USC Marshall vs. UC Berkeley Undeclared/Pre-Business

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>Help me decide!
USC: I have been admitted to Marshall as a Business Administration major and invited to join the Global Leadership Program.
Pros
-GLP ("honors" program)= one-week trip to China during spring break
-Trojan network/great connections for internships
-Close to home (30 minute drive)
-Good chance at high GPA
-Amazing school spirit
-Smaller class sizes
-Southern California weather!
-Better social life
Cons
-$$$$ (I don't qualify for financial aid). While my family is able to afford USC, I'm not sure it's worth the huge price difference (almost double)
-Less prestige/lower ranking
-USC is, in general, less academic than Cal</p>

<p>UC Berkeley: I have been admitted as an Undeclared/Pre-Business major, and I intend to apply for Haas after my sophomore year.
Pros
-MUCH cheaper (California resident)
-More prestige/higher ranking
-Academic excellence
-Near San Francisco
Cons
-Risky; only ~40% of applicants from Cal are admitted to Haas (I am really worried about this)
-Spring admit (they have a Fall extension program for people like me, so it's not too big of a concern)
-More on my own when it comes to looking for internships/jobs
-Hard to get a good GPA
-Far from home
-This is subjective, but I feel like Berkeley is very cut-throat and, in general, a less friendly atmosphere than USC.</p>

2

<p>My son was in this exact situation and chose USC. We live about 20 minutes from Berkeley. REMEMBER!!! UC is undergoing major budget cuts- your classes will be huge and you will fight to get into them. Not unusual to take 5 years to graduate because of this. My son decided that if he started at Cal and didn’t get into Haas he would regret not accepting USC or one of the other smaller private schools. There have been front page articles in our local paper about the state of the UC and Cal State Univ systems due to monetary issues. I am a UC alum and wish I could recommend this to my son, but I just can’t seeing what is on the horizon. We have local students here excited to go to Cal and wish them the best. You can always apply to Haas while a sophomore at USC too. Good luck and congrats to you on working so hard to position yourself for this exciting decision!</p>

3

<p>My cousin’s son is graduating from UC Berkeley (Haas undergrad) this year and has a fantastic job waiting for him in San Francisco. This was done by last October and he had interviews lined up and ready within the first month of his senior year.</p>

4

<p>for business, haas is still tiers above marshall</p>

<p>and also theres a marshall curve so its not a walk in the park to get a 4.0 here either</p>

<p>but i’m sure you’ll have much more fun here at usc :)</p>

5

<p>Pretty simple solution.</p>

<p>Go to USC for freshman + sophomore, if your GPA is high enough transfer to Haas. If not, at least you can still graduate with what you want.</p>

6

<p>Hi!
I’m a sophomore business major (female) at usc who was deciding between these two schools! Obviously you can tell what choice I made and I’ve never looked back. I actually work with the Marshall admissions office and prospective students so I can give you a lot of information!</p>

<p>First thing first: I made my decision on gut feeling not logical pro/con lists. I felt much more at home/natural at USC although I did love cal as well. Looking back, I can’t imagine myself there anymore, but there was a time when I did. That being said, after deciding on instinct, I could justify the decision with facts and figures. </p>

<p>I too was part of the GLP program and I can tell you that HANDS DOWN it is the best program I have been involved with at usc. It is one of the best programs I’ve heard of at usc and it’s just for freshman! At usc, you’re not waiting until later on to get started on business curriculum or anything else- you get to experience it all your first semester!</p>

<p>Some of the GLP highlights:
-weekly seminar classes with THE DEAN of the business school (and yes, he’s accessible and loves to meet the students. he knows a lot of us by name!)
-these seminars feature some of the most successful businesspeople, trojans and non trojans, who want to share their stories with you because you’ll be in their shoes soon
-a spring break trip to either Shanghai or Beijing, where you tour companies, talk to people working in China, and go on cultural outings

  • a summer internship opportunity (application and interview required) back in Shanghai or Beijing (which I did and I can assure you, none of my friends from Cal pre-business, ucla, or any other “more prestigious” private school had anywhere near as valuable of an internship as me their freshman summer- many of them coming from top-notch schools ended up as lifeguards/baby sitters again) </p>

