USC Marshall vs Michigan Ross Preferred Admit (Social, Weather, and Placement) [Undergrad]
I'm currently a high school senior graduating in June. I got accepted to both USC Marshall and Ross undergraduate business schools and am currently having a hard time choosing between them. Can anyone give their inputs on each school's weather, vibe, social aspect/greek life, surrounding location/campus, and placements? I do prefer to eventually come back to work in NYC sometime in the future, but I don't mind doing IB in LA. Also, I've heard that Ross is cutthroat, can anyone attest to this? Thanks.
Cannot attest to the culture at Ross but I live in a nearby city in MI and have friends that go to UMich and I visit all the time..
-weather sucks (winter is going to be in high 30's if you're lucky, and can easily get down to the low teen's - but then you have winters like this year which were VERY manageable) Late-ish spring and early fall are great. Obviously SoCal weather > -Ann Arbor is truly an amazing place, there's a reason it ranked #1 on US News best college towns.. -All of my friends that went to Ross and wanted to do IB got a job pretty easily..obviously you still have to put in the work but ALL the top banks do OCR at Ross so it's your own fault if you don't get a BB/EB spot -social aspect/ greek life: Never will be as good as MSU, but pretty damn good for a bunch of high school valedictorians and I can't imagine it getting much better at comparable tier schools. -surrounding location/campus: very nice area, but pretty damn big and spread out.
hope this helps. I'd go to Ross but I'm obviously biased... Wish I would've gave a shit about my high school grades instead of being popular so I could've gone there. Anyways.. best of luck to you; if you're still in HS and know you want to do IB and follow these forums/learn the technicals & fit Q's you're gucci
Thanks BBD, very informative post. I will visit Mich soon to get a feel for the culture there before deciding.
Can anyone speak for USC?
I'm obviously biased, but for reference, I recently went to an IB networking event and was talking to a USC student who said "wow, I'm so jealous you go to Ross, I got rejected. You guys have amazing IB recruiting." The weather sucks but social life/greek life is great in my opinion. And I would consider Ross to be competitive but not cutthroat. There will be try hards who get really anal about the curve, but the majority of people are nice and smart and like to help each other out. Not saying ross is necessarily better than USC, but just sharing my personal experience. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
Sounds like he's just kissing your ass. USC has an acceptance rate of 16%. Even if he didn't get direct admit into Ross, any USC admit would've gotten into Michigan with the same stats.
OP, this exact thread has come up 4 times in the past 2 months. If you can't learn to use the search function on a website, I have low hopes for your future as an analyst regardless of which school you go to. You're only going to hear Michigan alums talking up their school on here. There's no west coast people on this forum, though that may say something in itself.
The only recent threads I've found from searching are Mich LSA vs USC Marshall, not Ross.
dude USC is the move. Better programs etc. way more fun
usc isn't that good a school and people don't take it as seriously BC it is, at best, the fifth best school in california. i would never recommend anyone go to usc
Sounds like a completely unbiased and thorough assessment of the school from an account with 2 posts. Quality contribution, SB. Mind letting us know which school you went to?
i think both are strong undergrad programs, but umich places into NYC while USC places mostly in west coast.
if you want to be in NYC then choose umich. if you're indifferent then it doesn't matter - you can't beat LA weather.
USC pros: awesome weather, hot girls, really fun lifestyle
Mich pros: MUCH better school and recruiting for IB is also MUCH better
Up to you on what you want. Can't go wrong either way.
Suppose I find out that I don't want to do IB in a few years. Is USC recruiting still good for other sectors of business? (Corp Fin, consulting, S&T, PWM, etc.)
Can't speak for the others, but no school has a relative regional monopoly on commercial real estate and RE finance like USC does. USC literally has 1 of 2 undergraduate business schools in California - extrapolate your conclusions from that.
Waitlisted UMich LSA (forget Ross pre admit) Accepted USC Marshall
The admissions are honestly a huge crapshoot compared to before so I don't put much stock into acceptance rates, but if you're looking purely at IB recruiting in absolute numbers id definitely say Ross > Marshall. Remember though that almost every kid from Ross will be gunning for top BB/EB unlike Marshall, where kids are more laidback and looking into things such as entrepreneurship/WBB etc.
TL;DR - Both will give you a decent shot (slight advantage to Ross); just go based on fit
I see myself fitting into either of them. Should I take weather into account, or is it a trivial factor? (Michigan winters are brutal and last from Nov.-April)
I have a few friends in UMich (non Ross) and they have all managed to adjust to the cold after living their entire lives in temperate conditions. It all depends on your tolerance and willingness to withstand the cold. Honestly ann arbor is an amazing college town too and LA's living cost is pretty darn high. Plus USCs neighborhood is pretty damm ghetto. Id go Ross; their OCR for finance is just behind Stern's. Ross isn't really THAT cutthroat; sure theres a fair bit of competition but what else do you expect from a target?
Both schools are great, I think it comes down to personal preference. I have a lot of colleagues at USC who have successfully secured offers in IB. Almost all of the BB banks conduct OCR at USC. Hope this helps.
I would personally choose USC. You can't beat the social life, weather, and progressively increasing academic reputation.
bump for more opinions, have to decide by May 1st (tomorrow)
Update: I will be attending Michigan Ross! GO BLUE
What did you end up choosing? I'm in the exact same situation as you a year later
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