Is Arizona State or Loyola Marymount better for building a career in Los Angeles?

Loyola Marymount is the more direct platform for building a career in Los Angeles because you can pursue internships, part-time work, informational interviews, and campus recruiting while living in the city. Its Westchester campus sits near Silicon Beach, LAX, Culver City, and the entertainment, media, tech, nonprofit, and business employers concentrated on the Westside. That proximity matters: an internship can become a semester-long commitment and then an entry-level offer without requiring a summer relocation.

LMU’s alumni network is smaller than Arizona State’s, but it is especially useful within Los Angeles because many graduates remain in Southern California. Students can more realistically attend local networking events, meet alumni for coffee, and build relationships with employers throughout the academic year. For fields such as film and television, marketing, communications, business, law, nonprofit work, and hospitality, daily access to the LA market is a meaningful advantage.

Arizona State offers a much larger overall alumni community, broad academic options, and strong career resources, and many ASU graduates do establish careers in Los Angeles. However, from Tempe, LA internships are typically limited to summers, remote roles, or opportunities that require temporary housing and travel. ASU’s size can also make it necessary to be more proactive about finding personal connections in a specific city.

The exception is a student whose intended field is especially tied to ASU’s particular programs, faculty, or recruiting pipelines, or who prefers the scale and resources of a large public university.