<p>Ok so let me tell you right off the bat what my future goals are.
My major is computer science and I don't want to work for a company for the rest of my life. I plan on creating a start-up and building it into a successful company where I am CEO. I already have a great Idea in mind. If you're thinking to yourself, "ya right, that won't happen" then please leave. I realize it is a long shot but that's what chasing dreams is all about.</p>
<p>I have been accepted to UCD, UCI, and UCSD as a computer science major. I have one school in mind that I think will help me most with my future goals but I don't want to reveal it, as i think it will sway your answer. So I am asking you. Which of these three UC's do you think would help someone with entrepreneurial goals?</p>
<p>These are the things I'm looking for:
-The less GE's and non-related major classes I have to take the better
-I want to have enough free time to teach myself how to create websites and mobile apps on the side.
-Great social life: clubs, greek life, stuff to do outside of school.</p>
<p>I don’t see how majoring in computer science will teach you anything about entrepreneurial goals.</p>
<p>If you want to run a successful business based on web sites and mobile apps, a junior high diploma should suffice.</p>
<p>Majoring in computer science won’t teach HeartyBowl anything about that. They have to figure it out on their own. Why don’t you just make the time at college to learn the things you want and to have fun? It just takes some time management and avoiding laziness, which isn’t too hard. Pick the school with classes that you think could be the most beneficial and, I guess, on what there is to do in the surrounding area for fun.</p>
<p>@james
that may be true, but it will be very beneficial for me to attend college for cs especially if I plan on starting a tech business. I’d rather the coder that created the website/app/video-game-company than be the guy to hire programers to do it for me. And let’s not forget about what happened to the winklevoss twins lol… it did not end well for them. </p>
<p>anyways. back to my original question…?</p>
<p>If you are entrepeneurial, the answer to 99% of the questions you have will be “money.” Go where it will be cheapest.</p>
<p>Commenting on your goals</p>
<p>-The less GE’s and non-related major classes I have to take the better</p>
<p>The schools you list are all UCs and will have about the same GE requirements. In fact, the GE requirements don’t change much from college to college. Grin and bear it will have to be your approach</p>
<p>-I want to have enough free time to teach myself how to create websites and mobile apps on the side.
-Great social life: clubs, greek life, stuff to do outside of school. </p>
<p>These two goals are in direct conflict with each other for any kind of engineering program. You probably won’t have a lot of free time and you have to choose what you do with it. Besides, if you really want to make it as a CEO, why are you messing around with a social life?</p>
<p>Based on your goals, UCD would be the best choice since it the closest to Silicon Valley and venture capitalists. </p>
<p>Any of the schools will give you the education you need to build a computer application</p>
<p>^hmmmm… I google mapped how far silicon valley is and it’s 1 hour and 46 minutes away which is far but not as far as ucsd or uci so thanks pointing that out.</p>
<p>@HPuck I heard that UCSD has the most GE’s though… isn’t that slightly true?</p>
<p>A lot of young people seem to think that they are going to find some type of shortcut to success. </p>
<p>I am not here to knock your “great idea” but usually when someone thinks of a “great idea”, there are at least other 5 or 10 people out there who have thought of the same thing.</p>
<p>I see this “startup” theme come up a lot here. I don’t know if you guys are watching too much MTV, but do you even know what a startup consists of? </p>
<p>Usually, the path to becoming a CEO or starting a company goes something like this: great ability to network, proven track record of success, great people skills, knowing the right people and sources of funding among many other things.</p>
<p>Once again, I am not trying to discourage you but most people who go out on their own usually have experience, a proven track record of success- usually 20 years + of experience, several industry contacts, an established client base and sources of funding</p>
<p>Sorry but stories like Facebook or Google are like 1 in 10 million .</p>
<p>While it may be true that someone has probably thought of my idea, only very few go through with it. I will not be one of those people who just keeps an Idea in their head and hope that one day it will become a reality. </p>
<p>And how did MTV come up? They air reality shows lol.
Stories like facebook and google are like 1 in 10 mill… BUT I never said I plan to take over the tech industry. I mean if it gets to that level, then great, but I said I wanted to create a start-up–and those are not 1 in 10 million. There are countless amounts of successful start ups.</p>
<p>I was talking to one of the founders of Amgen (now a multi-billion dollar bio-tech company for any one not familiar with it) and he said that Amgen was the 5th startup he was involved with. It was by far, he said, the one that he thought had the least chance of making it when it started. All the others failed.</p>
<p>Not sure what the moral of the story is, but it takes much more than a good idea to make it. It takes hard work and some initiative. For example: instead of taking the easy way out and just posting on some random board a question as to what certain colleges require for GE requirements, they actually went and looked it up themselves. The info is available on-line in each of the college’s web sites.</p>
<p>The real hard workers don’t list “great social life” as part of their college selection criteria.</p>
<p>I hope you are able to do what you want to do, just remember to keep at least one foot on the ground.</p>
<p>Most start up fails but if you have great idea + skills, I don’t the reason you can’t succeed. Sure a business major has more fun in college than a CS major. However, CS will give more skills than any business degree. Only a computer scientist can create something like Google and knows how to handle millions of users. Although, a small android app can be made by a group of people with enough. CS is mostly applied discrete math</p>
<p>If you have the aptitude to do CS, I don’t see why you can’t learn business in a few weeks with books. Also making a successful website as Facebook is almost like winning the lottery. The probability of that happening are quite small, very close to 0</p>
<p>I am not sure if entrepreneurship can be learned. For the most part, people who are successful entrepreneurs are born with certain traits that most people do not have. </p>
<p>Steve Jobs is a great example of a good entrepreneur- a college dropout but he was a visionary, very smart and always driven, even without having a formal education- his success had a lot to do also with being at the right place, at the right time, meeting the right people(Steve Wozniak), and luck also</p>
<p>One thing all successful entrepreneurs seem to have in common is that: they work their asses off! Trust me, I am a very entrepreneurial person, I love business and I have had some great business ideas but the idea of working 15 hours a day, does not excite me a bit!</p>
<p>So, it takes more than being smart, having great ideas, you need to be willing to work your ass off and like Hpuck said, it often means sacrificing your social life, relationships, etc.</p>
<p>^I forgot that and strong determination. If you have been working like crazy and not getting good you result you may quit. I meant learning how business work, Steve Jobs had some unbelievable marketing skills and he is good example that networking, marketing skills and the ability to innovate can be more important than technical skills.</p>
<p>If you are aiming for CEO, those GE’s and non-related major classes will be really helpful. Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks for the responses guys.
I’m gonna make this a reality, you all just watch. I’ll come back to CC 5 years from now to this very thread and let you guys know how I’m doing lol.</p>
<p>anyways, which of the three UC’s do you guys think would have the most people with an entrepreneurial spirit? It would be nice to go somewhere with like-minded people. I hear that most students (not all) at UCI are not very social, so I think that one is out of the question.</p>
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<p>…do you really believe that??</p>
<p>Yes… I believe that… if the OP really has the desire/capability to be a CEO. Being well rounded and having decent writing and speaking skills will be important. If the product idea is already there, there could be classes that help learn how to market it.</p>