If you apply as an Economics major, you will be considered as an Economics major. AOs have plenty to do other than trying to delve into ulterior motives, concluding that you “really” plan to be a CS Major. There’s no need to “convince” them.
should I apply CS and plan to transfer out
If you don’t want to be a CS major, don’t apply as a CS major.
OP, go apply for Econ + Mgmt at Oxford. You have the scores, you should do fine on the TSA, it won’t occur to them that you want to do CS, there’s a direct line to IB in the City, and plenty of “wine, women & song”.
But- you need to get your skates on- applications close Oct 15, by which time you need to have figured out how to write a personal statement and registered for the TSA, and you have to find a way to take the TSA on Nov. 4.
If money is what motivates you and you’re confident of your intellect and skills, aren’t you aiming too low? Isn’t IB too much work for too little pay at least in the first couple of years, leaving you too tired and with too little time to enjoy “wine, women, and song”? There’s a world of HF where they actually work more normal hours and bring home more dough. And they may hire more math and CS majors than econ majors.
This is true. FWIW here’s a twitter thread of advice for someone aiming for top 10 Econ PhD programs to major in math and skip most of undergrad econ. https://twitter.com/AnthonyLeeZhang/status/1364233645112913925?s=20
Although a pre-PhD economics student probably wants to take the intermediate economics and econometrics courses during undergraduate to check interest in the subject. Obviously, math-heavy versions would be better. Advanced math and statistics are obviously highly desirable.
Here are some recommendations from an economics department:
Yes but I think the path (per that twitter account) has the student jumping ahead in the economics sequence, doing research for econ faculty in year 2 or 3, and taking one or more graduate level econ class by senior year to signal strong econ interest. This all assumes of course that the student starts college knowing they are aiming for this path, and that they want to go straight to grad school without doing some sort of pre-doc position. Anyway I just linked to it in support of the idea that someone aiming for an econ PhD has to signal very strong math skills. My D is in an econ PhD program and did not follow this path, but majored in econ and minored in math and CS and did a 2 year RA position.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m thinking Cambridge and LSE right now. I figure Cambridge is my best shot at an elite university, and LSE is (I hope) my firewall. Perhaps I am too pessimistic about my chances, but Asian male.
In any case, I have already written my UCAS personal, and the TSA looks doable.
LSE is not notably easier admit than Oxford or Cambridge for a US student (esp for apps that come in by 15 Oct- ie, clearly the candidate is also applying to Oxbridge). I would fancy your odds, but I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it. UCL is your firewall. Luckily it’s all the same app.
Cambridge is upfront about being more reluctant to accept Americans than Oxford
The TSA is for Oxford- the Econ test for Cambridge is the ECAA. You can only apply to Ox OR 'Bridge (not both).
Get over the “poor me Asian male” thing. There are other demographics that are at least as challenged as yours.
Agreed with post above re. LSE - especially for econ and as an American your chances of getting in are not any better than Oxbridge. Have a close friend who did Cambridge econ who got rejected from LSE, and that’s pretty common given that this is LSE’s flagship.
As collegemom3717 said, UCL is your firewall - although not as guaranteed being a foreign student versus a Brit. Would also apply to Warwick (arguably better econ programme than UCL, and very well targeted for city jobs) and maybe look into MORSE there (an amazing course that combines maths/econ/stats/computing with exceptional job placement) too.