<p>but besides GLP- Marshall and USC in general are really about the best balance for the best collegiate experience. USC students get the top tier education (USC has been named the decade’s hottest school in terms of ranking ascension, increase in applicant numbers, interest, and future programs) and the world class college experience. From finance classes (in one senior level (application only) class you even get to manage a trust of $300,000!) to game day, from volunteering with the local schools to enjoying beautiful Los Angeles, USC students have it all at their fingertips. </p>

<p>I consider the return on investment completely worth it and USC does have one of the highest retention rates- we must be doing something right!</p>

<p>As far as rankings go, I would say they’re subject to change within the next decade, especially given current UC budget issues… And anyways, the schools are only differentiated by 10 ranks or so? (sorry I haven’t examined the numbers since I was applying two years ago so I can’t give you exact ones)</p>

<p>And I would completely (respectfully) disagree with Relevance’s solution and I think that transferring can utterly disrupt your college experience and should only be used as an escape if you are really very unhappy with your school. Honestly, whichever school you choose, I doubt you would want to transfer because they are both great schools.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post, but I know that the Marshall/Haas decision is a tough one. I don’t check CC very often (my mother does faaar more than I do) but feel free to PM me if you would like more information. </p>

<p>Good luck with your decision and go SC!</p>

7

<p>both programs are what you make of it. </p>

<p>i’ve been out of school for a couple of years now and at the end of the day… you should strive to get the highest possible GPA you can, so you can get the best possible job you can, so you can get the best possible work experience you can. no one gives a crap about where you went to school once you have a few years of real experience under your belt. </p>

<p>it is a dog eat dog world, especially during this recession. if you think your buddy from marshall or haas will back you up in the corporate world, you are WRONG. all that matters is getting stuff done and getting it done right the first time. if you can do that, you will form alliances that will carry you to the top.</p>

8

<p>[ *] College (CAS, engineering, etc.): CAS - Pre-Business Administration Undeclared
[ *] SAT:800 CR 740 M 800 W - 2340 Single Sitting
[ *] SAT IIs (if sent): Math 2 - 800 Chem - 750 Literature - 750
[ *] ACT:N/A
[ *] UM unweighted GPA: 3.96 (just one B my three years)
[ *] Rank: N/A (non ranking school)
[ *] Other stats: Early Entrance College Program (wiki it) All classes are dual credit/college.
[ *] Subjective (ECs, special circumstances, etc): I’ve got a strong business focus in my extracurriculars. I participated in DECA and FBLA in my high school (creating DECA) - and after attaining presidencies in both my senior year - rather than keep them to show that I have more officer positions - I consolidated them into an overarching business club so that the organizations would run more efficiently. I also created our first Economics Society that managed to place first in the state for the Texas Econ Challenge and qualify for the Nat’l Econ Challenge in NYC. I’ve got quite a few misc. state/regional awards in both DECA/FBLA and one-two national ones. My hobby is mostly paper trading - and I’ve managed to beat the S&P index for the past 3 years (mostly ETFs and not indv. stocks). Apart from that I hold a community service coordinator. position in an Engineering org. that does science demos for elementary students in the community. A few misc awards in science such as state science olympiad/science bowl and some chemistry summer research.
[ *] Essays: Pretty decent I suppose
[ *] Teacher Recs: Weak (since my teachers are professors at my University, and we’re in 200 student lecture halls - I don’t know them that well)
[ *] Counselor Rec: Weak - (Same reason as above)
[ *] Hook (legacy, recruited athlete, etc.): None
[ *] State or Country: Texas
[ *] School Type:Public - Early Entrance College Program
[ *] Ethnicity:South Asian (India) ):
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] major strength/weakness: Standardized testing, Business emphasis. Weaknesses - teacher/counselor recommendation.
[ *] Other Factors/questions: Now that the state of California is a wreck due to their budget crisis - is it easier for OOS students to get in than it was before?</p>

9

<p>

USC is a private university. Being oos vs. instate is not an admissions factor, and it never was.</p>