USC Marshall vs Vandy Econ
Got accepted by both of them as an international sophomore and struggling between them. My intened career is to work in finance especialy investment banking and private equity. Tho I can work in anywhere, NY will be my top priority while SF and HK will be my following options. Vandy seems having better prestige but USC do provide pre-professional and practical education. On top of that, it seems USC and Vandy are both placing more students to IB these years. I look forward to work in ib right out of undergrad. Look forward to hear your advice. Which should I choose?
I would consider these pretty much the same tier of school, with USC having stronger west coast placements and Vanderbilt having stronger east coast placements. That being said, I haven't seen a very large number of bankers from Vanderbilt though the total pool of bankers is much larger in NY, whereas USC is probably a target school (1 of the 3-4 targets) for most of the West Coast banks.
Strength of alumni network will be similar at both, and from an international perspective USC probably has a slightly higher brand value. Would think through criteria like location, school culture / social scene and other aspects as well as where you want to be after graduating.
NY -- Vanderbilt has the edge SF -- USC has the edge HK -- USC has the slight edge