My daughter has been accepted to those three wonderful universities. How to make a tough decision?
We are from the SF Bay Area.
She is undeclared but leaning toward Business of some sort.
Money not being an issue, I would encourage her to go to USC. But money is an issue and would like her to be as debt free as possible. Considering the value of an undergraduate degree where should she go?
A professor at UC Berkeley, who is a close friend, thinks that she should select UCLA. It is more money than Santa Clara but according to him the best name recognition, nationally or internationally.
The money situation, I am facing is as follows:
Tuition only. I assume room and board and expenses to be almost the same.
USC: 25,000 year-1/2 tuition was awarded
Santa Clara University: $6,000- 3/4 tuition was awarded
UCLA- $13,000 full tuition.
Emotionally, we like USC. The size , the school spirit, the campus, the institution and the opportunities. We love it.
We like UCLA too but not as much as USC .
Santa Clara is nice, small school one hour away from home. But we think of that school as high school 2.0. Money wise is the best option and the school is in the middle of silicon valley with a great reputation and great job prospects in the area.
But is USC worth the additional $12k per year compared to UCLA? ( $48k in four years)
Or is USC worth the additional $19k per year compared to Santa Clara ($72k in four years)
If the decision is made based on money only, then Santa Clara is the best option. In four year she will have her undergraduate degree and no debt.
USC may be great, a wonderful name she will be very proud of the institution but $40k to 50K in debt.
According to some report the Santa Clara University graduates out-earn both USC and UCLA graduates.
As a parent, I would like her to do the practical thing and choose the best financial option. Any rational thoughts?
@jototo , congratulations to your daughter on her great acceptances! It’s tough that her preferences are in the exact opposite order of costs. Without knowing more about your loan philosophy, comfort level, and ability to pay loans back, I’d be hard pressed to offer advice. When your daughter started to think about colleges, did you decide how much you were willing to pay? How does that number relate to your options?
Great choices - good problem to have, but I realize still stressful. I’ll throw a couple different angles at you…Totally different schools in terms of size (well USC and UCLA are same size now), environment (public/private, party level, neighborhoods,struggles, etc.), and offerings (for example, UCLA doesn’t have business as major - they do econ there, she would have to apply to USC Marshall which can be tough if not direct admit as freshman, etc.). Has she been to any of them? What does she like? I see that you said, emotionally “we” like this or that. Does she like it as much as you? How important is ease of job/connections after graduation versus experience of the four years? What do you want out of the freshman experience? Is she super social and outgoing? Conservative? There’s lots of other angles you can consider, then you can narrow down which is most relevant to you and your student…where will she thrive best?
For example, we were really turned off by UCLA being 3 to a dorm room of mixed random majors since I had the really studious pre-med type going off to college. Not that those types don’t exist at UCLA, but not grouping students by similarities had us fearing our quieter one could be lost and lonely in a huge school or stuck in a total party environment and miserable. So he went to another huge school (USC) that did a better job of putting people together from the start and has a zillion best friends that have been together since freshman year. That may mean nothing to someone else, but to us it was huge for this student of ours, along with the ease of changing majors. For another student, USC has issues that don’t work. Everyone has to figure out what is important to THEM for their particular student. Then of course, there is the money…
Feel free to pm (private message) me if you don’t want to spill all this publicly
I can’t tell, is this a pure money decision? If within reach, I would always choose a private over 5 years at a public, especially with budget issues facing CA schools. imo USC is worth the difference over UCLA. SCU has great SV job connections and good well rounded education up north, but if student wants a bigger school farther from home, USC offers a lot. UCLA alumni are more connected on sports than jobs imo. I would go private. 40-50k is the price of a car nowadays, an education is worth that debt.
Does your daughter have AP credits? If she has quite a few many now at SC graduate in 3 1/2 years. That would make the entire cost less. There have been articles regarding overcrowded classes and difficulty of obtaining classes that run in succession at UCLA. Pictures were in the paper of students sitting outside of classrooms due to lack of seats Obviously, news stories can exaggerate, but this might be something you should investigate.
Check out lecture class sizes and also the size of discussion groups. How do the students who attend feel about counseling and job placement support? Marshall has a number of alumni clubs which are separate from the USC alumni clubs. These offer great networking and social opportunities.
Did your daughter receive the NM Scholarship or the Presidential? I know some of the schools add smaller scholarships for the NM scholars. These have not all been announced. Since funds are limited, did you apply for financial aid? If so, did she receive a financial aid package?
Has your daughter applied for local scholarships? If she has the grades and resume for SC she might qualify for local grants/scholarships which have a smaller applicant pool. In one of my women’s organizations I was shocked to discover a $1500 scholarship offered only had six applicants.
I think these 2 points mentioned above actually answer your question, they are quite important!
UCLA doesn’t have business as major - they do econ there,
At USC as undeclared, I too have heard it can be very difficult to transfer into Marshall for business
So if your daughter wants to do business ucla is off the plate. The only way to even consider usc would be to call admissions and understand just how hard transferring would be. This might only leave SCU as realistic choice for business.
I think that in terms of the quality of undergraduate education and prestige, USC and UCLA are pretty even. Both are a cut above Santa Clara in both areas, especially prestige.
I think that if you consider USC and UCLA to be affordable, she should choose based on cultural, academic and environmental fit.
Econ is not Business, no, but there are likely enough business-related electives available to provide a decent all-around business education. To be sure, research UCLA’s course catalog. Look for courses like:
Financial and Managerial Accounting
Marketing
Corporate Finance
Business Law
Organizational Behavior
Operations Management
Business Strategy/Strategic Management
International Business
Price/Cost Analysis
Statistics/Quantitative Math
And, obviously, Micro- and Macroeconomics
You especially need Stats, Econ, Marketing, Accounting, Ops, Finance, and Law.
Although a different type of school than the other two (smaller, not rah rah, and local for you) SCU is fantastic for job placement. It is so connected in SV for business, law, and of course tech jobs. My kiddo knows 3 freshman out of SCU all with solid internships this summer in SV which seems crazy. I would way rather come out of SCU Leavey for business or USC Marshall than be one of the masses coming out of UCLA econ looking for a job (also because the first two have much stronger alumni network). I just don’t see much loyalty in the business world between UCLA grads. Recognition yes, loyalty, not so much. With a “general degree” like business, connections are everything.
She applied, thinking that she could get fewer options. Clearly if USC had been the only school she was accepter to or if Santa Clara were to charge the full 48K then the decision may have been easy.
I believe your daughter should choose the best school can get into, which would be USC or UCLA and would be a toss up. USC has the Marshall Business School which is competitive to get into. I believe the average GPA is 3.7. They also have more spots (a little over 1,000 which increases you chances) meaning more students are admitted (compared to a school like Haas with 200 spots). UCLA’s business econ. major is almost like getting a business degree. Many firms recruit business econ. students from UCLA and many are hired by these firms, including by the Big 4. You cannot go wrong choosing USC or UCLA. The only reservation is that you have to apply to Marshall and I believe UCLA’s business econ is easier to get into (I think a 3.3 GPA will get you in). You might want to do your own research by talking to admissions at Marshall and UCLA’s business econ. department.
