Berkeley vs Claremont Mckenna vs USC for undergrad?

I got into these schools as a junior year transfer:
USC- Marshall (Business)
Berkeley- Political Economy

And just under the assumption I get into
Claremont Mckenna for Economics-Accounting

Which school should I choose if my goal is West Coast IB:

CMC- Great Alumni Network. Top 10 LAC. Smaller class sizes. High Job placement stats
USC- Great Alumni Network. In Los Angeles.
Berkeley- Top public uni. Higher-end Semi Target. In San Fran.

Can anyone comment on Cal's Alumni network?

Thanks alot for your help!

 
Best Response

When I talked with a Bain recruiter she said they're all targets (plus UCLA).

I would say go with Claremont though since it probably has one of the more relevant degrees of the list chosen. But, if I had to argue just on school only, i would probably say Berkly since it will have the most world wide recognition, and if you use the business school recruiting, has really good campus recruiting.

You do have to ask yourself if you would like mega classes or not since public universities (and I think USC) have huge classes. At UCLA, which is similar in structure to Berkly, I would say the average class size was like 75-85 and like 1/3rd of my classes were like +300. I was fine with that but some people could freak out about it. Flip side is everyone seems to create a niche for themselves since even .05% of 40k-50k is still like 20 people.For example, UCLA had an amazing arcade where I met some great people I still talk with this day.

 
West Coast rainmaker:
I would do Berkeley; you can get into Haas after 2 years. From everything I have heard, it should not be too hard to get in if you would be competitive for IB in the first place.

Haas has very good placement; it is second only to Stanford for SF (which has a much stronger finance industry than LA).

Thanks for the input. But im a transfer student(junior), from talking with people at cal I hear that BB's recruit from the school in general, not just Haas

 

I have to defend my school's football team, especially since we have Matt Barkley for the next year and are ranked #1 in preseason polls. But I have noticed that while many Marshall students get interviews for IBD jobs, there are not many Marshall students (or even USC students, honestly) who land those jobs post interview. Marshall's strength has always been in real estate development. Investment banking is still something of a work in progress. That said, the experience at USC is phenomenal, and if you are willing to put in the leg work you can definitely break into IB on the West Coast. We have pretty good relationships with IB offices in L.A., and some of our alumni up in the Bay are very happy to help out fellow Trojans.

 

if you want to work in SF, Berk

if you want to work in LA, USC or Claremont...you got to look more into what the school offers you other than IBD recruitment....banking isnt your life.

if you want banking bad enough you can get it from any of these schools. all bugles do OCR at all 3 schools. look for other factors taht you like, dont be an idiot and chose one with the highest IBD recruitment rate, pick somewhere you will be happiest for the next few years since you can get into banking LATER, but cant do college over again.

congrats on the acceptances as well :)

 

Berkeley - Strong/decent recruitment, Decent social life CMC - Great feeder school, strong/decent consultant firms recruitment, little IBD. USC Marshall - Strong / Decent Recruitment, good social life.

However if we look into the future I can only see Cal falling, CMC and USC will both rise. Oh don't forget USC will win the BCS nationals next year so that might be a plus (at least for me)

 

Unless you are in Haas SoB for Berkeley, it's a toss up on location and where you see yourself. Berk is known more for pre-med majors if anything, and tech companies like to recruit from that school.

I'd go with USC, stronger recognition IMO given their location as well.

 

Do you have a lot of friends at Cal and USC? USC is super cliquey, Greek scene runs undergrad.

If few (or no) good friends at Cal and USC, I'd go to the smaller, prestigious private because you're likely to make new friends easier.

 

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