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<p>Before this devolves into the usual “mine is bigger than yours” argument let me offer my insights as a former hiring manager in the Northeast (Boston mostly) and now living in the Midwest. While there will be a few people who will have mild preferences between USC and UCLA the vast majority of older managers will have reactions something along these lines:</p>
<p>“USC? Good school. Used to have a good football team, went downhill until Carroll showed up. I hear it’s in a bad part of town. Cute Song Girls.”</p>
<p>“UCLA? Good school. I remember when they were good at basketball. Cute cheerleaders.”</p>
<p>That’s it. Both will be viewed as good programs. One isn’t going to cause managers to laugh derisively while the other causes us to fall to our knees thanking God for the opportunity to be in the presence of one of their graduates. In Boston, or Chicago, or New York or wherever, you’re going to be up against the local grads. You might get an interview because you’re a geographic oddity, not because of the rankings minutiae. To old f@rts like me, there’s MIT, Caltech and then a few hundred schools that are essentially interchangeable. Business will assume that if you have a degree from a major university then you possess the requisite training and skills necessary for an entry level position. Your ability to get hired will have more to do with your interviewing abilities than USC v. UCLA. (In fact a USC manager might hire a UCLA grad just to have someone to argue with during football season). Go to the place where you think you’ll be more comfortable and therefore more likely to do better.</p>
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<p>You mean like “ZooMass”, “Moochigan State” or “Arizona State - America’s Safety School”? Until I found CC I’d never heard USC referred to as the “University of Spoiled Children”; I suspect most of these names come from their rivals, the same way Michigan grads talk about Ohio State.</p>
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<p>Seriously? You think that your competition at USC is going to be weaker? Don’t they have their share of “genius Asians”? You’ve been offered free rides to both schools, obviously at least one person at each college thinks you can handle the work; if you’re worried about the competition already, maybe they misjudged.</p>