I was accepted by both UIUC and USC undergraduate accounting major. I am an international student and I really want to find a job and stay in US. I know both are very good accounting schools. For accounting, uiuc is ranked higher than usc but as for overall ranking, usc is ranked higher than uiuc. Does anyone know which uni I should choose in order to prepare myself the best for my future career in accounting?
What the heck is UIUC?
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It took me a couple of minutes to figure it out the first time I saw it, too, and I grew up in a Big 10 state.
As for which school to choose, I’d say it depends on whether one wants to go to school in the middle of a big, urban area, or in a smaller, college-dominated town in the middle of farm country. I’d also guess that the classes at USC are going to be a lot smaller, if that matters.
UIUC: has a better college town, higher worldwide ranking, higher accounting rankings
USC: ghetto area (though campus is beautiful), higher national ranking, Cali weather.
I’d say both are good for accounting so you can’t go wrong with either.
I came to USC from the Chicago suburbs (film school) and would give the edge to UIUC. Yes, it’s not as good a school overall but its accounting program is pretty special, just like its engineering programs. If you were going to do a generic liberal arts degree I would go anywhere but UIUC, but for accounting it’s definitely better than USC. USC is still quite up there, usually top 5, but UIUC is top 2-3 at best and usually battles it out with UT Austin for the top accounting program in the country.
You could also look around at some of the employer rankings and see what they recommend. I would choose USC if you were going to practice in SoCal or the western U.S., and UIUC anywhere else.
A professor at the University of Illinois told me that 50% of students there end up at Big Fours and that 75% of first-timers pass the CPA exam. I’m not sure about USC though.