Is USC a target?

It was not a target for me, nothing worked in my favor. But there are plenty of USC grads at BBs, from what I can tell. Just don't expect some massive BB career in LA, it is easier out East.

I would consider it at least a semi target, you can make it work if you interview well, do the networking bit and are otherwise smart.

edit: Not a single person I met in the UK or Europe have heard of USC. I can understand this culturally and geographically - it is a good brand in the US, just not a strong one internationally.

SC grad, imo it’s not a huge target but it undoubtedly helps on the west coast. It’s a good name but obviously no Stanford. Once you go out east I’m not sure if the name has much weight tho

I graduated from USC recently....  This is a very different question than 4 years ago- the school is definitely on the rise as the more and more students are interested in IB and PE. In my opinion, USC is now solidly a west coast target for both SF/LA and an east coast semi-target. By total numbers into BB/EB west coast banking and top PE, USC is only bested by Berkeley and Stanford/Berkeley for prestige (Berkeley is slipping imo.. UCLA is falling behind). 

Big picture, roughly ~50 kids will get top finance jobs out of USC every year at household name firms, mostly banking, some in different asset classes of private equity (Blackstone, lot of GS, BofA, Evercore, lot of PWP, lot of CS). 30 or so will come from mentorship, another 10 from VIG, GIS, TCG, and 10 from random other places. Roughly a third stay in LA, a third go to SF, and a third go to NYC.

Point is, if you want to be in finance, USC won't hold you back so long as you're on top of ur stuff. (There's like 5 people going to GS TMT this year alone). If you can- obviously go to Stanford... I don't think Berkeley is a no brainer by any means. USC is also a really really fun- don't discount that if you're making a decision.

It’s like the 5th best school in LA by academic reputation so prob not a target for east coast but from what I can tell (SoCal native) it does well on the west coast.

I’m in NYC and to date have not encountered a single USC grad in finance.