USC Marshall Spring Admit (79K) vs Michigan Ross Preferred Admission w/ School of Kinesiology (80K)

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I don’t qualify for aid, and my parents will fund my entire education fully. I have a 20K per year scholarship (National Merit) to USC, so it’ll come down to 79K per year (including room and board). Michigan comes down to 80K.

I’ve been admitted to USC Marshall’s Business Administration program, with access to the Trojan Scholars Society. I’ve also been admitted to the Michigan School of Kinesiology’s Sport Management program with preferred admission to the Ross BBA program.

I am a Spring Admit to USC and a Fall Admit to Michigan. I plan to spend my first semester in USC’s DC campus should I choose USC over Michigan, which I am fine with. I’ve always wanted to go to school in DC anyway (praying I get off the waitlist at my dream school, Georgetown).

My goal is to either work in investment banking or operate a sports franchise. I also hope to get an MBA at an Ivy League and/or abroad in England (LSE) or Europe (Bocconi). I don’t know where I want to live in the future, but I see myself anywhere in the US, UK, or the EU.

I’m OOS for both schools (East Asian, male, from Texas).

While I’m concerned about the Michigan weather, being a spring admit at USC concerns me too. I’m also unsure about paying a premium price for an OOS public school when I can pay the same for a private school.

I cannot decide between the two AT ALL. I was originally 90% committed to USC because I was certain I wouldn’t get into Ross, but I was just admitted today. My 90% commitment is now 50/50. I can’t even decide if I want the big city atmosphere of downtown LA or the quiet college town atmosphere of Ann Arbor (I’ve toured both campuses and their surrounding areas, and loved both).

I applied to USC because I loved its proximity to all of the LA sports teams and its heavy involvement in sports business. I also have family in LA and, being born in the city, have supported its local sports teams for as long as I can remember. Should I choose USC, I know I’ll be holding season tickets to the Rams and the Galaxy.

Meanwhile, Michigan’s Sport Management program is one of the best in the country, graduating with a double major in SM and BBA at Michigan is exciting, and as a big college football fan going to Michigan will give me extreme bragging rights over one of my best friends (he’s going to Ohio State).

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What you want to study should probably drive the decision.

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So assuming you meet the requirements, you plan to transfer to Ross?

I’m not a fan of spring admits - but if you’re ok with it, then you can choose either. It likely doesn’t matter, but just know UM price increases the final two years.

As for an MBA at a top school, that can happen from any college. It’s your work experience that will drive it.

Bragging rights - seems an odd reason to choose a school - but if it works for you - that’s fine.

There’s no wrong answer here.

In the end, you have to choose one. It could be both are winners for you.

Good luck.

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I do plan to transfer to Ross, but I’m hoping to get a degree in both Ross and Kinesiology. The spring admit part at USC is something I’m struggling to look past.

Also for the bragging rights part, it’s largely a joke :stuck_out_tongue: (it does taste better to be a Wolverine when Michigan beats Ohio State for the fourth time in a row).

I guess I’ll have to do as much research as I can to find out which one of the two will really fit what I want.

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I would not count on a transfer to Ross working out.

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I think in the new program, if they do the pre reqs it’s automatic.

I could be wrong but how I read it.

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I would go with UMICH. Not worrying about spring admit.

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Have you mapped out your four year plan at both schools? If not, I would do this and look at the programs side by side.

The DC program offers a fixed set of four courses, none of which are in your specific areas of interest. You’d fulfill the freshman writing requirement and presumably some general education, but you’d be putting off exploration of your primary areas of interest until you arrive in LA, and paying forty thousand dollars for the privilege. That’s an awful lot of money to take plain-vanilla gen-ed classes in DC (vs. at a community college for free), and it’s one less semester you’d get to spend digging into your desired fields of study.

In contrast, in your first quarter at Michigan, according to this roadmap, you would take first-year writing, but also Econ 101 and two foundational sport management classes. If you care about getting a sport management background in addition to a business degree, this path feels more productive to me. The USC fall-in-DC plan feels like a way of preserving their revenue stream without making meaningful progress toward your goals. JMHO. If it were less expensive I could see just doing it for the experience, but at 10K per class it would stick in my craw.

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The Fall Semester of one’s freshman year can be a magical time which will never be forgotten. Wash DC can wait as it will be available for a semester away from either school.

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