USC bca vs. Dartmouth vs. Vanderbilt

College Search & Selection
1

Hey All,

I am a high school student looking for some advice before applying to college. Note that I haven’t gotten into any of these schools yet so whatever I as is completely idealized.

My dream job is in entertertainment, on the business side through programming and content acquisition. ]
I know that USC has the best film school but do you think its business school would be a better fit than say an ivy like dartmouth or a top tier like vandy?

USC has a program called business of cinematic arts which is really appealing but I dont know if its worth skipping out on prestegious institutions.

any input would help!

2

Disclaimer: I am an incoming First-Year at Brown who was also admitted to USC and Vanderbilt, but applied as a prospective pre-med/public health student, so I do not know much about applying to undergraduate business schools. I highly recommend that you post questions about specific schools in each schools’ specific threads where the posters there will be much, much more knowledgeable than me about their school.

First of all, USC is definitely considered a prestigious school, especially for those interested in Business (Marshall,) Engineering (Viterbi,) or Filmmaking; it is definitely a reach school for anyone (with a 10-15% acceptance rate.) Keep in mind that the college admissions process is tough, and it’s important to apply to a wide range of schools (safeties, matches, and reaches) rather than all of the T20 or T30 schools in the nation.

Vanderbilt, unfortunately, does not have an undergraduate business major, if you went there, you would have to study Economics or another related pre-business major. Same goes for Dartmouth.

For the most part, liberal arts institutions (which aren’t just liberal arts colleges, but the ivies, Vanderbilt, Rice etc.) tend to not have undergraduate business majors but majors that are part of the traditional “liberal arts curriculum:” the sciences, math, humanities, and engineering (which isn’t liberal arts but most schools have.) At those schools, you would likely major in Economics or another related field and go on to complete your MBA in the future as your actual “business degree.” Even if these schools have a business school, in many cases (Harvard, Vanderbilt etc.) these are graduate-only schools.

Off of the top of my head, some of the schools offering undergraduate business degrees are UPenn (Wharton,) USC (Marshall,) UMich (Ross,) UC Berkeley (Hass,) Cornell (Dyson,) WashU etc. Just search up which colleges have an undergraduate business degree on Google and you’ll likely find a list.

If you’re truly set on attending a “prestigious college,” it should be because you really LOVE the school and could see yourself at the school for the next four years, you don’t want to apply to a school just because of its name brand and end up hating the time you spend there.

If you do find a school that you really like (write down a pros and cons list; prestige is not a pro, but alumni connections or a strong advising program to get into grad school are,) I highly recommend you apply ED IF AND ONLY IF the following are ALL true:

  1. You LOVE the school and would 110% attend if admitted.
  2. You are confident that you can craft a well thought out application by the ED deadline of November 1st. This means that your essays, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, interview etc. need to clearly demonstrate your interest in business, how you believe that school will be the best fit for you given its resources and how you've taken advantages of your own school's resources in-order to find business as the career for you.
  3. You and your family can afford the school if admitted (run the financial aid calculators if applicable.)

Hope this helps! Good luck with the college admissions process!

3

PikachuRocks15

Thank you so much. Your absolutely right. I really like USC for its alumni network in entertainment. Though, with the other schools, I feel like even though prestigue shouldn’t be a factor, the names will open doors both in and out of california. Now, I do plan on living in california since i hope to work in entertainment. But, i guess my question is, does usc have the same following in the west coast as an ivy league does in the east?

4

The “west coast” is huge, so the answer is No. But, if you limit your query to SoCal, the answer is Yes. More importantly, for someone interested in the entertainment industry, 'SC is a no-brainer, particularly over Dartmouth and Vandy.

Also consider NYU.

5

bluebayou

yeah sorry about that. I did mean socal. Let me elaborate on my dilemma. Its actually really stupid but this is just how my mind works i guess. So first, I would be elated to go to any of these schools. But since usc doesn’t have an ED option, my mind is telling me to apply ed to dartmouth. This because, dartmouth’s ed rate is close to 25 percent while USC’s rd rate is around 13 percent. So if I take my chance with the dartmouth ed, i would have about double the chance of getting in and after all its an ivy. But, i know usc is known for its entertainment so im not sure if i should take my chances and forgo ED.

Thoughts?

thanks

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^^ by the way … I have done extensive research on all three schools and I am attached to each one for different reasons. Dartouth being an ivy doesn’t really matter to me, but it is a plus.

7

It has got to be USC…the internship opportunities in Hollywood alone are worth the price of admission.

After that I would go Vanderbilt over Dartmouth.

Much more interesting and more enjoyable school over Dartmouth in terms of location, students and campus.

What would be cool is if you learn the music biz by interning with a Nashville based publisher/record label/music studio and then go to USC film school

8

I went to USC, although not for anything entertainment-related. What I heard was getting into the entertainment industry is mostly about who you know, and USC was the school with the best connections to the industry.

In Nashville, my impression was Belmont was the place to go if you wanted to get involved with the business side of music.

9

Very true about Belmont…it’s almost like a trade school for the music industry.

Maybe Vanderbilt and Belmont have some kind of agreement allowing VU students to take music industry courses at Belmont?