<p>I'm currently a UC Berkeley sophomore who just got rejected from the Haas/the Business Administration major. I also applied to USC Marshall for the CS/Business Admin joint degree and the Business Admin degree and will hear back in June. I think my chance for acceptance is pretty good, given that the average GPA is a 3.5 for transfers and from the courses I would transfer over i would have a 3.9. </p>
<p>If accepted to Marshall, should I transfer? I do love Berkeley but that doesn't mean I won't find my place in USC. </p>
<p>If I stay at Berkeley, I would do an Econ major and take businesses classes on the side. They might be hard to get into, but I have a bit of an advantage with a senior standing for Telebears/the scheduling system. However, it's not a guarantee that I can take all the business classes I would want. In addition, I can take some businesses classes this summer, which would not be competitive to get into.</p>
<p>Things to consider:
Price is not too much of a concern, though I'm hoping for some sort of financial aid/scholarship. My interests lie in marketing, and USC has a lot more marketing classes. But do I really need to take marketing classes to do marketing in the future?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for the feedback! I'm pretty torn between staying and leaving...</p>
<p>It seems you’re into pure business courses over economics. Considering that, I think you should do whatever you can to major in some form of business. Economics is theoretical and although business is a primary focus of economics, economics isn’t the study of business. But I think even as a business major you should an upper level econ class or two. Although maybe I’m not giving you any credit for an econ background. Have you enjoyed the classes you’ve taken for the most part?</p>
<p>Either way, it seems you want to do a business major much more. You don’t need to take marketing classes in order to go into marketing, but taking the classes can only get you ahead of the competition. I honestly don’t know much about the career side of it. But USC sounds like a suitable fit for you.</p>
<p>I’m from Berkeley. Question: do you want to take business classes for the sake of learning/fun or so you have better chances at business jobs? If it’s just for fun then I guess Marshall would suit you better. But, if it’s just for career sake then I have to tell you that econ and business majors have about the same opportunities as long as you seek them.</p>
<p>@demoz-both i guess. but yea, i think i would enjoy business classes more and i do want to go into business in the future (maybe entrepreneurship?)</p>
<p>i have heard from many people that business and econ majors get similar job opportunities, but i guess i still feel its better to have a business major if i can? ahhh but i guess i don’t know if its worth it to transfer…</p>
<p>@TheRippa i’ve taken intros to econ and business courses and enjoyed both, though business more than econ. Econ is interesting and relevant to business, but like you said, they’re not the same either. </p>
<p>As a marketing major graduate, I can tell you that Economics will do very little to prepare you for a career in marketing. While economics will teach you the basic principles of business, you will not learn a lot of the strategic thinking and creativity that a marketing/business major will teach you. If you’re interested in doing finance or consulting, I agree that an econ major at Berkeley will give you similar opportunities as a business student. However, to get a great marketing job (and actually learn marketing), I think you need to go to USC. USC should have a lot more marketing jobs than Berkeley and you’ll be more qualified to apply for them as a marketing major</p>
Take that route instead. Berkeley Econ is a more prestigious program than the Marshall BA program. You also don’t need to study marketing to be able to work in marketing and perform very well as a marketing staff or head. And you can always pursue MBA, which many BA and Econ grads do eventually.</p>
<p>@darkpenguin - Your comment particularly interests me since you graduated in marketing. Do you work in marketing currently? Just curious.</p>
<p>Also, here’s some food for thought. haas/berkeley ranks around #4 for Undergraduate Business Marketing programs according to U.S. News and marshall/usc goes unranked. i personally don’t look too much at rankings, but I was surprised to see that berkeley was even on the list. </p>
<p>i looked at the available marketing classes at haas, and found only 7, which means i could potentially take all of them pretty easily within two years. i would just have to keep signing up for them and wait for others to drop. </p>
<p>on the other hand, marshall has about 18 marketing classes and a marketing minor…o_O i would probably have to choose less than half anyways, since i’d have to catch up on general education requirements at marshall my first semester or so. </p>
<p>so what do you think? </p>
<p>@RML - Yes, the more I look into econ, the more I do think it’s a great program. But is it for me? Who knows what I’m going to be working for in 5 years, but I know right now that I hope it’s a marketing firm. then again, is econ going to provide me with more skill stability and analytical skills i might not get at a marshall business program? </p>
<p>=/ now i feel like i’m partially giving up on my dreams to do marketing if i stay, kinda closing that door a bit, without knowing if i’ll like my “window” of opportunity/econ and what that would lead to…</p>
<p><em>sigh</em></p>
<p>xD anyone think i should just flip a coin? xD</p>
<p>OP, the econ program - anywhere you’ll take it - is highly analytical, so it would prepare you well in marketing jobs, not just for banking. It will teach you to understand the general flow of money, trading as well as the concepts and movements of everyday activities where business transactions and money are involved. Economics is also a broad field – it has a lot of branches. If you want to churn out numbers, econometrics and microeconomics would be a good start to enjoy this subject field. </p>
<p>Though marketing is a very specialized field, it is not something that requires anyone to study on it so that he or she can work in the field effectively. As long as you are creative, very articulate and have a good stock of knowledge (which you can acquire from readings), you will do well in the field of marketing.</p>