USC vs. SMU

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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Hi all,
I’ve been narrowing down my college list and am finally down to two schools: USC and SMU. I want to double major in Business (leaning towards Accounting) and Political Science, but I’m more interested in/focused on the business major. I’ve been accepted to Marshall at USC and Cox as a BBA Scholar at SMU.
I’m from California and was at one point determined to leave (really want to experience change of seasons haha), but have reconsidered in the past months, so location isn’t too important at this point. While I am fortunate that financial cost is not a major factor or need for me, I did receive an equivalent to half tuition in scholarships from SMU, and because college is so expensive, I believe it would be silly to overlook that.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback, opinions, help, insight, etc. from other students or parents that are considering or have considered these schools in the past. Thanks!

Also, just to note, I’m posting this on both the SMU and USC forums just so that I can hopefully draw in as much feedback as possible.

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well I currently go to SMU and am a BBA scholar, but I am planning on transferring to USC. Personally i did not like the culture at SMU at all. Im pretty sure USC has a better business program currently as well. if you have any questions i’d be happy to answer them for you!

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Thanks for your response @notphil ! If I may ask, what did you not like about the culture at SMU? I’ve heard varied thoughts as to what SMU and its students are like, but would love to hear your thoughts. I know Greek Life is big there and I’m not sure how much I like that, but USC has it as well, so I guess I can’t judge SMU for it haha.

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Question - are you a girl or guy? Greek life is slightly different depending. I think being Greek is equally really prevalent at both schools. I was in a sorority at USC; my daughter was in a house at SMU. Both schools have a lot of upper income students from private high schools and power suburban schools. SC has more international students. As all good college tour guides will tell you, either school has a lot of non-Greeks, so you can certainly not rush at all.

I am interested in notphil’s assessment, but I could guess. We found the 3 main differences between being in LA and being in Dallas:

  1. the weather obviously
  2. the manners - in Dallas, people are more polite, the boys open doors and people say “yes Ma’am”, even Californians eventually sometimes say y’all (which can sound better than “you guys”)
  3. the dress - Dallas is more preppy overall. Boys wear collar shirts (but T shirts to class) and khaki shorts and Sperrys instead of Rainbows, but even that is changing as Californians overrun the state. Girls spend more time on their hair and make up, and they wear casual dresses to football games in Texas (it’s hot in August and Sept). Calif dress is more laid back as you know.

But if you are interested in fraternity/sorority, again there are three main differences -

  1. SMU rushes in January. So, you have a semester to meet people in your dorms and become friends before you go through the sorting hat. USC rushes in August, before you have met anyone. Good and bad to both ways.
  2. Also, as a Californian, half the SMU kids are from out of state, so there is almost no pre-conceived notion of what house you’ll be in. USC houses have many Californians that know each other from home (though not as many as when I went there).
  3. At SC, the parties are on the row in the fraternities. At SMU, the school owns most of the houses, so they are supposed to be dry. They are less crazy and much much cleaner. The guys rent out restaurants, bars other venues in the nearby area and host parties there.

Again both great schools with lots of similarities as well as differences.
Hope you’ve visited both?

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Greek Life is very prevalent in SMU, much more so than at USC I would say, according to my friends in USC. This year I believe we had 40-45% greek involvement. Naturally, many events on campus, from parties to tailgating for football games are centered around greek life. The Social Scene at SMU is exclusively Greek, with open events in the fall and Greek-only events in the spring. Campus life is generally dominated by greek life, with many student senate members and even our Student President heavily involved with frats and sororities.

As someone who is not really interested in greek life, it was too much, especially in the spring semester where you don’t really have a chance to hang out with many of your friends who joined fraternities and sororities.

USC, according to many of my friends who currently attend, or graduated recently, does not have as much greek life as SMU, though it still is prevalent. However, Greek Life at USC has been declining in recent years, and due to a larger student body than SMU, there are many other social scenes besides Greek Life.

Also as a minority student, SMU is not nearly as diverse as USC, and one may often feel very out of place as there is not a very strong multicultural presence. As a heavily conservative school, some people from California may feel out of place as well. And while there is a small LGBT community here, SMU is known for being one of the least LGBT-friendly schools, and there was recently a campus news report detailing discrimination within SMU Greek Life towards LGBT students and their recruitment.

SMU does have very good networking and career opportunities however, but I feel that if I had the option between USC and SMU, I would easily choose USC as it has equally, if not better, career opportunities, along with a great educational program including a stronger business program than SMU. At USC there is a more diverse set of educational experiences you can pursue as well. The film school is world-renowned and has classes by the best in the field including a class taught by James Franco that many students can take! You have opportunities to pursue careers in business in the film industry at USC as well, as they allow some students to double-major in Business and Film. You also have many Silicon-Valley Firms recruiting at USC for Business as well as Tech unlike SMU where only CS majors generally get recruited.

I would highly suggest visiting both schools and making a decision based on your experience. Just for me personally it was not a good fit, and many people I know here felt the same way and are trying to transfer as well.

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Interesting perspective. Everyone has a different personal experience and aspects that are more/less important to them. Like you say, it’s important to visit and get the feel for yourself. Certainly film is a great option at USC, and there is a large international population. USC being more LGBT friendly seems logical, though my D at SMU had several gay friends and they were well accepted and in the Greek system.

I might disagree about USC having better career options though. The OP is considering Accounting, and the Cox graduates all have jobs lined up midway through senior year. Plus, 2 internships are mandatory, so students are very career focused.
And, recently, Bloomberg Business just ranked Cox as 21st for undergrad business schools and Marshall ranked 31st. There are many rankings of course, but both schools are very strong.

