I have not been accepted for Ross pre-admit, but I have been accepted to USC’s Marshall School of Business. Money is not a criteria for which I am basing my decision. Which school is better? Should I take the guaranteed admission to Marshall or try for Ross? How would you compare the difference in the college experience between Ann Arbor and LA?
I was accepted into both programs last year, so here’s my basic take:
STUDENTS
Academically, people at Michigan are smarter in general. One of my friends in USC has told me that it’s all the international students and scholarship students that drive up academic scores. Additionally, the people at USC are more wealthy than the instate kids at Michigan, so their test scores will naturally be higher (studies have proven this).
USC does have a lot more good looking people though (California girls), and a lot better weather. Michigan is warm for September at the beginning of the year and April at the end of the year. When I was at USC for a scholarship interview, the early March “winter weather” was 70 degrees. It’s currently 45 degrees here at Michigan.
Lastly, the “Midwest Nice” and “West Coast Chill” personalities are a real thing: people in USC are more relaxed and superficial (this may be because of the high proportion of wealthy people), while those in the Michigan are more down to earth/boring and unexciting (depends how you look at it). There are a lot of wealthy out of state kids too, so the superficiality isn’t just limited to USC.
RESOURCES:
Michigan has a bigger pure endowment and more things going on simply because of its size. USC has a higher proportion of money per student. It’s a wash. I will say that Ross has it’s own career center and gym for business students only, so that’s a plus.
ACADEMICS:
Ross > Marshall. In literally every way possible except accounting. I could delve into waaaaaay too much data on this because this was my key determining factor when I was deciding between the two schools, but I doubt you’d want to read all that.
UMich > USC, but they are close enough relatively speaking in overall academics
CAMPUS:
USC is much prettier. Umich has the classic college pretty feel, but USC looks like someone decided to higher Disneyland architects to build their campus. Everything is walkable, but you might become bored with it over time. I could figure out where everything was by my third day at USC. By comparison, I STILL don’t know where some things are on central campus at Umich (there’s also north campus for engineers to learn). That’s more fun to explore, but walking 15 min to get to a class can be a pain sometimes.
FINANCIAL AID:
Michigan is notorious for it’s unforgiving stance on aid to OOS kids. I’m not sure about USC, but for what is worth I did get two merit scholarships from USC. Regardless, cost of living on the West Coast, and tuition in general was much higher at USC, so I calculated the difference to be worth it to go to Ross.
ALUMI:
Wolverines are everywhere. Trojans are mainly West Coast.
Take the direct admit. A lot of students apply within Michigan for Ross, and a lot are rejected. Don’t risk it – take the sure thing.
@wolverine19 wow this was a seriously helpful post thank you so much. So I’m guessing you ended up at Ross?
Actually Worlverine19, you missed the mark on a couple of points:
- Endowment. Michigan's endowment is larger than USCs both absolutely and relatively. On an absolute scale, Michigan's endowment is $10 billion, USC's is $4.7 billion. On a relative scale, Michigan's endowment per student is $230,000, USC's is $110,000. And that's not even including the $280,000,000 in annual funding from the state, which is the equivalent of an additional $6 billion of endowment. So financially, Michigan is significantly better off than USC, no matter how you look at it.
- Campus: I am not sure I agree that USC's campus is "much prettier". I have visited both campuses, and I think Michigan's campus is more impressive than USC's. USC does not come close to Michigan when it comes to Business school, Engineering and Medical facilities. The Law quad is ridiculously gorgeous. Overall, USC's campus is pretty, but Michigan's campus is impressive. Furthermore, when it comes to the areas right around campus, Michigan definitely beats USC.
I agree with all your other points.
Without the Ross pre-admit, you could very well end up like many students and have to select a different major (Econ?). I am a Ross graduate, and I say take the sure thing. If you had the pre-admit, I’d lean Ross. But you don’t.
what opinions do you guys have about Ross direct pre-admit and UCLA biz econ? I’m a California resident and I didn’t get any financial aid from UMichigan.
I may make a thread later, but hoping to avoid that, anyone want to answer a similar question for someone seeking to attend law school? USC and Michigan are the two schools I’ve been accepted to, and I want to know, basically:
- Which school has better job placement after undergrad? Focus on areas such as journalism, something writing related, or some political science-oriented. (This is for if I decide not to go to Law School--not 100% yet)
- Which school has better law school placement? Essentially, what school will better prepare me both for getting into and succeeding at law school? Intended major at Michigan is political science; at USC, it's currently Political Science at Dornsife but I may switch over to Journalism at Annenberg (and how hard is that to do?)
Edit: Also, cost IS a factor, but my financial aid package should be relatively close from both schools. I estimate graduating Michigan with about 25k debt and USC about 35k. But my parents may end up paying a little more at USC than Michigan, so the debt may end up looking more like 30k vs 25k, which to me, is a negligible difference.
Michigan law is ranked something like 4th for “super lawyers” and something like 5th by judges and professors. The school ranking doesn’t reflect how respected the law school is in the legal community. I think on order of 40% go into “BigLaw”, but there are a tremendous number that (voluntarily…i.e., not offer constrained) go into clerkships (pointing toward the judiciary) and or into public interest law (future pointed toward politics/legislation in some fashion).
@levanter Yep! And I’m very happy I did. The two schools have fairly different cultures, so you should be sure to visit both. I loved my time at USC, but I figured it was better fit-wise and career wise to go to UMich (Ross, ya know?)