Should I stay or should I transfer?

sherbet
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:38:18 +0000

Hello everyone, I am currently a Freshman majoring in Economics at Dornsife CLAS. My main issue here is that I am quite disappointed with the Econ program at USC: everything that I’ve learned last semester was just redundant high school material (I just took some lower level classes, but I haven’t touched any of the upper level ones) and the Econ department at USC isn’t that renowned.

After some planning I narrowed my future course of action down to two options:

Option 1) I will aim for a dual degree in Business at Marshall, and Econ at Dornsife

The Pros:
-Econ is to Business as Physics is to Engineering, ergo, these two degrees fit nicely together
-Very strong background for business or finance related jobs as Marshall is ranked among the top undergraduate business schools in the U.S.
-I will also continue my studies in Econ since I have a genuine interest in it
-I can graduate within 3 years with a dual degree if I take 20 units per semester from now on (feels like an overkill, but I really don’t want to pay 50k of tuition)
-Trojan Network

The Cons:
-Marshall is hard to get into as an internal transfer
-A dual degree in Business and Econ from USC in my original country is as prestigious as a degree in a random state university; what I’m saying here is that in my country appearances are very important, and that the prestige of your university mirrors your intellectual qualities.
-…and on top of that people with creativity and lateral thinking abilities are not appreciated; I happen to fall into that category of people (without a nice degree from a renowned college, I would just be considered another drop of water in an endless ocean)
-Dual degree within 3 years is overkill, but I am up to the challenge
-I don’t like LA; nothing personal, but too much sun is making me stupid
-I don’t like the neighborhood surrounding USC; not because it is dangerous, but because the only entertaining venue is LA live

Option 2) I will transfer to a college with a relatively better Econ department

(I am thinking about UC: Berkeley, Princeton, U Penn, or U Chicago)

The Pros:
-Prestige, Prestige, and Prestige; something that the Econ department at USC lacks and that will distinguish me in my original country
-Personal satisfaction of being able to attend a top-notch university that also has a nice Econ program
-4 different seasons instead of an endless Summer

The Cons:
-Very very hard to get into
-Not sure if I can transfer all of my credits
-I will probably graduate in 4 years, so I will end up spending more for a degree
-No Trojan Network
-No more beautiful USC girls to peek at, again, personal taste

So, on the bottom line, the major difference between the two choices is just the university and the Econ department’s prestige. I really like USC so far, but if I can’t transfer into Marshall and graduate in both Business and Econ, it would be like graduating with a liberal arts degree in economics. I weight both of these choices as giving me the same benefits, but the latter option is harder to accomplish.

So, I would like to ask the community at CC about their opinion. Should I stay at USC and apply to Marshall or should I transfer to another university?