The transfer process between Econ and Marshall undergrad Business Admin is pretty straightforward. Basically as long as you get a high GPA (think it's 3.7 or something) and get an A in the first Marshall weeder course (ECON 351), you'll probably be fine. Right now I have an A in 351 and my advisor has already told me that if I keep this up, I'll have the option to transfer in next semester, although I don't plan on doing that. As a general rule it is pretty easy to transfer between majors here, and there's even fewer restrictions if you're transferring within Dornsife where you can basically change whenever you want. Adding a minor is even easier.

You'll also find that there are plenty of non-Marshall students in the IB and PE clubs that are still able to go these routes anyway. They have majors like Econ, Econ/Math, Econ/Data Sci, Applied Math, etc. So I don't think economics is too much of a detriment to your high finance career prospects, and the connections/internships via the Trojan Network are probably the most important thing.

Yes it's possible to do an SCA degree with something else. Double majors are generally easy to add at USC, although for some of the more competitive programs like Marshall or Viterbi you might have to apply.

SCA does give scholarships but they're not as generous as what you'll get from the university via the EA merit scholarships (think Trustee, Presidential, Deans). Here's the SCA scholarships website if you want to read up some more. https://cinema.usc.edu/scholarships/

I've heard that SCA is a lot of work so it might be hard to hold down a job, especially if you're international trying to acclimate to SoCal. But that's ultimately a choice for you to make and how much the workload is for you.

Not super sure what this is asking but I'll tell you what I know.

SCA is ranked the #1 film school in the world even if some people like NYU or even UCLA's program. From the outside in, their program's doing pretty good. There are always screenings of student films on campus, and sometimes ads where people are trying to sell scripts or whatever. Clearly the program is also doing good things for the industry, as evidenced by the fact that USC has turned out a bunch of Academy/Emmy award winners. I think the number for Oscars is 200 nominations and 80 winners.

There are definitely a bunch of on campus jobs but they're usually jobs in the Village at the shops like Dulce or Insomnia, or work in campus orgs like the library. As such it's much harder for freshmen to get these jobs since they usually hire in spring/summer since that's when they will prepare to fill the graduating students' spots. I would imagine that you would need to have a work study admission to get them guaranteed, but I'm not sure on that.

I have no clue how competitive environmental studies is but I would assume that it's still at least somewhat rigorous. I'm pretty sure that the UCs are higher ranked than USC, especially schools that are known for research in the field like UCSC, which might be the reason why you probably got rejected from some of them. Don't quote me on this though.

USC definitely has a party scene but yes, it's definitely possible to make friends without going to those parties. My main friend network is from a preprofessional club at USC Marshall that I joined and mostly some nice people at the Catholic Center (ie. church). There are plenty of parties happening all the time for the partygoers though.

Also, the social scene is not entirely centered on Greek Life. Since USC is so big (40k student body) there's probably a community for your specific interests - I know for me that was the USC Chess Club. Just for some more examples, we have a magic club, varsity esports with teams in most of the major titles, and a bunch of outdoorsy clubs where you can go on one-night outings or weeklong trips with friends and even some professors.

USC has lots of scholarships that you can apply for within each college. Dornsife has the most but that's pretty much just because it's the biggest. I personally was able to come due to these outside scholarships, plus generous financial aid from the university that significantly lessened the gap between here and my second choice UCSD (in-state), where I got no financial aid at all. It made more sense to sink some thousands more to go to USC which has a far better business school than UCSD.

Yes the COA is pretty ridiculous and USC is being pretty bad about it (they are raising tuition again grr) but in my case it was pretty close to what I would have paid for a UC.

I would say USC in general definitely has a more pre-professional atmosphere but this is also dependent on your major/college. Dornsife is big and what goes on for me on econ is probably different from what goes on in East Asian Studies or whatever. Since my coursework is mostly crossed with Marshall I only see pre-prof stuff (seeing as networking is #1 when it comes to business careers), but that's just my experience.

