<p>Firstly, I'd like to thank anyone who offers advice.</p>
<p>I know little of what I want to do or study. I don't wish to study the sciences, math or arts as I'm neither passionate nor talented in those disciplines. I want to be in a career/industry where I can comfortably make a lot of money (My family's poor.) I'm keen on entering the banking/finance/consultancy industry or something entrepreneurial subsequently.</p>
<p>I'm inclined towards a business or economics degree. Some contend that an undergraduate business degree is not useful and can be acquired later in one's career. Moreover, they argue that an Economics degree develops one's critical thinking and analytical skills and is looked upon more favorably by companies.</p>
<p>I'm stupid. All my life, I've worked harder than others and still get poorer grades. I'm sick of studying subjects which I'm neither interested about nor good in. I've never studied Economics nor Business subjects previously. But I know I'd prefer to study a subject that is directly applicable to my career as I've noticed I grasp subjects better when they are related to the "real-world" and less abstract. I suck at tests and exams but do better in projects. I've heard that Economics can involve a lot of math which is my Achilles' heel.</p>
<p>I understand that there will be lots of work in college and I'm willing to face that. However, I want to be in a school where it's not all about academics and competition for the best jobs. I want to try so many new things and meet new people in college. I don't wish to spend all my time studying. </p>
<p>I'm current looking to study Economics at Northwestern and Duke. For Berkeley and Michigan, I'm thinking of entering their respective business schools while I'm there. Lastly, I'm considering Cornell's Applied Economics and Management program. All look like solid choices.</p>
<p>I know it's difficult to make a comparison, but in your opinion, which would be a better fit for me?</p>
<p>If you have less than stellar grades, none of them would be a good fit for you. It is more than likely you won’t be admitted. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but if attending a top university were your goal, your grades and ecs in high school should have been reflective of that fact. This is assuming of course that your gpa and test scores are not very high. What are your stats? I’m sure you’ll get some good advise which colleges to attend here on CC from others. If you are aggressive and work hard, those recommended schools will help you achieve your stated goals. I wish you the very best of luck. :-)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I’ve been accepted into Duke and Berkeley but chose Duke in the end. As I won’t enroll in college till 2009, I still have the option of applying to other schools next year and am considering where I would be the most comfortable in.</p>
<p>From reading your post i assumed that you were not qualified to attend any of these schools. I guess your ideas of stupid and mine are not the same. Congrats to you and never downplay your abilities. You obviously are very bright. :-)</p>
<p>Maybe this is a stupid question, but how can you apply a year early, get admitted, submit the SIR, defer AND still apply to other universities the following year? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>I had a tough time in school. Perhaps it was because I was very active involved in ECs but I’ve seen people who are equally involved and yet do very well academics-wise.</p>
<p>I never fully understood most of my classes. I took a long time assimilating what was taught in class and would occasionally have to schedule appointments with my teachers to clarify the subject material. I also had trouble comprehending notes and textbooks and often had to resort to rewriting the content.</p>
<p>I took a much longer time and effort than my peers to complete homework. As such, I was always lagging behind my classmates and the homework ‘debt’ would only grow larger as the term progressed. As such, when it came to tests and exams, I would always be struggling to simply complete and review prior material. Needless to say, I did not do well. I was well below average and had to attend remedial classes.</p>
<p>In fact, I had to resort to getting one of my teachers for my sophomore year to write one of my recommendation letters because I think my junior and senior year teachers had relatively less confidence in my abilities. In fact, they often persuaded me to take less demanding classes and to lower my expectations in life.</p>
<p>I often felt disappointed and questioned my capabilities. Also, because of the time I spent on school activities and academics, I did not have much time outside of school and missed opportunities to develop myself (e.g. take up an instrument, learn a foreign language, join cooking classes.)</p>
<p>I hope this gives you a better understanding of disposition.</p>
<p>Than it would be rather irrational to consider those schools like Duke, Berkeley, Northwestern, U Mich, Cornell. These are all top notch schools and could be a super high reach to you. Why dont you consider somewhere else that would be your real match or at least a near reach instead. It would make your life more easier.</p>
<p>@ddzai612, I have never given up hope and I will never give up on myself. There have been during certain periods of my life, where I felt utterly demoralized and dejected. People around me advised me to take the “easier” route and questioned why I bothered “stressing myself”. There were many points I did not succeed but eventually I managed to pull through. I got accepted into both Berkeley and Duke. </p>
<p>As detailed in post #8, I believe that a whole range of factors determine success in the classroom. I still want to go myself one more shot in probably one of the last stages of my education and still carry the hope that I may succeed in one of the aforementioned institutions. One of the many factors that would determine how well I adapt and succeed would be the curriculum I am studying and it’s teaching pedagogy. That is why the choice of school and program is so important to me.</p>
<p>In some ways you may be better equipped for college than the peers you mention. Sometimes students coast through high school and find college a rude awakening. It’s an adjustment to have to really work and not easily be the top student in class.</p>
<p>I believe the main advantage of an Economics degree is that it develops both ** quantitative ** and analytical skills, which is looked upon favorably by companies. </p>
<p>Having said that, if math is your “Achilles’ heel”, I think you should consider a different major.</p>
<p>Just another quick comment: if you are relying on “teaching pedagogy” to improve your odds of succeding in college, you may be in for a real shocker ! What I mean is that, in most top research universities, professors are not hired based on their “pedagogy”, but rather based on their potential and accomplishments as researchers/scientists. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are “bad teachers” (in fact, some of them are actually excellent teachers), but, in any case, college is very different from HS in the sense that you are supposed to be much more on your own and rely less on “teacher’s guidance” to learn. </p>
<p>Perhaps a small private LAC (which is basically an extension of HS with another name) might suit you better.</p>
<p>you may be better than you think. i see that you are an international student but i don’t know where you come from. i got a friend who went to one of the competitive high schools in shanghai and was ranked in the middle there. he didn’t think he was “good” at math there. then he came to the US for his final two years of high school and he was all of a sudden ranked first in math. last i heard about him, he was getting 4.0 as an economics major at Williams.</p>
<p>OP,
You must have good grades and high SAT scores, don’t you? I saw that you got into UCLA, Berkeley, AND Duke. I can see Duke may let you in without the best grades by focusing more on your “projects” and ECs but probably not Berkeley/UCLA OOS also.</p>
<p>This is where you honestly see my inexperience when it comes to career and industry knowledge. I believe that working in banking/finance requires various degrees of competencies in mathematics depending on whether you’re working in front/middle/back office. However, I do not know to what depth nor breadth. </p>
<p>I always hear experienced members on the boards recommending high-school students to study what they are passionate about. They advise HS students and undergrads that the banking/finance sector or investment banking specifically takes in applicants from diverse fields - such as English majors to Engineers. This, together with anecdotal accounts leads me to believe that much of the skills/knowledge of many of the jobs is learnt on-the-job? </p>
<p>However, as I said earlier, even within a bank, there are so many different offices, so I think it’s very inaccurate to infer too much unless we know exactly which part of the company individuals were accepted to. </p>
<p>Precisely because of my weakness in Math, I thought that a pre-business degree might be more suitable.</p>