UVa or USC Undergraduate

At USC I would be at Marshall, and UVa I'd major in econ, try to do finance, and try to get into McIntire. I'm torn because although UVa is more prestigious, I am pretty certain I want to have my career in Southern California in the end. Not sure what kind of job I want, investment banking, consulting, venture capital, etc. But all are appealing obviously. Which school would you go to? I can envision myself eventually getting an MBA, striving to get into one of the top b-schools.

 

UVA -- That's no brainier. How is this a serious question?? UVA is the more prestigious school, stronger academic, better business school and is well connected to the banking world on the east coast. The west coast is not a financial hub. It never was, it never will be.

If you find USC on the Prestige rankings by US News then you should definitely go.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/28/…

 

Ha! NYC is full of UVA grads. LA and San Fran, financial hubs?? you have to be f-en joking. They are little towns towns compared to NYC. UVA>USC by a large margin I am sorry. Again check the prestige rankings. If you want to watch football and bone chicks go to USC. If you want a job go to UVA. It doesn't matter if you work east/west coast, UVA is a way more respected than USC, this is completely undeniable no matter how you slice it. This is coming from someone who got rejected from UVA.

 
sillymonkey123:

Ha! NYC is full of UVA grads. LA and San Fran, financial hubs?? you have to be f-en joking. They are little towns towns compared to NYC.
UVA>USC by a large margin I am sorry. Again check the prestige rankings. If you want to watch football and bone chicks go to USC. If you want a job go to UVA. It doesn't matter if you work east/west coast, UVA is a way more respected than USC, this is completely undeniable no matter how you slice it.

UVa is a nice school. However it is a Public and it will have more alums, and it isn't surprising. Are you going to say HYPS are lesser school because UVa has full of grads among everywhere in the USA?

sillymonkey123:

This is coming from someone who got rejected from UVA.

I'm sorry, but if I was UVa AdCom I'd reject you too. "Ha!"

 

3.87 GPA in Math & Economics double degree. Phd coures in Math senior year. 750 GMAT, 800 on Math GRE. I got into Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Rice, NYU, and UMichigan. Sure I would have liked to have been accepted into UVA but that's life sometimes -- you never know who is going to like your application at which school. It's a crapshoot. Not sure why your making fun of me for being rejected -- rejection is a natural thing life throws at you, no reason to laugh at someone for that.

UVA is a public school. And?? Because so Whattt?? Who careesss?? Dude. That thought doesn't even enter your mind. Your kidding yourself. I don't care if USC is "private". You can't buy prestige my friend. USC is not a better academic institution nor a more prestigious one. USC - great school, hats off to them, but 9 out-of-10 lay people on the street prefer UVA to USC. No matter how "private" USC is. In a profession where what school you attended matters substantially, school name is a HUGE! No reason to kid ourselves here dude.

 
Best Response
sillymonkey123:

3.87 GPA in Math & Economics double degree. Phd coures in Math senior year. 750 GMAT, 800 on Math GRE. I got into Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Rice, NYU, and UMichigan. Sure I would have liked to have been accepted into UVA but that's life sometimes -- you never know who is going to like your application at which school. It's a crapshoot. Not sure why your making fun of me for being rejected -- rejection is a natural thing life throws at you, no reason to laugh at someone for that.

UVA is a public school. And?? Because so Whattt?? Who careesss?? Dude. That thought doesn't even enter your mind. Your kidding yourself. I don't care if USC is "private". You can't buy prestige my friend. USC is not a better academic institution nor a more prestigious one. USC - great school, hats off to them, but 9 out-of-10 lay people on the street prefer UVA to USC. No matter how "private" USC is. In a profession where what school you attended matters substantially, school name is a HUGE! No reason to kid ourselves here dude.

I don't know if you're talking about MBA or whatever. I'd be fine to take Duke/UMich offers and I won't regret even if a UVa offer passes through, unless it's more financially generous.

But I do understand your pain from rejection by UVa. Sometimes people who enter H/S/W will still remember the pain with a lower-tier school rejection. Sometimes you just want to prove your ability to enter all schools, including the ones that rejected your entry.

 
sillymonkey123:

UVA -- That's no brainier. How is this a serious question?? UVA is the more prestigious school, stronger academic, better business school and is well connected to the banking world on the east coast. The west coast is not a financial hub. It never was, it never will be.

If you find USC on the Prestige rankings by US News then you should definitely go.
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rank...

Definitely disregard this. If you want to end up in Southern California USC is definitely one of the best options out there.

Also the difference between the two schools when ignoring your location preference is marginal. I think USC is hands down the best choice for you.

 

I've lived and worked in LA for the past 7 years.

If you want to work in just about any industry in Southern California, between the 2 choices in front of you, go to USC. There really is no stronger or extensive network than USC in SoCal (yes UCLA also has a ton of alums here, but it seems like the USC network is even more loyal and close knit).

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

Just looking at my peers, I feel UVA has a better network opportunity within finance. USC has their strengths (engineering, film,pharm), but not really finance. That being said, USC does have a strong accounting network. But you have to consider USC is in LA, which is not strong for I-Banking, whereas UVA is on the east coast, or more closer to Wall Street.

 

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