Can anyone compare the Marshall School of Business at USC and the Wharton School of Business at Penn? I’m so lucky to have been admitted to both of these schools! I hope to eventually work in social entrepreneurship, if this helps with the comparison. 
Wharton, unless USC is significantly cheaper, or you have a super strong preference for LA.
At the undergrad level, Wharton is in a class of its own in business education. (At the MBA level, it is on the same level as Harvard, Stanford, MIT (Sloan), Northwestern (Kellogg), Columbia and Chicago).
I was offered very generous merit scholarship at USC. To provide insight, USC would be 50K cheaper a year. Thanks for the insight @harvardandberkeley Does anyone have any specifics on what sets the two apart (good and bad for either)?
@stayhydrated I don’t think there much competition between the two. Wharton is the best undergrad business school in the country and also Penn overall is stronger than USC. Unless here is a substantial difference in financial aid offered or some other important practical consideration, I would for sure go with Penn Wharton.
Wow… so USC would be $200K cheaper over 4 years… yeah, go to USC.
A few questions:
Will you go on to get MBA or other post-grad?
How much does 200k mean to your future (will parents pay without a second mortgage or will you be debt burdened?)
Do you want to live in NY or CA (or elsewhere) after college?
Wharton is a very powerful business school, but Marshall will not hurt you either, esp. on west coast.
All things being equal Wharton name is better, but 200k is a lot of dough and Philly/New York are different than LA/CA.
I am aware that USC has an entrepreneurship program - does Wharton? Aside from the huge cost difference, which has the program better suited to your goals?
Thanks so much for your input @CaliDad2020 and @singermom4!
USC would definitely help make any post-grad education a possibility. I’m from Southern California and I love the weather — and I hope to eventually reside in Cali, so USC’s location is definitely a plus. Also, USC has a stronger focus on entrepreneurship (though Penn is starting to gear towards innovation as well).
The cost of Penn would be a burden on me personally. My parents would have me take out around 100/150K in personal loans.
Honestly, all signs are telling me I should choose USC. It’s just so hard for me to turn down Penn.
Does anyone know if declining an offer from Wharton now would hurt my chances of being accepted to their MBA program in the future?
Congrats! Clearly you’re an exceptional student to be in a position to make this choice. I think you’ll be fine to get into any grad school.
As awesome as Wharton is, I’m not sure it’s $200K better than Marshall (unless you have an extra $200K lying around).
@arc918 Haha thank you! I definitely do not have $200K lying around (although I wish I did)! I’ll most likely be attending USC in the fall. I’m more than happy with the school and with my decision; it will take me a while to get over Penn/Wharton, though.
@stayhydrated I can tell you straight up I would never encourage someone take on 100k + of personal debt (even if you could take it on, but where are you going to get that money?) to attend Wharton over Marshall. The drag of those payments would be very heavy in the early going. But, of course, you also can’t go wrong going to Wharton if it wouldn’t leave you crushed by debt. (I will tell you, interestingly, that I know a lot of Wharton and Penn grads and the most financially successful of them [minus family money] graduated from Penn’s Lib Arts school in Econ, fwiw. So there’s lots of ways to skin a cat.)
As far as grad school, I doubt your decision will have any bearing on your application if you try to apply to Wharton grad (or even try to transfer later.) In fact, I would suggest to my kid that they write to a dean or an admissions higher-up at Wharton and explain that they were thrilled to be accepted to Wharton, would have loved to attend, but financial considerations made it impossible at this time, but they hope they might be able to study there in the future. 99 out of 100 times that note ends up in the recycle bin but it’s good training. And 1 time in 100 someone notes your name and files it away in their brain and something useful happens one day.
Meanwhile, while you are still mulling this over, I got a notification for this event in my email today:
http://incubate.usc.edu/events/demoday/
Don’t know if you can get to USC, but that seems like something that might interest you and give you a sense of how vibrant (or not) that community is. Anyway, either school will be awesome and open tons of doors. Wherever you go, make the most of the opportunities presented. Both schools have tons of resources and networking opportunities and being alert to them, passionate and proactive will make either place a great experience.
Good luck.
@stayhydrated wow if USC is that much cheaper than Penn then no question choose USC. If your family is really rich and an extra $200,000 won’t make a significant difference in your family finances then I d go with Wharton but if that is not the case, then definitely USC (and I am saying this as a passionate Penn (SEAS +Wharton) grad. No college is worth going into debt for, not even the top ones. USC is a great school.
Are you able to afford Wharton? As in, can your parents pay?
This is business school for goodness sake, it isn’t rocket science and Wharton doesn’t offer that much more than you can get out yourself by really giving it your all at any business school. It certainly doesn’t give $200K more in value than any strong business school program. Marshall carries great weight in CA, together with the alumni network of USC I would say it is the stronger choice for you regardless.
One of our friends’ kids got two business degrees (one was an MBA) from USC as well as an engineering degree. He found the USC business mentorship program very helpful and had a ton of job offers in both engineering and business prior to graduation.
He was happy to graduate debt free with his three degrees in 4 years and a few summers. Fight on!
You can’t take $100,000 in personal loans. You can take 27k for all 4 years. Anything else would be taken by your parents. If they aren’t comfortable with that (I wouldn’t) then you have a terrific choice in USC.
Thank you so much to everyone who offered advice! Penn has been my dream school for a while, which is why it’s so hard for me to give up. But, USC was always one of my top choice schools as well. I’m lucky to be admitted to USC, let alone be offered $50K a year.
It would be irresponsible of me to choose Penn — and to put a burden on myself and my family. Hopefully, something will work out and I’ll be able to find myself at Wharton for an MBA. In the meantime, I’ll definitely try and offer advice to others going through the college process on CC. Fight on!
Yes, the money you save in undergrad can definitely come in handy if you go for a MBA! Good choice!
@scotlandcalling this is not exactly accurate. business is a field where it matters quite a bit where you go to school. the recruiting opportunities afforded to Wharton grads, and in general Penn and other Ivy League grads in terms of business recruiting are not the same. Not to say you cannot break into top jobs from other schools, you sure can, but it is more difficult.
Given the difference in cost it of course makes sense to choose USC but if cost was not the issue Penn would be the clear choice.
Wharton and Penn are better, but not $200k better. Unless your goal is to work on Wall Street, and maybe even if it is, the cost difference supports choosing USC.