I have no interest in doing research/internships this summer and so I cannot really tell you how hard it is. I do know that it is possible for freshmen to get summer research positions with professors because some of the sophomores in Dornsife econ did it when they were freshmen. Same idea internships wise - I've seen it happen but nothing from my own experience. Though I would imagine that it's far easier to land these things at USC than other schools because of connections via the Trojan Network.

Yes USC only has the Sophomore Guarantee but there's plenty of housing close by anyways in North University Park. On a map this is the area bordered by Adams, Vermont, Jefferson, and Flower. In fact a lot of sophomores choose to live in outside housing despite having the guarantee because they just like it like that I guess. So I would imagine that for juniors/seniors it's perfectly fine because even if you don't get USC housing in some place like the Village, you can still get something close by and bike/scooter/skate over to campus. By the way USC's campus is completely flat so it's much easier for USC students to live further away from campus than for a UCLA student (for example) because their campus has so many stairs and they have to walk everywhere.

Classes at USC are definitely small in that they are smaller than what you'll get from a UC. You will not get the 1k person lecture halls at Berk (looking at Wheeler in particular) or UCLA for example, and my largest class right now - which is lower-division - is in a "lecture hall" with 100 seats. However since you're looking at a liberal arts college I have no idea how to gauge what is a "small" class size in your context.

Yeah the Marshall exclusive thing is a good point and you're definitely right about business admin (and Marshall in general) being better for high finance than Dornsife econ. That being said I don't think it would be much easier to transfer into Marshall than to apply directly since in both cases you will eventually have to take 351 anyway. It's a requirement for the BUAD Marshall degree, so it's pretty much just something you have to deal with - it's the first weeder for a reason after all. I said that the transfer is straightforward in the other reply because I'm finding 351 to be pretty easy, but maybe students who aren't as familiar with isoquants or whatever will say it's not that simple. Which I guess is fair enough.

For this reason this is why I think there are students that are in Dornsife Econ but simply add a Marshall minor, usually Business Finance or Accounting. This way they can keep their GPA up by avoiding the hard Marshall classes, but since you are technically a Marshall student you still get access to those Marshall resources/networking, on top of the ones you already get from Dornsife. If I wasn't doing as well in 351 as I am now, then this would probably be the route I'd be taking. (I still plan on transferring into Marshall at some point, but just not next semester.)

Oh I should add that data sci is a cooperative major. So you have to pick it with some other major like with the econ/data sci combo. In your case it wouldn't be impossible to do a cog sci/data sci combo.

Oh yeah. You might also hear about suites/apartments which are basically upgraded versions of the dorms. Suites have AC/private bathrooms and apartments have those extra living room space a kitchen. However I would highly recommend living in a residence hall as you will interact with a lot more people, not just those on your floor but even those who live in the same hall that you might share a major/common interest with or something. If you pick a suite or apartment then you will basically only be interacting with your roommate(s) for the entire year, which is not ideal for a freshman trying to meet people.

Hope this helps!

First of all, major congrats on getting in!

The reason why I chose USC is mostly due to the ranking of USC Marshall and the connections from the Trojan Network, which will be useful no matter what major you got in for. There's more reasons than this though.

