<p>I used to visit this site when I was a senior in high school and recently came across this thread.
Having attended college in Cal Poly SLO for 4 years I can tell you that they have a very strong program in accounting. Initially I was concerned about the accounting program not having accreditation, but in reality it means very little. There is a complete lack of accounting programs in northern California. The main schools that provide good accounting students to the Big Four in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are: Berkeley, Santa Clara University and Cal Poly SLO (not really Nor Cal but considered Nor Cal for Big Four recruiting). Stanford does not have an accounting program. A secondary school would be San Jose State, but there placement is nothing compared to Cal Poly. Compare this to SoCal schools…USC, UCLA, SDSU, Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and a lot of other Cal State schools. The Big four hire about 60-100 students each year from Cal Poly and although most recruit primarily for the northern Cal offices, a few also go to So Cal and orange county offices.<br>
You get the same prospects from Santa Clara but have to pay 3 times the tuition. Berkeley has good accounting placement, however the top students usually go into investment banking. So if you are interested in accounting and want to live in Northern Cal, Cal Poly SLO is a great choice and hands down the best Cal State to go to.<br>
In regards to getting into Goldman Sachs…it is very difficult and I could say only 5 people have gone to that firm straight from Cal Poly in the last 10 years. I, however, do work at a bulge bracket firm in New York so usually a few students each year do make it to Wall Street from SLO. I am not sure about Wall Street placement at other Cal States, but I am assuming it is just as low if not lower than Cal Poly.</p>
<p>I think the other thing you should think about is where you want to live and work when you graduate. Each of the CSU schools develop relationships with the local recruiters in the area from the accounting firms. So, I went to CSUF (a 100 years ago!) and all the Big 8 (I said a long time ago) from Orange County were active at our campus. For a brief, insane moment I thought I wanted to work in LA and that was sort of a big deal because they had to “find” a recruiter for that area to interview me- they didn’t come to our campus- I had to go to them. I came to my senses and took a job in Newport Beach! One other thing, the recruits from the private schools did not make very much more money than those of us at CSUF- only $2000 more and that difference only lasted about a year.</p>
<p>The rankings you find are so political and biased, I’m always hesitant to even use them when offering advice to people looking at schools. I can tell you first hand as an HR manager, that the best people I get in Business are from Sac-State. (I work for a firm in the Bay Area and we pull from all over the state). Maybe its the capital influence, but it seems that over the years they are a lot better prepared when they step foot into the ‘real world’.</p>
<p>Each institution has specializations that they can boast about.</p>
<p>Ultimately, its about what you, the individual, get out of your education, no matter what campus you are in. Make the best of it!</p>
<p>no love for fullerton? do you guys not realize how great fullerton is for business? lol. i feel like people who aren’t around the orange county area ignore fullerton. sure it’s not recognized much in other places but it’ll land you great jobs in socal.</p>
<p>By what statistics is SDSU a better option?</p>
<p>None of the Cal States. Be an engineer or cs major if your going to a Cal State. Ivies + top schools major in business/econ/basket-weaving.</p>
<p>Chose CSU over UC with a 3.75 GPA due to business majors.<br>
Rejected from SLO for Spring but reapplying for Fall…
Going to SDSU in Spring =] i guess</p>
<p>Does anyone know about CSUN? Just got admitted to SDSU for spring as a business admin. accounting major but was already planning to transfer to CSUN instead cuz i can easily commute there. Is the gap between SDSU that big over CSUN?</p>
<p>I am currently attending LACC and have a 3.47 GPA. I want to transfer to Cal Poly SLO for business, but I might not get in. I only want to go to a CSU -no UC’s. What should be my second, third and fourth choice if I don’t get in?</p>
<p>A lot of people say SDSU is probably the best second choice for business, but what about Cal Poly Pomona? Don’t they have good business programs too?</p>
<p>what does “CP” mean? cal poly? which one, i heard there is two apparently </p>
<p>what does “CP” mean? Does that mean cal poly? if so which one, i heard there is two apparently. </p>