Can anyone provide info. (preferably first hand) about the University of San Diego? They appear to be ranked quite highly as an undergraduate business school. From getting on their web site, however, I get a real commuter school vibe. Where does the truth lie?
What is a “commuter school” to you, that it implies that it’s not a fine university? If you really think that living on campus is correlated with academic excellence, you need to take a look at your assumptions.
Many schools in California are commuter schools. That’s just how California is, I guess, unless I missed your definition of commuter school. Many many USD students live in the apartments in Mission Valley. There are some dorms on campus, however.
USD is a very scenic and expensive college. The pleasant scenery applies to the geography, climate, landscaping, architecture, and people.
The law school has a solid reputation and is ranked fairly well. I have heard the undergrad education is so-so. I don’t know about the business school.
USD’s joke name is University of Spoiled Daughters. I can see why.
It’s a private religious school. I know the religious aspect plays no role whatsoever in the law school other than the tiny crosses painted above the doorways in the classrooms. I can’t speak for other parts of the school.
I would just think twice about the cost if there are more affordable options around.
USD grad here.
It’s mainly a small liberal arts school with a beautiful view of Mission Bay and the surrounding area. I’ve heard some good things about the business school, but there are plenty of good business schools around the country and I don’t think there’s anything that distinguishes USD’s business school academically from anyplace else with a decent business school.
From my time there, just a few years ago, it didn’t seem to be that much of a commuter school. The primary commuter students are grad students and some upper classmen, but that seems to be the case for many universities. The professors are excellent (for a private school) and the general atmosphere seems to be a little more friendly and easy-going than San Diego State or U. Cal. San Diego. The undergrad population is just under 60% female, so that can be either a selling point or a draw back.
It is a Catholic school, but that only means that the student newspaper is somewhat censored for content and undergrads have to take three religion classes - but these can be general world religions classes, philosophy classes with a religious component, or classes about individual religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. I took a world religions class that was taught by a Buddhist nun.
USD has a generally good reputation in San Diego (and the law school within the SoCal area), but the biggest negative is easily the pricey tuition. To offset that, they offer plenty of financial aid, but short of scholarships and grants, loans will almost certainly be required.
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Graduating this thread to IMHO.
GQ > IMHO
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Sorry for posting in the wrong place.
Guess I should have been more specific - there are several institutions of higher learning that call themselves colleges that are actually more in the line of technical colleges a la DeVry. They have no dorms at all - hence the term “commuter schools”.
For example, Indiana Business College http://www.ibcschools.edu/ would be termed a Commuter college in the circles in which I roll. I didn’t mean to suggest that a college that counts a large number of non-residents in its student body was by definition inferior to another.
I also graduated from USD - with a degree in accounting, so I was in the business school.
It is absolutely a fully-accredited 4-year university with all the bells and whistles. I lived on campus 3 out of the 4 years I was there. I don’t think of it as a “commuter school” really in any sense of the word, especially when you compare it to nearby SDSU, in which there are tons of “non-traditional” students who live off-campus, etc.
USD back in 1991-1995 when I was there was definitely pretty white/wealthy heavy. There were only a handful of black students, though we did have a better collection of hispanic/filipino students, mostly who were Catholic. In terms of being a “Catholic” school, I did need to take 9 units of religion courses - I ended up taking Introduction to Biblical Studies, Belief & Non-Belief, and Introduction to Jewish Faith & Practice (taught by an actual rabbi). I was never compelled to go to church.
It is definitely expensive. I was lucky that I got an extremely lucrative academic scholarship that covered around 50% of the costs each year. I also had money saved up since I was little, and parents who could kick in some cash. I also received a student loan from USD directly that was ZERO PERCENT INTEREST, along with a small Stafford Loan. By the time I graduated, I only had $10K in loans. Not too shabby!
I really liked my time there. I think for me it was wise to choose a smaller school - I think I would have felt utterly lost at a school as big as SDSU. Being able to have frequent personal contact with professors who knew me was quite nice. My average class size was 30-40 students, with upper-division courses in my major sometimes 20-30 students.
The business school is decent, but sure it isn’t Harvard. But in my career I’ve found it doesn’t make a shit of difference. I’ve been gainfully employed since I graduated and make IMHO a very decent living. No one has ever scoffed at my degree.
If you mean business school as in “getting an MBA”, they are probably the best school in San Diego, but overall, I think they rank pretty average for the country and below average when you factor in tuition costs versus other schools.
Incidentally, if you are talking about an MBA program, you should only be looking at the US News and World Report and/or BusinessWeek rankings of the schools. If you ask the schools themselves, they will all have B.S. marketing literature that says “We’re Number One!*” Where the * will be some esoteric ranking by their own students or for a particular series of classes they offer.
My feeling is, go to highest ranked school you can afford…period! The higher ranking the school is, all other things being equal, the more likely the job opportunities when you get out. That said, some places like USD are far more expensive than higher ranked schools, so unless you are a resident and/or have a free/cheap place to live in this (very expensive) city, I’d consider other options.
I do know several people who graduated from the USD MBA program who did it in the evenings when I was in biotech, and they have done fairly well for themselves, but these guys were already hard workers and well connected in the industry, which leads me to believe they would have had just as many doors open for them if they had gone to the SDSU business school.
Personnally, I got my undergraduate at UCSD (hated it) and then an MBA at University of Texas at Austin (loved it)