<p>I got in as a mech engineer. Im wondering if its possible to major in engineering and something else. I know they have double majors in materials/chemical or mech/materials engineering, but can you double major in mech and bussiness/finance, or something like that.</p>
<p>It wouldn't be a double-major, it would be a double-degree.</p>
<p>Take a gander at this link. It's about double-degree-ing with L&S, but the same principle applies if you want to try to double with Haas.</p>
<p>The key is that you will have to get admitted into Haas, which is no mean feat. You will then have to complete all of the requirements for both engineering and Haas. This is going to be very tough. It's been done before, but only rarely. </p>
<p>You may be interested to know that one of the people who has managed to pull off the double with engineering + Haas was also Berkeley's only Rhodes Scholar in the last 15 years. Prior to him winning in 2002, Berkeley last won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1989. </p>
<p>Nice, I wish I had known the guy, he would've inspired me.</p>
<p>Well, if you need inspiration, then it may interest you to know that after getting his master's at Oxford, he immediately got his MBA at Harvard Business School, one of the few students admitted by elite B-schools without significant work experience. I hear he's now working in private equity, where I'm sure he's easily making at least 300k, probably close to 500k a year. Not bad for a guy still in his late 20's.</p>
<p>Eww ... he did all that and became an i-banker? What a waste.</p>
<p>You want to double major engineering and business at UC Berkeley?!</p>
<p>My friend, as a junior in the chem engineering major, is working his butt off to maintain his just-slightly-below-average GPA of 2.3. (the average is 2.4.)</p>
<p>I would suggest getting your MBA after finishing your engineering major, if you're planning to go to Cal. Of course, I'm not speaking from personal experience...just seems to make sense to me. That's what I plan to do, wherever I end up going for undergrad.</p>
<p>P.S. That guy triple majored and graduated after 3.5 years w/ 4.0gpa, if you didn't read the article yet!</p>
<p>That man...is my god.</p>
<p>Lets just put things into perspective here. The daily cal is hardly a reputable newspaper and many things reap of hyperbole. He may have started a corporation and started a volunteer group to help kids "learn" about computers but do we really know in detail what that entailed? Was the company profitable? How many kids did he help? And yes he triple majored, but you can prepare for many classes ahead of time (much material is posted online and classes are basically rehashes of previous semesters) and you can still game classes so that you take easier ones. So it is possible to do this if you have a good enough work ethic. If most people applied the work ethic they will need when they work 80-100 jobs as lawyers or doctors, most would accomplish great things in college too, maybe not as great as this guy but definitely a lot more than your average piddling berkely student. </p>
<p>That being said, he's got it going on.</p>
<p>Actually I have already fulfilled some of those requirments for Haas. I went through the whole Calc sequence at a CSU, took a 3 unit Computer Programming class, should have AP Econ credit(if that will work),</p>
<p>My dream is to work in consulting for McKinsey. Thats why I think a bussiness degree would help.</p>
<p>FYI most universities do not offer a undergrad business program, and I heard you'd be learning similar material if you pursue for an MBA (?).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Lets just put things into perspective here. The daily cal is hardly a reputable newspaper and many things reap of hyperbole. He may have started a corporation and started a volunteer group to help kids "learn" about computers but do we really know in detail what that entailed? Was the company profitable? How many kids did he help? And yes he triple majored, but you can prepare for many classes ahead of time (much material is posted online and classes are basically rehashes of previous semesters) and you can still game classes so that you take easier ones. So it is possible to do this if you have a good enough work ethic. If most people applied the work ethic they will need when they work 80-100 jobs as lawyers or doctors, most would accomplish great things in college too, maybe not as great as this guy but definitely a lot more than your average piddling berkely student.
[/quote]
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<p>Well, look. I don't think the Daily Cal is any worse than any of the campus newspapers at any other school. For example, the Stanford Daily , the Yale Daily News, and the MIT Tech ain't exactly the Wall Street Journal either. About the only campus newspaper that I think actually has serious journalistic merit is the Harvard Crimson, because that paper has actually broken some significant stories. </p>
<p>So I'm sure that this guy had a lot of hype attached to him. But no more so than any of the other Rhodes Scholar Winners. Go read about the other Rhodes winners from other schools and you are left wondering whether they 'really' did all of the things that were claimed. All Rhodes winners have a lot of hype attached to them.</p>
<p>That said, you still have to be impressed by the fact that he managed to win the Rhodes, and not others. Just think of it this way. If what he did was really not that impressive, then why doesn't Berkeley produce more Rhodes winners? Why is he the only one to win in the last 15 years?</p>
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My dream is to work in consulting for McKinsey. Thats why I think a bussiness degree would help.
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<p>If you plan to work at McKinsey, then any degree will be fine. What will be important is not so much what you major in, but rather what kind of personality you have. So you have to develop strong public speaking skills, strong leadership skills, and so forth. </p>
<p>
[quote]
FYI most universities do not offer a undergrad business program, and I heard you'd be learning similar material if you pursue for an MBA (?).
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</p>
<p>Yeah, but I don't see what's wrong with that. The truth is, people don't really go to MBA programs for the classes. They go there for the networking and the chance to get themselves in front of recruiters. Many MBA students at the top schools have stated that they consider the academics to be quite secondary, and choose to spend most of their time networking. Many of the top MBA programs practice grade non-disclosure anyway. </p>
<p>Remember this. The purpose of going to an MBA program is to get a job, not to get good grades, or even really to learn anything. What's the point of learning a lot and getting top MBA grades, and not getting the job that you want? It's better to learn very little and barely pass your classes, and get the job that you want. You might say that your grades will influence whether you will get the job that you want, and to that I would say that this is true, but only slightly so. Hiring practices tend to be highly fickle and you can get dinged for extremely superficial and arbitrary reasons. I've seen people with stellar grades get beaten out for job offers by people with quite mediocre grades. In fact, one of the former once said tellingly that he would have been better off if he had spent less time studying and more time practicing his interview and speaking skills.</p>