USC vs. UCR (read before you start laughing)

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>Ok here’s the scenario guys: (it’s long but I could use your help guys)</p>

<p>I’ve already been accepted to UCR as a BusAdmin major transfer. My goal is to concentrate on accounting and hopefully wind up w/a Big 4 internship and subsequently a Big 4 full-time position.</p>

<p>Regarding UCR, I’ve already paid for all the apps for housing, orientation, etc, and am pretty on-track to starting this fall. They gave me a fin. aid package leaving me to pay $11k in loans for the next two years till I graduate. This package covers room/board and all that other crap.</p>

<p>I applied to USC, talked with the admission and fin. aid guys, and still need to turn in a few documents before they make an admission decision and develop my financial aid package. I am currently considered a “late admit” if I get admitted, and in that case I’m assuming I’ll be getting the scraps of whatever fin. aid funding is left, which will probably be very little and I’ll have to take out insane loans.</p>

<p>I applied to SC under Econ because last year I was rejected from the Accounting major with a 3.7 GPA and a healthy app. This year my GPA dropped so I figured I’d go into the less competitive Econ major, then transfer into the Accounting program.</p>

<p>I know everyone with a sensible mind will tell me to go to SC but there are a few factors to consider:</p>

<li> Guaranteed UCR BusAdmin vs. USC Econ. (but I want to go the Accounting route)</li>
<li> I want to graduate within a 2 year window (sooner the better)</li>
<li> UCR left me with $11k in loans. I’m a late admit to SC so my finaid package will probably be pretty weak and I’ll end up taking out huge loans compared to at UCR</li>
<li> I have no idea about the difficulty or the process of changing majors from Econ. to Accounting at USC, nor if it’s even possible (consider the >2 yr window in which I wanna grad)</li>
<li> Grad school at Leventhal is always an option whether I go to UCR or USC, but admission into the program may depend on where I got my undergrad</li>
</ol>

<p>So please give me some thoughts or advice on this situation. </p>

<p>Should I just abandon all hope at SC? Decisions for the Fall 06 were supposed to be made Jun 1 and it’s already Jul 8. I’m a month late and then some. They want me to submit my Spring grades from my jr. college, in which I got 2 A’s but also 3 W’s (long story). This would bring my transfer GPA to about a 3.3 with about 5-6 W’s. And this is for the Econ major at USC.</p>

<p>Also, what is the process like of changing majors from Econ to Accounting at SC? Is it time consuming and do I have to retake certain classes? I have a B and a C in Micro and Macroecon respectively. Other than math courses and a few humanites classes, all my other grades are A’s. I have one D but retook that class for an A but the D still stuck on my transcript and went into calculating the GPA.</p>

2

<p>Did you post this over at the Accounting.com messageboard?? If you did I think we've "spoken" before.</p>

3

<p>Yea what's your alias?</p>

4

<p>look at it this way: if you go to USC, you wont really regret what you missed at ucr. but if you go to ucr, you might regret not going to USC.</p>

<p>another way to look at it: majoring in acct at Leventhal will garuntee you a job with the big 4 in LA.</p>

<p>another way to look at it: you wont need to go back to grad school for acct if you go to Leventhal. the undergrad and grad curriculum is the same, trust me on that.</p>

5

<p>and also, dont concern yourself too much about the difference in cost. the value of a Leventhal degree should be expensive.</p>

6

<p>you were not supposed to have a decision by June 1st they just said ud hear something by June 1st, you got a request for spring grades, so that is what you heard by June 1st Im assuming. I did, and I am still waiting also with a cumulative of 3.73, and a spring grades of 3.75(Hofstra University,4-year private in NY, incoming junior). I know how you feel. This wait is killing me and if rejected I am just returning to Hofstra. I am freaking out and I have a 3.73 cumulative(no Ws and only 1 C, everything else is B or better) at another private university. I'm not so sure you have a good shot with a 3.3 and all those Ws. Can u get any of the money back that u already paid to UCR? How much would u lose if you do get admitted to 'SC? I'd give my left and right are and possibly a leg if I had to to go to USC, but for the kind of money you may be talking about UCR may be ur best bet. Good luck hopefully all of us who are waiting for SC will hear soon.</p>

7

<p>I transferred to USC from UCR. I hated it there and I always felt like the business program sort of left their students in the dust. We rarely received academic advisement and usually had to figure out our college career on our own. As for recruitment from UCR, I hear it is kind of low for a Big 4 accounting firm, whereas it is quite high for USC. USC's accounting program is ranked 4th. UCR's is ranked I think in the 40's...maybe slightly higher.</p>

<p>From my experience at UCR and their business program, I would definitely stay away and hope to get into USC. It's a shame you didn't get into accounting the previous year, but hopefully you'll be able to pull it off this time around. Ideally though, you should've just applied to Marshall, then that way transferring to Leventhal would've been easier than starting out as an econ. major and then transfer to acct.</p>

8

<p>It will be tough to finish at USC in your time frame. There are basically 4 semesters worth of Accounting work for a transfer (Acct 305, 1st 370 series, 2nd 370 series, 470's) so if you have to start for a semester as an Econ major you will need to try to take Acct 305 through the business school.</p>

<p>Also, despite what some people here seem to claim you are not guaranteed a job at a big 4. During the last round of interviews for each of the firms there were several people from other schools.</p>

9

<p>are there any UCR alumni in the Big 4 that you know of?</p>

10

<p>yes, i know of at least 2. The most important thing is to get experience. If you land an internship at one of the big four and you do well it doesn't matter what school you go to you will get the job.
However, USC is much better in job placement and education.</p>