<p>I have been offered admission to both business schools as a transfer student for this upcoming fall.
I am at a cross roads and do not know which school to pick.</p>
<p>My ultimate goal is to land a job with one of the Big 4 and realize that both schools are feeder schools. </p>
<p>On the surface, the choice is a no-brainer since USC has such a big name appeal. However, it has some negatives that come with their positives.</p>
<ul>
<li>Both schools will cost me around 13k per year so cost is a neutral aspect.</li>
<li>All of my credits transfer to SCU so I will be completely on par with the rest of the accounting students when I enter. </li>
<li>I am familiar with SCU's quarter system and will be able to commute</li>
<li>I will be a semester behind at USC and will have to take the abridged accounting class in addition to retaking microecon, macroecon, and probability.</li>
<li>I am wary about switching to the semester system and will have to find suitable housing</li>
</ul>
<p>Other factors:
I have a relative working at Deloitte that will be able to forward my resume to a recruiter.</p>
<p>I have to make the decision in the next few days and would greatly appreciate any advice and guidance!</p>
<p>Well I don’t know you personally, but the damage to your motivation of having to retake introductory courses and scrounging up a place to live could outweigh the slight name-brand advantage of USC.</p>
<p>You may also want to find out which campus Deloitte recruits from more aggressively if you think your relative can seal the deal. Some of the Big 4 are much closer to certain UCs/CSUs than others.</p>
<p>Plus the extra semester of tuition at USC for logistical retakes… I’d go SCU. Big 4 isn’t as much about name brands as I-banking, and even if it was, USC is not Stanford.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all your advice.
I have been leaning towards SCU since it seems like a faster track but it has been difficult to turn away USC.
Everyone raves about the alumni support at USC and ease for finding jobs but I guess that isn’t as important when looking for a career in accounting?</p>
<p>Where do you intend to work after college? If you stay in the Bay Area, SCU is fine. I personally think that if you were to stay in LA or go anywhere else in the country, USC would have a stronger reputation - just my uninformed opinion.</p>
<p>1) My goodness. Why would you NOT want to go to USC this year? They are #1 in the preseason for 2012. You will not regret the experience. I remember studying my butt off in the Leventhal library during game days. My buddies eventually had to pry the tax book out of my hand to go out and drink with them outside. Amazing times and an experience I’ll never forget.</p>
<p>2) International focus - I did two study abroad programs in Europe and Asia while at USC and was abroad for close to a year. Why does it matter? Well it’s one of the reasons why my firm is sending me to work abroad for the next several years. The experience you have at USC will open doors for you down the road. Look up the Marshall International Exchange program. They have amazing study abroad opportunities at some of the most prestigious international universities. I highly recommend it, especially if you are looking to distinguish yourself. You can also work on being a USC Global Scholar (and have that designation on your transcript). </p>
<p>3) Amazing alumni network and recruiting. I was fortunate enough to land multiple Big 4 offers + mid-tier firms in my junior year during the worst recession in the last 50 years. My interviews were with primarily USC alumni and they were very informal and conversational. We talked about football quite a bit. It was an exhausting experience from what I recall, but its nice to see USC alumni coming back and enjoying the recruiting process and sharing their experience with the interviewees.</p>
<p>4) You’ll be forced out of your comfort zone at Marshall. The program is designed to test your intellectual ability, critical thinking skills, quantitative skills, team work skills and presentation skills. I was a pretty shy and introverted person coming into USC. I walked out as a new person. The program pushed me to work harder, be more competitive, take on more leadership roles and gave me the confidence and tools to take on corporate world.</p>
<p>Honestly, you have one shot at undergrad. Attend the best university you can possibly get into and use that to leverage your career for the rest of your life. You may want to be an accountant now, but things change. You may want to work in finance, wealth management, consulting, etc. The name brand will help you down the road. Don’t go with the logic “oh prestige doesn’t matter in accounting, I’ll just go with the cheapest school.” Think ahead 5 years. I’m currently where you will be in the next 5 years and my advice is based on what I’ve learned since graduating and being in the corporate bullpen. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>OP, I’m saying this only because you mention that both will cost you the same to attend: GO TO USC.</p>
