Proud parent of a Santa Clara grad here. It’s a great place and their business program good.
You are still waiting for UC and CSU decisions…so just wait.
Plus….your son could easily change his mind again between now and May 1!
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You make the right point. Who knows what twists and turns will happen before May 1. Teenagers are heavily influenced by their friends.
Only concern is UCs only have Econ.
3 UC’s have Business schools: UCB, UCI and UCR so there are other options besides Econ.
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@blossom please ease this poster’s concern…I know you don’t need to major in “business” but you can explain better than I can.
OP- forget how much money each college offered your son- the only important number is what YOUR costs are going to be, and if that’s affordable. Parents get swayed by the “X offered 10K, Y offered 20K, therefore Y wants him twice as much”. Not relevant- what can you afford and where will your son thrive?
What is the basis for your son’s possible interest in finance? Start there. A lot of kids don’t know what studying finance is all about but they pick it because it sounds employable and people won’t ask “what are you going to do with that”. But Psych with a few econ courses (which is essentially behavioral economics) is a great major for marketing (why do people buy the little bags of cookies with 90 calories in them even though they cost three times as much as a normal bag of cookies… and then proceed to eat three bags?), Statistics (offered at virtually every college in America) is great for lots of finance roles, etc.
He doesn’t need to have his grown up life mapped out yet; he can likely find the right major for his interests at any of these colleges, but YOU need to make sure you can afford four years there!!!
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Finance is just a placeholder. Most business schools offer several majors and the students pick at the end of the sophomore year.
Don’t think most teenagers can eloquently explain why they are interested in a certain major. Even if they did they may change their mind in a few months. Right now his interest is a hybrid major (with some CS and business) like MIS.
He doesn’t need eloquence, but before he decides he DOESN’T want econ, he should know what finance is (and isn’t), ditto for MIS, any other business discipline, etc.
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Understand your point. Some of the UCs have up to 500 students majoring in economics. Is there room to customize this degree to a certain extent? The concern here is the degree is too theoretical and general. I will ask him to dig more and see if this is true …
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Accepted Schools So far: (as of Mar 3)
Arizona State: WP Carey-MIS (Direct), Merit$12.5K
Michigan State: Broad-Supply Chain(Not Direct yet), Merit $10K
Minnesota: Carlson-MIS(Direct)
IU: Kelley-Finance (Direct), Merit $3K
Fordham: Gabelli-Finance(Direct), Merit:$25K
Binghamton: SOM-Business Admin(Direct) Merit:$10K
Purdue: Krannert- Integrated Business and Engg
Penn St: Smeal-Supply Chain (2+2) (Declining)
Rutgers: RBS-NB -Finance
Wisconsin: Finance(Direct)
South Carolina: Darla Moore-Finance (In-State Tuition, Maybe Merit)
Santa Clara: Leavey-MIS(Direct), Merit $9K
UC, Santa Cruz: Engg(Baskin) -Technology & Info Mgmt(Direct)
UC, Riverside:Engg(Bourns) - CS + Business Appl(Direct)
Deferred: WPI,SMU(withdrawing),Villanova, Miami
Rejected: Maryland(went test optional)
Waitlisted: UMass-Isenberg(withdrawing), UIUC-Gies
Waiting: UCSD,UCLA,UCI, some cal states
Since he now wants to stay in state (as of today), is there a difference in outcome studying in engineering school with a business minor (like UCSC,UCR) versus studying MIS in a business school (Santa Clara)?
Is any of the OOS options better than the three in-state? Money not being a factor. Hard to assess fit due to limited time left to visit the OOS schools.
Are you willing to share your son’s SAT scores ?
(Assuming that IU-Kelley required SAT scores during Covid, then his scores are at least 1370.)
@Publisher, I believe this was the latest score.
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Yes. That is correct.
One interesting side note:
Because of COVID cancellations, he took the SAT in october and the score came on Nov 3. He had already applied test optional to Maryland. When he called Maryland on Nov 4 to ask them to consider test scores. They refused and said Nov 1 was a hard deadline. That is one of the rejections. But not sure what to make of it.
I really like the Purdue integrated major. It’s more rigorous than straight business and more employable.
However, if he wants to stay in state, check out the outcomes for UCR and UCSC. Both are quite solid. Santa Clara is fabulous. It would be a different four year experience than UCR/UCSC.
I will only talk about two schools that I know something about, WI, and U of MN(Carlson). WI is loved by many, and a vg school. From afar it might be considered a better option than MN, but in reality they are a pick’em. Both schools are heavily recruited by Chicago and Minneapolis firms, with WI being favored by the former and MN by the latter. While Minneapolis is much smaller than Chicago, it has quite the job market, with companies such as United Health Care, Target, 3M, Boston Scientific, Cargill, etc… Most of these firms have national or international presences, so you can be placed in CA, or NJ, or NC, etc. They line up to hire Carlson(and WI) grads, among others. Most Carlson grads that I know are pretty happy with their outcomes.
S1 goes to a completely different biz school, but one with a similar, if not better, profile to those two. He is at a bit of a disadvantage compared to Carlson and WI students when looking to get hired in the midwest, but has a bit of an advantage in the Northeast. It’s not really a big deal.
Good luck with your son’s decision.
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If your S has decided on a CA school I’d suggest he go through the course catalogues (typically online) for the schools he has been accepted to and see if one course of study is more interesting to him or seems geared more towards his academic strengths than another.
Thanks. I wanted him to explore this as well as it is an unique option with a small cohort of about 60 people admitted to the program. We were going to visit the school, but he did not show much interest, so i gave up.
I think he has some good in-state options. Santa Clara has an excellent reputation as you probably know, and they have tons of alumni in tech who come back to recruit.If your son wants to study CS and keep those career options open, then UCR is your answer. If he wants tech jobs but necessarily CS jobs then SCU might be a slightly better bet.
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Thanks. As a parent i am fine to send him to Santa Clara, even though it is expensive and only 20 miles from home. He seems to prefer UCs or CalStates as all his friends are going there. Hence the question if these majors at UCs are similar to studying MIS at santa clara?
Is he focused on Irvine?
Yes. UCI-Business and Information Management. Even though the curriculum is same as UC-Santa Cruz -Technology and Information Management where he is admitted. How do we compare it with MIS at Santa Clara?