Black_Swan

My GPA is currently about 3.85 at a community college, I'm still taking general ed/prerequisite courses which means I could most likely boost up that GPA. However, I have like 0 extracarricular activity (which I'm sure will affect my desirability).. aside from working full-time (I'm currently going to school part-time). If you guys have advice for what type of extracarricular activity I should invest myself in, please do tell! Although, about half of my classes are designated at "Honors" classes, so I hope that helps a bunch!

Anyways, I plan to transfer to a college to major in business, and so I'd like to see what you guys think about UCLA, UCB, USC, and SDSU. UCLA just seems like a good school from what I hear, but I don't know how its business school compares to the others. I know that USC is a private university (expensive!) but does have a good business school + great connections(?). And then there is UCB which is very prestigious and also has a great business school. Finally, there is SDSU right where I live in San Diego. Although it hardly compares to the other shools in terms of prestigiousness, it is said to have an excellent business program. So you could say that if you wanted to start your own business, SDSU might be a good way to go, otherwise the other UCs would be better if you plan to work for someone else.

A few factors that are at play here is, most importantly, whether or not I can get into said college. Also there is the issue of money. Honestly I don't care about ambiance, environment, crime rate, weather, whatever. It comes down to which college produces the most real results in terms of making money (and a lot of it) in a career/business after you graduate. So its also a matter of time and money versus returns on that investment.

denneyk

ucla doesn't have a business school

Black_Swan

It does, not for undergrad though.

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/

Anderson School of Management.

GlueEater

Yeah but anderson doesn't really concern you.

Black_Swan

bump

Yeah

southpasdena

You will most likely get into USC and UCLA, UCB is probable, and SDSU - this is just to obvious. When you transfer to a UC, ec are not really considered, so you have no worry there - idk about UCB in regards to HAAS though

Black_Swan

Do you think USC is worth the money compared to UCLA or other schools?

southpasdena

no - ten char

Calcruzer

I'm a UCLA MBA student (Anderson grad), but in recommending undergrad business programs, I'd have to rank them in the following order:

(1) UCB--As long as you are more interested in a well-rounded business school and not just in a particular major
(2) USC--Best if you want a particular major, otherwise, it's just barely second behind UCB. These first two undergraduate business programs rate way higher than the other two:
(3) San Diego State--they at least have a business program, which UCLA does not. If you are going for Econ or Business Econ, then definitely UCLA over San Diego State, but if not, then go to San Diego State first
(4) UCLA--for the reasons mentioned. Man, it bums me to rank my alma mater last on this, but the facts are facts.

Also, you didn't list UCI (which just started an undergraduate business school), Pepperdine, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Univ of San Diego, Santa Clara or UC Riverside--all of which have pretty good undergraduate business schools.

P.S. UCLA is #2 in the state for MBAs, though. Stanford is definitely #1--and in my view UCLA barely beats out UCB and USC for #2 (Hey, you Cal Bears and USC Trojans--before you criticize me, please notice my ranking of the undergraduate business schools above).

One other thing: In my view, USC will soon move up on the business school list and UC Berkeley is likely to move slightly down. The reason for this is based upon the way the curriculum works at each school. In my view, schools that require you to take your accounting courses before entering and then focus on strategy and the major courses during the junior and senior level will eventually get higher rankings because the students will get more real world experience prior to graduation than one can get if you are still focusing on the "basics" during the junior year. UC Berkeley used to do this some years ago, but changed recently (like in the past few years)--and I think its a very poor change. They said it was because the accounting courses at the CCCs were not up to par--but i find that excuse to have no basis in fact.

Black_Swan

Thanks, I'll probally go to UCB if I can get accepted.. otherwise theres still USC. The only problem is money.. if I understand correctly, USC is a private university which means its also much more expensive to pay for. Is it worth the money? Does your rankings take this into account?

If I were to continue for an MBA in business, how hard would it be to get into Anderson's?

southpasdena

I am sure that his rankings do not take into account cost. You are on an even playing field when it comes to finding a job from usc and ucla, but you do not have the same selection of classes or the preferable class sizes and interactive group projects that come with the smaller class sizes (which usc does have).

moss

What career do you want to pursue?

I do agree that you are on an even playing field when it comes to finding jobs except for accounting jobs at a Big 4. The Big 4 seem to have a slight bias for schools with full accounting programs. About 65-75% of the LA interns at Pricewaterhouse were from USC.

At the end of the day, YOU have to stand out. YOU are the person in charge of your future. What school you came from doesn't carry as much weight anymore because every school has exceptional students who on occasion will be a better candidate than other students coming from a higher ranked school.

I hope that makes sense, thats what I got out of job recruiting.

Calcruzer

Excellent advice from moss.

No, my rankings didn't consider cost. USC will cost much more than UC Berkeley if you are in-state (unless you get a scholarship or great financial aid package). Current USC cost-of-attendance figures are about $49K per year versus about $24K per year at a University of California campus. Thus, Berkeley is the better choice (definitely) if you are considering cost as well.

Keep in mind, though, that at UC Berkeley you will need to get at least a 3.42 GPA in your first two years to be accepted to Haas business school.

USC's admission to the Marshall business school (and Leventhal, the accounting school) isn't as strict--although they do weed out those who don't at least make a decent effort during the first two years to prepare for the business program. Also, their grading curve--based after the one at NYU's Stern school--is quite strict once you are in the business program (although they loosened it up very slightly last year after getting lots of complaints about how tough it was).

southpasdena

I disagree with your 65-75% figures for PWC or any of the big 4 with the la office. I am unable to come up with exact numbers, but just look at the schools that office recruits from - Northridge, Fullerton, UCLA, UCSB, LMU, SDSU, cmc, etc. Simply looking at those going for deloitte 2nd round internship interviews this year for audit, it was split pretty evenly between ucla and usc. But i would agree that accounting is better at usc and that usc probably does represent a greater majority, but not by that much.

moss

usc was HIGHLY represented in the pwc internship class this year, I still stand by my figures because i have seen all the people who got offers in the same room together at a pwc internal event.

pwc likes to snag up all of the top talent because that is their primary recruiting objective. look at the PAR reports, professors survey ranks pwc #1 by a wide margin at recruiting the highest caliber students. deloitte comes in second, but again, recruiting objectives means a diverse or non-diverse population represented from different schools. deloitte is HUGE on a being a good team player, I believe thats their #1 criteria on hiring.

keep in mind, the big 4 is like one big firm, i was asked by pwc what firms i received offers from and they were VERY assertive on finding that out before they handed out offers. they don't like handing out offers unless there is a high probability that you will go work at their firm. if you put out all of the candidates from different schools in a large sample, you would be correct, usc OVERALL would represent a greater majority, but collectively, not by much. i only use my figures to speak for pwc.