<p>My wife recently graduated from SCU, but was offered admission to USC as well. She went with SCU because it was close enough to her home where she could commute and save money. She left overall not very impressed with her experience. She thought the academics were excellent, but other than that she felt SCU didn’t offer much else. And for the record, the SCU Alumni network hasn’t done a single thing for her after being graduated for 3 years except send a quartly magazine and a few donation request letters. It’s not like she totally regrets her decision and dwells on wishing she had chosen USC (water under the bridge), but it’s worth noting the experience.</p>
<p>USC is a bigger school (both in name and size) that, IMO, will provide a lot more experiences than just academics (SCU doesn’t even have a football team - if that’s your thing). With the cost equivalencies I think USC would be your best bet.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that you want to work at the Big 4 eventually, and the best route to that is accounting and since accounting is generally taught to the same rules and ways no matter where you are taught, the choice may be which is the best fit for you.</p>
<p>I completely disagree that USC has only “a slightly better reputation” than SCU. Don’t get me wrong: they are both solid schools, but USC is miles ahead of Santa Clara in terms of prestige, alumni connections, recruiting, etc. I can’t speak to Big 4 recruiting, but if you want to land anything in a BB bank, HF, PE, or NY gig right out of college, there is just no comparison.</p>
<p>Source? My dad who is a VP at Merrill Lynch, several of his colleagues based in the Bay Area, Wall Street Oasis boards, companies that visit each campus – need I say more? USC is considered an investment banking “target” and “semi-target” (at worst); Santa Clara isn’t even on the map, and certainly not in New York. </p>
<p><em>my comment is not important</em> but the last few posts have made me feel better about choosing USC over SCU myself. Im choosing it knowing I’m paying much more at USC. You are paying the same, I definitely think its a no brainier (unless you don’t care too much about the undergrad experience and like a smaller school)</p>
<p>USC may be a “target” in California, mainly S California. If you ask people in NY, it’s only known as a football school.Please find me some examples of PE, HF in NYC area hiring USC grads. My son, a Wharton grad from California who had worked in IB, PE and now at a NY hedge fund, had never encountered anyone from USC working in the front office in these industries.
Here in northern CA, people regard the school with a certain disdain, since it is known as a rival football school.</p>
<p>Merill Lynch doesn’t exist any more as an investment bank, it is now only a retail brokerage outfit as part of Bank of America. I know several people personally, including one who is an ex-chairman of ML IB division in Dallas. Needless to say, he is now retired.</p>
<p>The OP is interested in being a public accountant, and all Big4 recruit there. USC is less attractive since she will need to repeat many courses, thus making it more needlessly more expensive.</p>
<p>If you are still in HS and have no real world experience, please do not post as you are giving out misinformation.</p>
I’ll have to agree with cbreeze with this. Furthermore, not only all big4, but national firms as well as regional/local firms also heavily recruit at SCU. Yes, USC’s accounting program is national reputed/much higher ranking. However, There are only a few solid acct programs in N. Calif. SCU’s program, for years, has been received very well by the local offices of the firms, big and small. For public accounting recruitment, SCU is not disadvantaged to USC at all, if OP is interested working in bay area/N Cal after graduation.</p>
<p>Trivia - Santa Clara University changed its name from University of Santa Clara back in 80s to avoid the USC acronym. Else we’ll have USC vs USC now. :)</p>
<p>^From what others have told me, I would say that even for IB in SF, USC is more heavily recruited than SCU.</p>
<p>
This is a quite skewed impression. Being a target does not necessarily mean having PE/HF recruitment. PE/HF is, from what I have gathered, even more selective for undergrads, and tends to only recruit from Wharton/HYPMS, despite the fact that other schools are still targets in the general sense (Duke, “lower” Ivies).</p>