So I recently was admitted for Fall 2015 as a transfer in to UC Irvine as a Humanities major but I somewhat feel like switching back to my old goal of getting a business degree (business admin). I’m aware that there are prereqs and this is what the change of major criteria for the school says: “Students must complete ALL of the following requirements:
Completion of Mathematics 2A-B
Completion of Economics 20A-B or Management 4A-B
Management 7, 30A, 30B
An average 3.00 GPA in all required management courses completed at the time of application.
Applications for change of majors will be processed quarterly. Please be advised that completion of the prerequisite courses does not guarantee admission into the major; space is very limited. Please consult the Merage School directly with additional questions: ugprograms@merage.uci, 949.824.9426; SB1 Suite 5100.
Junior-level standing (90 or more units).
If the eligible applicant pool exceeds the number of positions available, additional selection criteria will be grades in Mathematics 2A-B, Economics 20A-B, or Management 4B, Management 7, 30A and 30B.”
So assuming I satisfy the prereqs, some of which I’ve already done in CC (Econ 20A with a C grade, econ 20B with a B, MGMT 7 with a B) and will plan to take the rest in UCI (Math 2A-B and MGMT 30A-B) can someone elaborate on the chances of getting into the Paul Merage School of Business? I heard that it’s really difficult to switch into to the major, but what do they factor in apart from GPA, prereq completion, and units completed?
Would I be better off applying for a major change to business econ instead considering my academic condition and the fact that it was historically difficult to get into their business admin program? I really don’t care if I have to do an extra year in UCI as long as I get into one of their business programs.
Thanks!
I’ve heard it can be competitive switching into business admin, and the average admitted GPA for change of major is around 3.7. I’m pretty sure all they look at are GPA and the grades you got in the prerequisite courses. I’m a current biz econ major at UCI so let me know if you have any questions! 
@fncrane Thank you much for your input! Do you think biz Econ would be relatively easier/less competitive to switch into? And apart from majoring in either biz admin or biz econ I was thinking of minoring in information/comp sci, in your opinion should I continue with that path or would I be better off doing a combo of the two by just majoring in Business Information Management? I’m not quite sure if it would be the same or if there would be a difference between follwing either the path of majoring in biz Econ/admin and minoring in info/comp sci or following the path of only a business info management major.
Yes, it’s a lot easier to switch to biz econ. You raise an interesting point about BIM majors vs. minoring… I’m not entirely sure which one would make you better off. It looks like for the BIM major you need to take a lot more computing classes as opposed to the ICS minor. The ICS minor requires surprisingly few courses. With biz econ you’re offered a lot of flexibility in choosing upper division courses for specialties that interest you - for instance, I’m interested in going into finance so I’ll probably take those courses once I reach that point. I’m not sure if you can do that for a BIM major as a lot of it is programming and computing courses. But ultimately I think once you get your degree, a degree in BIM will be comparable to a Biz econ degree with an ICS minor. Just my take on the situation!
@fncrane Hey crane, once you get past math 4, how heavy are the math courses at UCI?
And how easy is Econ compared to Biz Econ?
@TonyStark93 I actually didn’t take Math 4 ~ since I have a math minor, I took Math 2D and Math 3A. Math 4 basically combines the things you need to know from 2D and 3A that are relevant for economics (partial derivatives, matrices, etc.). Beyond that I’ve taken Math 2E and 3D, I thought 2E was really hard (as will many people that have taken the course here), but I really liked 3D a lot (diffy q’s). Those are all lower div’s and to be honest it doesn’t take up too much of your time during the quarter. A bit of homework here and there and weekly quizzes, but definitely manageable. I have yet to take Math 13, which is like an introductory course in mathematical proofs. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the class.
The only difference between econ and biz econ is about 3 or 4 courses. With Biz econ you have to take Econ 25 (financial accounting) and some other upper division business-related courses. Also, for Biz econ, when you take Econometrics, you have to take a two course sequence (Econ 122A and 122B) and for Econ you only have to take 122A. Supposedly 122B is rather hard, but I don’t know anyone personally who’s taken it yet.
@fncrane I still haven’t taken the Calc 2 requirement, so I need to take that and the Math 4 requirement… even though I’ve heard bad things about Math 4… 
How heavy is the math for the Econ15AB courses?
@TonyStark93 Calc II as in Math 2B? And i heard that math 4 is really easy!! I heard the professor is great and really helpful!
I took 15A last quarter and wanted to take 15B this quarter, but it was offered at the same time as 100B so I opted to take that instead. 15A wasn’t bad ~ depends on who your professor is. Usually it alters between Johnson and Shirey teaching it. I had Johnson, and he was a bit scatterbrained, but he offered a lot of opportunities for extra credit. I didn’t show up to the final and still ended up with 101% in the class. I heard Shirey can be rather difficult and confusing in the way he explains stuff, and I heard his tests were rather hard. I never took statistics in high school either and I did fine.
@fncrane Yeah Math 2B. Would you recommend I go to UCI or UCSD? I technically SIR’d to both schools. I know UCSD is up there rank wise, but I heard the economics courses there are insanely hard.
@TonyStark93 haha I know absolutely nothing about their economics program, so I can’t help you in that aspect. Have you visited both schools? Which one do you see yourself fitting in better? Regardless of the program difficulty, if you do find yourself struggling, there are resources that can help you succeed academically at both schools, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. I will say that I’ve heard similar complaints about both schools being boring and everyone going home on the weekends (UC Socially Dead), and I can verify that this is definitely the case for UCI. I myself have never visited UCSD and I’m not really close with anyone who goes there. I recommend visiting both and getting opinions from people you really trust.
UCSD’s econ program is supposed to be particularly math-heavy. There is no business major (closest thing is BS in Management Science or a business minor), so keep that in mind if your plans change. UCSD isn’t as bad as the Socially Dead stereotypes suggest, but it’s definitely way quieter on weekends. You should try to visit both campuses if you can! If not, you can take this complete stranger’s word that UCSD is dope
I recommend doing the econ/biz econ + accounting minor if you don’t get into the biz admin program. Management classes are open during the summer so you can take them even though you don’t get accepted.
Math4 isn’t that bad. It is like a watered-down linear algebra and multi-variable calculus class which is enough to understand the derivation of some of the equations that you will use in your econ classes.
I honestly wouldn’t be worried about the intense math classes like calculus. I would be worried about the statistics.
Econometrics is the hardest class for most people and you have know your statistics well in order to do well.
Other than that, I would say math of finance is the most math intensive class econ at UCI. Don’t let the name fool you too. It is nothing like corporate finance. It will require you to go back and look at your calculus material. You even have to learn infinite series again.
Let me know if you guys have any more questions about UCI
@iTransfer1 How hard is it to petition to get into the Biz Admin program?
@TonyStark93 I think it is near impossible to get into biz admin as a transfer. I’m going to guess they mostly take sophomores who petition into it. I would try to get in it the fall u start. If it doesn’t work out then just do biz econ + accounting minor.