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If I don't get into business school, I can't major in Business, so I have to major in Economics, which isn't bad at all actually--there's just no way to get an MBA in Berkeley with a major in Economics. An Economics major is based on very similar ideas as a Business major and the average salary is around the same, but it's just the fact that I would be settling that bothers me. Being at a school like Berkeley, it seems like kind of a waste to just graduate with a BA, which is why I am aspiring after Haas so much. If I don't get into Haas here, I'm gonna have to pursue an MBA in all likilihood at SJSU, which umm, no offense to friends in SJSU, is kind of a step down from Berkeley?
...I mean, on a direct scale, these grades only matter for Haas, because if I major in Economicsa good GPA is pretty much irrelevant since it doesn't take much to get a BA
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<p>These statements are erroneous on so many different levels. Let me see if I can enumerate them.</p>
<h1>1 - You can't get an MBA while you're an undergrad. The choice on the table is between getting a BS from Haas or a BA from L&S. The MBA is something you would get later, almost always after having had a few years of work experience. So why fret about it now?</h1>
<p>And just to clear things up, practically nobody gets into the Haas MBA program right after graduating from undergrad, whether that person is graduating from the BS Haas program, or the BA econ program, or from Harvard, or from wherever. Those who do displayed tremendous leadership qualities and/or significant work experience either before or during their undergrad years. See my point #2 below.</p>
<h1>2 - You can absolutely get an MBA after getting a BA in economics from L&S. Plenty of people do so. You can of course also get an MBA after getting a BS in bus-ad. But it's not as if the BS grads have much of an edge over the BA econ grads. In fact, any edge would be negligible. Far far and away the most important determinant of whether you get into a top-flight MBA program is the quality of your work experience. What you actually majored in as an undergrad plays only an indirect role in the sense that what you majored in may influence what kind of job you will get, which will then determine the quality of your work experience. However, any deficiencies in this respect can be easily fixed by such things as summer internships or work co-ops.</h1>
<p>I only know a few people who got into a top-flight MBA program right after undergrad. For example, I know one guy who did it, but as a re-entry student. Basically, this guy went to college but didn't like it, so dropped out to join the military, where he eventually became a decorated member of the Special Forces. When his tour of duty was up, he left the military, went back to college, graduated, and then got immediately got admitted to several elite MBA programs. So this guy, technically speaking, got admitted right after undergrad, but he obviously has a wealth of leadership experience that most of us will never have. </p>
<h1>3 - GPA is absolutely relevant when you're talking about Economics for the simple reason that Econ is an impacted major which means that only those students who do well in Econ requirements are allowed to actually declare the major. While I agree that Haas is probably harder to get into than Econ, the fact is, plenty of people get rejected from BOTH Haas AND Econ.</h1>
<p>The point is, nobody should be so cavalier as to say that grades are irrelevant if you're thinking of becoming an Econ major. </p>
<h1>4 - Is SJSU not as good of a school as Berkeley? Yeah. But hey. Let's not be too cocky here. Just because you go to Berkeley for undergrad does not automatically mean that you're automatically entitled to get into an elite graduate program. If you look at the Career and Graduate Services website of Berkeley, you will notice that plenty of Berkeley grads end up going to no-name grad schools. And some others even apply to no-name grad schools... AND GET REJECTED. And then of course there are still others who don't even manage to graduate at all, either because they drop out, or even worse because they flunk out. Just because you go to Berkeley does not automatically mean that you're going to get a degree.</h1>
<h1>5 - If money really is your thing, I would spend less time obsessing about how to get into Haas, and spend more time trying to set yourself up for a career in investment banking on Wall Street. That means getting summer internships, networking with people, and that sort of thing. Note, you don't need to go to Haas to end up on Wall Street. Wall Street firms hire Berkeley students of all stripes. I personally know several MCB and humanities majors who got Wall Street Ibanking offers.</h1>
<p>The truth is, not everybody at Haas gets a high-paying job. If money is what you really want, then you'd be better off as a humanities major with a bunch of Ibanking offers than be a Haas graduate with no Ibanking offer. </p>
<p>The other way you can go is, obviously try to get into engineering. While obviously engineering salaries can't touch banking money, the fact is, average salaries for several of the engineering disciplines actually exceeds that of Haas. Now of course it is quite difficult to transfer into engineering from L&S, in fact, comparably difficult as getting into Haas. However, the point is that money is really what you want, there are several ways you can go, of which Haas is just one method, and may not even be the most lucrative way.</p>