Additionally, many companies are relocating to Texas from California. The job market is vibrant and the state is business friendly.
Hope the move to LA works out for you :slight_smile:

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I am a girl @Maggpie . Since your daughter was involved in the Greek system at SMU, did she have many friends that weren’t involved in it? What did she think of Greek life there as a whole?
Thank you again for sharing with me; I appreciate all of your help thus far!

Thanks for your follow-up @notphil . That’s nice information to know and consider. Thank you for sharing your perspective it has been really helpful thus far!

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Maggpie’s daughter here. I just graduated in May and had an incredible time at SMU. Reading @notphil’s post made me a little sad, considering I think we had polar opposite experiences, especially where he says that its one of the “least LGBT friendly” schools around. I read the article in question, and I don’t think he’s giving it an unbiased look. My best friend is gay, and was actually quoted in the article. He had an incredible time at SMU, and was a prominent member of the Greek system. SMU isn’t perfect, but I think this is an issue that many college campuses are trying to tackle. I applaud SMU for giving it the spotlight and the support it deserves. Again, sad he didn’t have the experience he was looking for, but I wish him the best at USC!

Hi @ibther4iam! Growing up in SoCal was great, but I knew I wanted to go out of state for college. The great thing about SMU is it’s almost 55% out of state, so you meet friends from all over. My freshman year roommates were from Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arizona; my best friend from my dorm is from Fargo, North Dakota. There’s actually so many of us Californians, that it’s almost a joke when you introduce yourself - “Oh, you’re from California too?” The great thing about SMU rush is that it’s second semester, so you can spend all first semester settling into college and a routine. It also allows you to meet people in your classes and in your residence hall before you go through rush. Consequently, my best friends are the people I met first semester, and most of them aren’t in my sorority. I have friends in every house, and there isn’t a lot of “competition” - people are just genuinely friends with one another. It allows gives you the opportunity to look into extracurriculars outside the greek system, so by the time you go through rush, your sorority is just one of the activities you’re involved in, and not your main focus. For example, I was in a sorority, an honors fraternity, a student programming organization, the Honors program, and a community service group - all within my first two years. You can hold leadership positions in organizations as a freshman - something I know isn’t easily attainable at a school of SC’s size.

That being said, SMU’s leg up over USC is going to be summed up in one word: opportunity. It’s a smaller school, so the emphasis is really on the student. Your teachers genuinely know your name and want you to succeed. My mom’s largest class at USC was over 400 people; my largest class at SMU was 80. First semester freshman year, I took a nine person class with a professor who got her MA and PHD at Harvard. How many people can say that? My junior year, I took a class where we studied renaissance history for 6 weeks, and then over spring break, we took an all expenses-paid trip to Italy to study the subjects of our research in person. Talk about opportunity. Not to be vague, but almost all of my friends had jobs right away after college, and not just in Texas. I have friends in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Florida. If you want to go somewhere other than Dallas after graduation, SMU will help you get there. Most of my USC friends have stayed in LA. I know notphil mentioned accounting - we have over a 95% placement rate within our accounting program in Cox. Again, you can’t beat the job opportunity and placement here.

Anyway, I’m super passionate about SMU, because it ended up being the best school for ME. I’m still in Dallas, employed at a Fortune 500 company, and it’s easy for me to look back on the decision I made as a high school senior and be extremely content. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Good luck and Pony Up!

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Wow thank you so much @Maggpie your reply just made me really excited about SMU and I can’t completely describe why. (Probably because of all of the great things you just shared!) I really appreciate all of your insight; it’s been both helpful and influential!

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Two points I would like to add here. Marshall’s undergraduate school of business by U.S. News is ranked above Cox. Also, for accounting undergraduate the Leventhal School of Accounting is ranked 5th by U.S. News, tied with Penn. Students are highly recruited by respected accounting firms and businesses.

It is important to note Marshall will soon have a multimillion dollar brand new center, Fertitta Hall. This will have the latest technology, state of the art classrooms, conference rooms, auditorium and communication facilities.

With the addition of University Village, now in the construction stage, SC’s campus is expanding with new plazas, fountains, dorms, classrooms, dining choices and shopping.

Each student’s experience is different, but SC’s student faculty ratio is 9/1. Many students, particularly in the art schools, have quite small classes.

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Overall U.S. News ranked SMU at 58th among national universities. Admit rate is slightly over 50%. Freshmen retention at SC is 97%, at SMU 90%. The graduate business school is ranked at 48th. On the SMU website admission deadlines have been extended to June 1, 2015 for freshmen candidates.

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I wouldn’t look at the admit rates because it doesn’t tell the whole story. Students know up front if they can get into SMU or not so they won’t apply if they know it is too hard. Instead take a look at what the 50% range is - that is the kind of students they are accepting. SMU’s freshman class 50% range for CR is (600-690), M is (620-710) and W is (600-690) or total 1820-2095 and 50% are in the top 10% of their HS, etc.

http://www.smu.edu/~/media/Site/ir/commondatasets/2014/CDS_2014-2015_Part_C_Freshman_Admission.ashx?la=en

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SMU is a great school and if you plan to live in Texas, you’ll have a leg up. I wish the Mustangs had rebuilt its footfall program because it truly was a great program back in the day. I love the rotunda in the law school too. USC is very large by comparison. Greek life is stronger at SMU and they have far more debutantes! Best of luck.

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SC CR 620-720 SMU 600-690
SC M 660-760 SMU 620-710
SC W 640-740 SMU 600-695

SMU ACT Composite 28-31
SU ACT Composite 29-33