My top 2 university choices have come down to Emory and USC (Marshall School of Business) for Business Admin. Although I have got in for the Business Admin major, I will most likely switch to Finance or Economics as a concentration. Overall, Emory has a better college ranking and in the past few years it had a better business school ranking as well. However, now Marshall is a few places above Emory as far as Business is concerned. I am well aware that I will only get into the business school of Emory only after sophomore year. College and department prestige, and rigor of the course is important for me.
Here are my pros and cons for each university.
USC - It’s in LA, so the social life is much better.
The trojan pride is great and so is the alumni (but according to what I’ve heard it doesn’t help in Finance related jobs)
It has a better ranking.
It ranks very well for Accounting, Entrepreneurship and some other business areas.
However, people say that the place is shabby. That is a major drawback. Plus the school is HUGE. I don’t know if I am accustomed to that.
Emory - Even though it’s liberal arts, I can take classes focussing on my concentration and liking, so that is not a problem.
The internship opportunities are much better. As it is near downtown Atlanta.
However, I haven’t been to Atlanta, so I don’t know how the campus and city is like.
And the major drawback, it’s not in LA. So the city and place is not as good.
Another drawback is that it doesn’t rank anywhere in sub-business divisions such as Finance or Accounts etc.
Hope you can help me make a choice.
You’ve not visited Emory? Time is short but I hope somehow you can. The Emory campus is beautiful. The architecture is unique for a college / university in my experience. Health sciences tend to be dominant due to the presence on campus of the medical school and CDC right next door. Surrounding area of Druid Hills is very nice and fairly safe. You have access to interesting neighborhoods such as Midtown. Public transportation is not on par with, say, a Chicago or Boston or NYC, but certainly Uber has made traveling about town more flexible. The biz school (Goizueta) is also beautiful and you can get into it with moderately good grades. Campus environment is liberal, perhaps more so than USC, though I believe there are many closet conservatives on campus. In my experience there is good access to internships and jobs in Atlanta and the Northeast corridor (Washington, Philidelphia, NYC, Boston). In my experience (parent) the placement office does a nice job for students. Emory really has massive resources (endowment) for its size. One thing of concern for me would be the impending naming of a new president. These days, the position of University President, particularly at a prestigious, urban college / university is very challenging. To be successful, in my opinion, you need a rare combination of scholarly attainments and moral courage. Let’s hope they make a good choice. Best of luck to you in making your choice. You have two good ones.
@ConfusedLad27 : “It’s not in LA so it isn’t as good”. I don’t consider LA that good as the cost of living is extremely high, and it seems that income gaps are more stark in LA across things such as racial lines because of it. Atlanta has had much more success with this and is beginning to do very well in certain employment areas such as Tech and start-ups, and has always don’t solidly with commercial and financial entities. I don’t think I would aim to be Los Angeles in terms of infrastructure either. I think Atlanta may be better or gives it a run for the money. I think LA has its advantages but is over-rated and has blown out of proportion by its representation in the media (basically media misrepresents it).
Hey! I chose USC Marshall over Emory (was accepted to both) because of the following reasons:
-though both schools are amazing business schools, the alumni network of USC is so hard to beat…as a Korean, this is so important to me. I’m sure the alumni network in Emory is great too, but USC has a better (at least slightly) reputation and ranking in the business field. USC, as a bigger school, has a lot of alums.
-location-wise: for me, USC was a better choice since I get depressions in winter. It doesn’t snow in LA, though it can get a bit chilly at times. In terms of internship opportunities, I know a close friend who currently attends USC that got an internship at AdRoll, and i know another one who got an internship at Morgan Stanley after her first year. Marshall’s career service was really helpful, according to her. There’s also the proximity to Silicon Valley (though it takes more than 5hours to get to San Fran from LA).
-as for school spirit, USC wins for sure. Go Trojans!
you should know that USC and Emory have really different vibes, in terms of weather and the atmosphere of the city. I preferred California to Atlanta. Both schools have amazing business schools, and to break the tie you should seriously consider the location!
@hyunastacy : Poor anecdotal evidence. I knew a GBS person who went on to Google (for an actual fulltime job)…dropping names of the internships is not reflective at all and the rankings for the undergrad. programs by poets and quants and USNews are ultimately very similar with Emory placing near the top for things like consulting and even placing near the top in terms of things like top MBA placement (basically the schools will have different strengths). If you are concerned about quality, one is splitting hairs and it would have to be done by each academic program within the UG business programs. As for location…Atlanta headquarters more fortune 500s and the b-school is extremely well connected to many of them. Atlanta is nothing to scoff at when you talk about its role in business and commerce. Also, the GBS alumni network and how it directly interacts with students needs not be underestimated either (Emory plus alumni network for internationals? Please stop, especially when it comes to Korea. The school began its connection when one alum went on to become a top government administrator, maybe even head of state there. Emory’s reputation and connection is pretty strong in Korea of all places). The overall school’s alumni network is apparently known to be pretty powerful especially when you account for newness of prestige and size. That coupled with GBS’s career center is unstoppable.
I would choose on vibe (you should be more honest and just say you chose USC on vibe, location, and weather because none of the other things you mentioned are particularly relevant in distinguishing the two. Dropping Silicon Valley’s name would be more relevant if we were talking about Berkeley). Emory is the more serious feeling liberal arts type of vibe with great academics whereas USC is a private that has more of the large public school vibe with great academics. Emory may also be more interesting for those who want to pursue entrepreneurship if we’re just talking about the school and not the state (but even then, Atlanta is apparently up there in terms of fastest growing start-up scenes). The entrepreneurship culture has kind of caught fire at Emory. In that case, it isn’t about location so much as whether the student culture has caught on with it and whether or not substantive efforts have been made to allow it to flourish.
Where would you rather have a career ?
Are the conditions for Goizueta admission competitive or is admission basically a sure thing?
Is there a net cost difference ?