• Very nice campus - if you haven't been here yet then come to Admitted Student Day and you can see for yourself. Make sure to hit the USC Village, McCarthy Quad, and Hahn Plaza/TCC as that's where most of the action is on normal student days. Also LA weather is always very nice. There are some days where it randomly rains really hard but it will be sunny (maybe partially cloudy) and 70-something degrees for 90% of the year.
• School spirit - everyone here is at least somewhat invested in the football team (for this year also basketball because of Bronny/Lebron for the men and #1 seed in March Madness for the women), knows all the songs, sports the school merch, and so on. This even carries beyond USC's campus/current students. There are many occasions where I've ran into some random people in SoCal who are wearing USC gear and find out that they're alumni from '89 or something like that. If you're a student here then it's basically a given that you will take pride in being a student here.
• Transit access. USC has 2 stations on the LA Metro E Line and 1 on the J Line Busway. LA's system is obviously not as good as it could be, but it is much easier to get around as a USC student than for most of the other SoCal schools. For example, UCLA students have to bus everywhere since they won't get their first station until the VA Hospital Phase 3 extension of the D Line is done - this is one of the many projects that LA Metro is building for the 2028 Olympics, so the situation will only get better from here. (Speaking of the Olympics, USC will be hosting some events! The Coliseum will host track/field, the Galen Center will be badminton, and we will get swim/dive somewhere around Dedeaux Field. And the USC Village will be used as the Olympics Media Village for all the journalists/media people.)
• Since USC is so big, there's a community for everyone. Most people think of USC as a party school and although there are definitely lots of parties here, the social scene does not revolve entirely around what happens on Frat Row. We have way too many clubs/student organizations on campus to count, so you'll be able to find something for you. For me this was the USC Chess Club.
• There's much more to do in LA than most other colleges simply because LA is so big. Since it's easy enough to get around without a car, I've been able to go to a bunch of new places, whereas it's basically impossible to do this for some of the other T25s in the middle of nowhere (looking at UMich lol). The places themselves are also super different. Before I went on Spring Break I went to a bunch of beaches (Santa Monica was the nicest), a LA Philharmonic concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall (if you're a student you can get 90% discounts on certain tickets), and Sony Pictures Studios to see a Jeopardy taping (for which the tickets are free). Now that I'm back in LA after break I plan to go to some more places too. For example this Saturday is "free museum day" and I'll be checking out LACMA and some other museums in that area.
• USC is a super diverse campus. The majority of students are from SoCal but there are people from all 50 states a bunch of international students too, so the people you meet/the things you learn from them are super interesting. The professors are also like this too. Three out my four classes for this semester are taught by minority professors - Brazilian, Iranian, and Spanish.

Wow this got really long really fast but there's a lot of good things about USC and I guess I had to dump all of them LOL. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Edit: I forgot that even though one of my profs speaks Portuguese he's actually Brazilian :///// had to fix that mistake

I'm a Dornsife econ major looking to go into finance so you're basically on the same path as me. USC Marshall is rated something like #2 in undergrad business outcomes, losing only to Wharton and better than some of the well-known schools like Stern, Haas, Sloan, etc. The MBA ranking is a different story but at least for undergrad, we're just about as good as you can get.

The Trojan Network here is very strong and you have plenty of opportunities for networking/connections, whether from LinkedIn random messages or emails through the companies that alumni are working for. The USC Career Center hosts regular "Trojan Talks" with alumni that you can sign up for basically whenever you want. I also know that Marshall has USC-only openings for some internships, and there are even some clubs that have club-only internships which is a big plus, albeit some of these clubs are ridiculously difficult to get into in the first place. I would note that there are plenty of clubs for buyside careers but not a whole lot of AUM or even financial advisor clubs here, which is something that I've found to be pretty annoying. Also keep in mind that most of these opportunities are going to be in the LA and SF areas mostly, so if you want to go into finance in New York or even international like London then it's going to be a lot harder.

Ultimately the price is going to be dependent on your own financial situation. I've addressed in another reply that I am here because the price was comparable to me attending a UC in-state. But obviously if you can afford it, it'll be money well spent.

As far as I know, these scholarships are for continuing students only, although there are probably some for freshmen (beyond the merit scholarships that you apply for in EA) that the university doesn't advertise as much. In fact I just finished my application for said continuing student scholarships like a week ago. Lol

USC is #1 for anything games related, so you can imagine that it's pretty competitive. This includes the CS Games major which is more programming stuff, but also Game Design which is called Interactive Media in SCA. This is mostly due to connections with the big studios like EA, Ubisoft, etc. I do know the degree is pretty hard because you have to understand the math, physics, etc. behind programming a game, so you have to take all of those classes AND you have to be able to play video games for hours at at time. You obviously also have to learn all the CS stuff. I know someone that is going to take a regular SWE job after this degree, so clearly it still holds the same rigor as the pure CS in Viterbi. I would also imagine that it's pretty easy to transfer over either way, just because of how easy it is to transfer in USC in general.

Pure CS at Viterbi is a lot less competitive here compared to your MITs and Caltechs, but it's pretty competitive in its own right. I couldn't tell you the acceptance rate or ranking off the top of my head but it's pretty easy to assume that we're somewhere in top 25 for everything.