Which CSU for Business Major?

kk95476
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:00:36 +0000

I used to visit this site when I was a senior in high school and recently came across this thread.
Having attended college in Cal Poly SLO for 4 years I can tell you that they have a very strong program in accounting. Initially I was concerned about the accounting program not having accreditation, but in reality it means very little. There is a complete lack of accounting programs in northern California. The main schools that provide good accounting students to the Big Four in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are: Berkeley, Santa Clara University and Cal Poly SLO (not really Nor Cal but considered Nor Cal for Big Four recruiting). Stanford does not have an accounting program. A secondary school would be San Jose State, but there placement is nothing compared to Cal Poly. Compare this to SoCal schools…USC, UCLA, SDSU, Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and a lot of other Cal State schools. The Big four hire about 60-100 students each year from Cal Poly and although most recruit primarily for the northern Cal offices, a few also go to So Cal and orange county offices.
You get the same prospects from Santa Clara but have to pay 3 times the tuition. Berkeley has good accounting placement, however the top students usually go into investment banking. So if you are interested in accounting and want to live in Northern Cal, Cal Poly SLO is a great choice and hands down the best Cal State to go to.
In regards to getting into Goldman Sachs…it is very difficult and I could say only 5 people have gone to that firm straight from Cal Poly in the last 10 years. I, however, do work at a bulge bracket firm in New York so usually a few students each year do make it to Wall Street from SLO. I am not sure about Wall Street placement at other Cal States, but I am assuming it is just as low if not lower than Cal Poly.