USC or UCLA for undergrad business?

College Search & Selection
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Hey all. Hope everyone is doing well in these times!

I have recently received admission to both USC (business admin major for Marshall, although I am considering doing their combined Comp Sci + Bus Admin program) and also to UCLA for business economics.

To address your concern of it being past the May 1st deadline, I have already committed to USC but I got off the UCLA waitlist yesterday and I have until may 7th to respond.

I’m looking for advice on what I should do. The cost is the same for both and my debt after college will likely be around 30-40k depending on how many of the four years I decide to commute. I know that every student’s case is different, so allow me to tell you about myself.

My end goal is to become the owner of a business that does good for my community. I want to help create a change with my actions through business in the long run, but in the short run, I’m completely okay with grinding it out for a few years after I get an MBA and saving money/paying off the small debt I’ll acquire, as well as gaining first-hand experience of the business world if I need to. If I start a business while I’m in school and it works out, well then hopefully it won’t have to come to that!

Here’s a little bit about who I am as a person. I dream and think big, but the only thing that gets in my way sometimes is myself. I have a lot of friends and I love to be social, but I often find myself getting in my own head when it comes to introducing myself to people and striking up a conversation. These are habits that I hope I can break in college so I can make connections and build the foundation towards achieving my dreams. I plan on taking advantages of the opportunities offered no matter where I go such as clubs, start-up competitions, etc.

I want to use my college experience as a time to grow as well as prepare myself for the job market that awaits me after it. What are your thoughts?

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Also I was wondering if someone could describe the different experiences within USC Marshall and its business program and the business economics degree at UCLA.

Which degree is more respected with corporations? I’m not too sure where I’d like to work after college but I’d love to move east coast and experience it. Also, which school/degree combination would serve as a good entry for grad school?

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@entrepreneur07 . . . Obviously if you want a pure business degree with concentrations in marketing, accounting, entrepreneurship, real estate, or finance, then USC, and then you can double or however they offer Computer Science with their BuAd degree.

As far as UCLA is concerned, the University wants to keep with its theoretical and quantitative emphasis. This is why it combines Business and Economics together and requires a good amount of stats and math. The quant basis at UCLA would probably eliminate a lot of marketing; I don’t think it would ever offer these classes.

UCLA does have a minor in entrepreneurship (I’ll abbreviate this as “ent” so I don’t have to think about spelling it over and over) and accounting. The accounting minor at the minimum required classes will fulfill the requirements for sitting for the CPA exam. The ent coursework will – I believe – have more of a social ent basis; i.e., how a business startup will benefit a community and have an overall societal good. This is because UCLA administrators like to promote social good – and I’m not saying that USC doesn’t.

Anderson School of Management, which is a grad program conferring MBAs, DBAs, and MS degrees (in Stats), offers the business side to the Bus (Biz) Econ degree under its management-course offerings to undergrads. Econ offers the macro, micro, econometrics, etc, but there are also more varied courses through the department, and some of its offerings cross over to the management side.

One thing I think a person who wants to prep for a business sector job should do if he or she attends UCLA: be sure to join the Undergraduate Business Society which is kind of the umbrella club over consulting, IB, accounting, etc. They’ll help give a student leads to important internships, etc., and he or she should take a good number of them to help decide what sector or industry he or she would want to enter. These will then lead to employment after graduation.

But UCLA prides itself in emphasizing major less than most other universities, as seen by the degrees of those who go to med school, with, e.g., Dance, History, and Economics being among them. So some who want to go in the various quant-related bus fields will major in Stats, Applied Math, Math/Econ, Econ or Bus Econ. One of the moderators on the UCLA message board on CC is an Electrical Engineering major and has interviewed with a hedge fund.

For those seeking marketing-type jobs, UCLA students (and USC’s also) will major in communications, but UCLA’s will also major in some the letters-based social sciences or even humanities. I have some friends who majored in sociology, political science, and history who are in commercial real estate, but they also interned, which made their specific degrees less important.

And if you want Computer Science at UCLA, it’d be hard for you to get into the Engineering school. But the University offers a Specialization in Computing program in which you could combine say, Business Econ, Stats and the Specialization, or minor in Data Science to give you a really wide range of perusal.

I think the success of the grads in the Bus Econ degree is manifesting itself by the high number who will at least start out in its pre-major as seen on social media.

Hope this helps you a little. I would rather have answered your question of the innerworkings of Bus Econ and related courses at the University on the UCLA board, but I just wanted to give you a response as quickly as I could.

All the best; you have a couple of great choices.

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Thank you so, so much for all of that insight. I really appreciate all of that effort you put into your response. It means so much to me!
I’ve decided to go with USC, as I’d rather have a more hands-on business education rather than one centered around the qualitative and economic side of it. I don’t think there was a wrong choice here but hopefully I can apply to Anderson 2024 and experience the UCLA education as well. Thanks again for everything!

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You’re welcome.

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Btw, that should be “quantitatively based,” not “qualitatively.” All the best…