stronger, imo. Many wouldn’t consider going to Haas because it is a big impacted public U compared to a private U and all the perks with that.
IMHO, being well rounded and knowing how to work well with teams is far more important to a business than the school you attend, so long as that school has a solid reputation. USC is known for producing well rounded kids, and that’s but one reason its graduates are so successful.
Evidently employers feel the same way (USC Marshall ranks #8):
http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2014/06/25/how-employers-rank-the-best-undergrad-programs/3/
And Indiana is number 1 in that poll.
Marshall is very strong. Haas is considered more renowned due to its high profile faculty (Janet Yellen, Christina Romer, etc.) and more selective MBA, MFE, and undergraduate business programs. Haas undergrad is only a 2-year upper division program with about 340 students. Continuing Berkeley students are admitted to Haas at about a 43% admission rate, whereas outside transfers are admitted at a 5.5% admission rate (from 2014 statistics).
I agree with UCBChem. Marshall is very strong, especially in the So. Cal area. Haas is more renowned even before the high profile Haas faculty. All the Cal Nobel Prize winners made the school renowned. Having gone to both Haas and Marshall (Leventhal), you’ll get an excellent education from both schools.
I went to Marshall, and my concentration was finance…Uhhhhm, USC is a good school, but Marshall obviously doesn’t have the same clout as U Penn Wharton, Harvard MBA, and commensurate. If you want to work at the prestigious investment firms, I think you should try to aim for a higher school on the NE. But a few people do get interns and offers from investment banks, VC, and valuation firms…and it’s very competitive no doubt.
What “evanesent” said I can partially agree with.
I actually spoke to a couple people who graduated from Haas. They gave me the impression that it wasn’t all that. One of the girls is actually returning to school for a post-bacc in pre-med classes. She worked at a Big 4 company for several years, got burnt out, and wasn’t too happy with her career there. What I’m saying is that Haas doesn’t have the prestige as an Ivy or Stanford business program albeit it’s considered more prestigious than Marshall. Is it harder to get in than Marshall? Yep; I applied and was rejected. But I don’t think that tells whole story about how beneficial its “higher ranking”’ is after you post that on your resume; I don’t think it really matters.
Business, accounting, et al. is oversaturated. Leventhal used to be “competitive” i.e. you had to have a 3.2+ GPA to get in, because it’s supposedly a shoo in for the Big 4 jobs, but I spoke to a current Marshall student and he told me it’s “open door” now. Don’t major in business for the money, as ironic and cheesy as this sounds. It’s difficult to find a gig with this after college, because it’s so competitive. Don’t chase it because supposedly “I-bankers or options traders make $200K+ a year for their first offers” out of college. I admit, this was my immature train of thought before I went to USC Marshall.
there are a ton of USC grads who those elite jobs but you have to have really good grades and like people said it is competitive.
MBA programs, and how they are ranked, may have a lot of impact on the overall quality and rank of of the UG business programs[ at colleges that offer both]
comparing the rankings of both UG and Graduate business programs, side by side, may give you a better idea of how USC is ranked.
the first is for graduate business schools, the second is for UG .
Transferring in is easier than getting in as a freshman, but employers won’t know the difference. A degree from USC is a degree from USC. Congratulations! My son graduated from Marshall in 2014 and is doing well. If you want to work in Southern California, you will be well-connected.
My transfer application got accepted recently. Why would transferring be easier than getting in as a freshman though?
Easy to get into? Nope. Hard? somewhat. Is Haas harder to get accepted into? Yep. 4.0s get rejected. You must have internships related to business e.g. accounting firms, investment, and the like to demonstrate your passion for this, as Haas only has about 700 spots open for its undergrad program whereas Marshall is 3,000+. You see why Haas is harder to get into?
Back on topic, Marshall is very very competitive. You have to put in considerable effort to even get a 3.2 GPA. The competitiveness is unreal. The effort you put into getting say a 3.8 GPA at a jr.college would probably yield you a 3.0ish. The projects, midterms, and finals are a lot harder than what you do at a community college It’s not just your practice problems from the textbooks, doing them over and over again, and breaking a 90% or higher like at jr. college. There are classes where the highest grade will be like 77, the next one down, a 64, and the average being a 59 with this being a B- or C+ depending on the professor. There is no time to lollygag, plus you have to actively look for internships. The people who came in as freshmen will have a leg up on you regarding this.
You got to work really hard to stand out there. If your GPA is below 3.2 most Big 4 companies won’t grant you an interview. You can always work at a boutique firm, but they’re getting picky now too. Finance gigs are hard to get.
Everyone thinks it’s all gravy after they graduate from there, but most people at Marshall don’t get high paying or glamorous finance jobs. If I could do it all over again, I would major in either engineering or go pre-med. The lure of “big money” is immature. But good luck.
The GPA to get into engineering school at prestigious universities like UC Berkeley is about as high as Haas Business. The difference is that the classes (math, science) are harder for engineering than the classes for business. I am sure the same for other big name schools like USC, Univ. of Washington, Univ. of Michigan, etc… Also, pre-med classes are harder than pre-business classes. Many pre-med majors who don’t get into medical school will go to their backup plan which is to get into pharmacy, dental, optometry schools or other health school programs such as physical/occupational therapy. All these health professional programs are very hard to get into and granted that the science courses are more difficult to get top grades and comprehend than the business prerequisite courses.
^STEM is night & day harder than business. All the math and science classes are abstract. Business concepts are just man made concepts like ROE, NPV…They’re just models of what people think stocks or securities will perform. Business in a nutshell is just a combination of psychology, current events, some 8th grade level math with statistics and that’s about it. Anyone who think it’s a rigorous major, like say aerospace engineering, is fooling herself.
Pre-med is not a major. It’s just a set of classes: bio, o-chem, general chem, physics, math, English and you got to have a 3.5 cumulative GPA, with A-'s or A’s in the aforementioned classes, and at least a 32+ on MCAT to be considered for med school, and have clinical internships. Almost everyone I know who did pre-med ended up an econ or psychology major…Yeah, at SC all the pre-med or engineering people who couldn’t make it go to Marshall. It’s the fallback major.