So im going to be applying to the University of Florida for spring 2018. I study Finance at FIU, which is a top 5 undergrad business school in my state, maybe even top 3. But UF is the best in the state and by a wide margin, much better than the program i am in. My goal is to major in finance, but UF’s finance program is extremely competitive to transfer into. They admit around 15% or less. My GPA will be around a 3.4 by then with a 4.0 in all my prerequisites. So if i were to not make it into finance, i would most likely be accepted into the BA in Business admin program. The thing is, i would much rather prefer economics over business admin. But the economics program isnt in the business school and does not have the size or reputation of the business school. So what do you guys think? Should i take the chance and apply for finance and settle with business admin if i am not accepted, or just apply for economics. Also, my preferred career path is financial services. Preferably investment banking or wealth management.
My uncle is in investment banking. I know UF is a public ivy but trust me it’s not a target school and companies like Goldman Sach’s usually won’t hire from most publics.
But if your career goal is the finance industry I would stick to finance/Econ.
Look carefully at the courses you will take in each major. People often lump economics and business together but they are very different courses of study (one is not better or worse, they are different). Economics is a liberal arts course of study and it gets very theoretical at the upper levels. A business degree typically involves taking a business core curriculum with intro classes in accounting, finance etc.and then picking a major – however I don’t know exactly what classes the BA in Business administration program at your school would allow you to take.
I suggest when the time comes spend the time and look at the courses you’d take under each of the options that is available to you and see if one set of coursework is more appealing than the other. If possible also talk to career placement about what types of opportunities you could get depending on which path you choose.