Undergrad: USC vs. CMC vs. CMU vs. WM
Hey guys, I've been lurking for awhile but I need advice on the best business education for undergraduate. I'm trying to weigh the quality with the costs. I was accepted into:
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USC Marshall (1/2 tuition scholly) $45k/yr
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Claremont McKenna $70k/yr
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Carnegie Mellon Tepper $70k/yr
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William and Mary $55k/yr
I'm very interested in entrepreneurship & tech but I'm going into college with consulting or banking on my mind too. If you have attended these schools or know graduates, any advice would be worth it. I'm leaning USC BC of the scholarship, but at CMC and CMU I would play football. Thanks for even reading this, I know you guys are hella busy.
If you are interested in Finance and Consulting recruitment, I think CN Mellon and USC are the best. Claremont is not bad, its just that its alumni network is not as big as USC for example. CN Mellon would probably give you the most technical and "hard skill" education. It all depends whether you are thinking of an MBA or what you want to do after college. William and Mary are not as good as the other schools - so I would consider dropping this from your list. Other than that, I'd recommend looking into which college you think you like the most personally and the programs that interest. If you do well at any of those schools, you'll do well in recruitment.
fight on
I posted the following on another thread: CMC any day of the week. Its a top liberal arts school with a fantastic Econ/Finance department. Moreover, the school has a program where you can get a BA and an MA in Finance concurrently, with a scholarship through the Robert Day School at CMC (founder of TCW). Last year's students headed to IBD at BAML, GS (FIG and SS), JPM, Houlihan RX, Millstein, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo. S&T students are heading to GS, Morgan Stanley and JPM.
At the end of the day, out of all the schools you listed CMC is the most competitive, has the brightest students, has the most engaging student network (every alum you contact is more than happy to help you) and has a fantastic combination of highly intelligent and accessible professors along with a tailored career services staff who are perceived as one of the best departments in the nation. Furthermore, you have access to the other four Claremont colleges (Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer and Scripps) all of which have their own strengths which you can tap in to. It's a no-brainer.
See attached for a similar debate, you'll find the answers you're looking for: forums/prestige-debate
Unfortunately the site isn't allowing me to post a link, but you can sift through my post history or look up "prestige-debate" in the search bar.
Claremont McKenna is a great school, but I honestly don't think you can say they have brighter students than Carnegie Mellon. CMU is a top STEM school with swarms of extremely bright students. In addition, the Carnegie Mellon name is stronger and more well known in most parts of the country.
Full disclosure: I went to a NESCAC school and am generally supportive of the well-rounded LAC educational model. That being said, I don't think you can reasonably say that a top LAC like CMC has smarter or more competitive students than a school like Carnegie Mellon.
I wouldn't call CMC kids the "brightest", but rather the most suitable for banking/most helpful alumni network for IB
This is actually kind of a tough one, you can't really go too wrong here. First off, I'd knock off W&M unless you really love the school. From a recruiting standpoint W&M doesn't place super well into banking or consulting and won't be that strong in tech either.
USC has a great brand name and would be a lot of fun. Recruiting into banking/consulting would be ok, but it's definitely not as strong as a Stanford or Berkeley. Tech recruiting will be decent, but again it's not a recruiting powerhouse.
CMC is a great school which combines the best of both a liberal arts education and also the ability to do some undergrad finance work as an above poster said. I come from a LAC background and think this would be a really solid choice. As common with most LACs, recruiting will be strong, but less direct in the sense that I doubt CMC gets a ton of on campus recruiting and people will know the name less than USC. You'll have to hustle a bit and network with alums to break into a lot of jobs. With that being said, the small school feel really appeals to some and it might be fun to play football while also getting a great education.
CMU is by far the most technical school and will have incredible placement into the tech scene. All the top tech firms recruit heavily from here. Banking and consulting recruiting is also decent, but in my opinion tends to get slightly overlooked because of the assumption that many of the kids are almost too techy for the more relationship driven roles of banking/consulting. The college life will not be nearly as good here as it will be at USC. It's a nerdy and tech driven school located in Pittsburg, which isn't a bad city, but the winters will be brutal.
With W&M out, I'd honestly visit all three schools and pick whichever you like the best. I'd probably take CMC, but that is because of my personal bias. CMU won't be fun at all unless you're a techy/nerdy type of guy, if that is the case then it might be a good fit. USC is well known all over the world, but in my opinion(and this is solely my opinion) the education won't be as strong as CMC or CMU. There are a lot of rich international students who can't get into any other schools and I've had a few friends go there who haven't had great experiences. With all that being said, you're in Southern California, great sports/party school, and you'll still come out with a solid brand name on your resume.
TLDR: Knock out W&M, visit the other three and weigh the pros and cons of each and decide what you want to focus on.
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