<p>I got into Berkeley for Fall 2011 as a History major, but am considering withdrawing so that I can spend another year at CCC and go for Haas.</p>
<p>I applied to UCB with History because I planned to do law, in which case the only thing that matters is getting a good GPA and LSAT. Lately, however, a couple of factors have made this more complicated:
1. Since taking accounting classes and researching it, i've become increasingly certain that if I do law, i'll want to focus on tax law.
2. My family finances just got a lot more complicated and going to a UC next year instead of right now isn't required, but would be beneficial.
3. I'm not as certain that I want to do law as a long-term career anymore, especially since the legal industry is basically in ruins and it looks like we could be heading toward a double-dip recession that would harm it even more. A little more flexibility would be nice.</p>
<p>A big question, of course, is whether I could get in.
As of right now, i've been in CCC for two years and have completed around 70 units. I currently have a 4.0, but need a bunch of pre-reqs: calc 1, calc 2, econ 1, econ 2, intro to business, stat, and one more breadth. I checked my CCC schedule and I can get into all of them except calc 2 (since calc 1 is the pre-req) and the last breadth (though I could probably add in since my priority is maxed out). I am confident that I can get an A in all of those classes except maybe calc 2. I also have some good, though non-business related, EC's: tons of leadership at my college, a political internship, some other stuff, and national and state-level awards and recognition as a result. </p>
<p>I'm not sure if there are complications with withdrawing this late.
What do you guys think? Should I try to stick it out another year or two in CCC or should I just try to break into business/law with a liberal arts major?</p>
<p>I’m not very knowledgable in this area but what I can say is that we’re not headed for a double dip recession and if you go to a top law school you should be fine. You’ll only have problems if you go to middle/low ranked law schools.</p>
<p>So you want to be an accountant now? I don’t think you’ll get into haas though with so many prereqs left by the end of fall. Financial stuff should never be a factor for getting into a UC. If you’re poor you get grants. If you’re middle class, an in-stater UC education is cheap. Breaking into law as a history major is very viable so don’t think going to haas will significantly boost your law school admissions. Law school = lsat + high gpa.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d just stick with history. The opportunity cost of wasting another year is horrible. As the above poster said, take accounting classes on the side and you can still apply to big 4 accounting firms as a history major from cal.</p>
<p>@avatarmage
Not quite true. One of my relatives is doing BigLaw OCI right now from a top 5 law school. He said it’s been a massacre for a lot of people he knows that have middle-of-the-pack grades or lower.</p>
<p>@Investment
I’d only have 1, at the most 2, prereqs left by the end of fall that I would be doing in the Spring. Is that still enough to disqualify me?</p>
<p>Financial stuff is a factor because i’m not quite poor and i’m not securely middle class. So going to a UC is not cheap (unless you mean relative to privates) and I won’t be getting enough in the way of grants and other financial aid to make much of a difference.</p>
<p>If money allows, you’d better stick with Berkeley. Because you don’t know if you will get accepted again next year, even if you get 4.0 GPA as a transfer. You just don’t know</p>
<p>Think of career as a long term investment. Complete a degree at Berkeley, with good grades you can apply for the top schools for whatever your major will be at that time (people changes major all the time). For now, you still can use all of your CC units to fulfill GE and lower division requirements. You will graduate a year or 2 years early . Bang, that saves you a lot of money too
my 2 cents</p>
<p>As posters have said, Hass is incredibly hard to get into and waiting another year would make it even tougher. If I were you and your finances permit it, I’d finish up my undergad in History at UCB, take the acct and math classes on the side, and shoot for a top grad school. </p>
<p>The trouble with taking math and accounting classes on the side at Cal is that if you’re used to the liberal arts classes then maintaining a high GPA in those courses might be difficult, which is obviously bad for law school. All I can say is that I’ve researched law school and nearly everyone believes that you should really WANT to be a lawyer to go to law school. I personally am in a similar dilemma as you. Recently, I was thinking back on how much I really loved chemistry but now I’m transferring to UCLA to get my BA in English. Lucky for me, I’m in love with English. However, in your case, unless you truly love history OR truly want to be a lawyer. I say go back and do what you really want. CC is super cheap and I think if you can maintain your GPA and pick up relevant EC’s then you can be able to get into Haas and other good schools as well. </p>
<p>Good luck with everything I know it’s incredibly stressful!</p>
<p>I do not think you should spend at least one and maybe two more years at a CCC for the chance to transfer to Hass, which is far from a sure thing even if you can maintain a high GPA. Remember you are only applying for a bachelors level program and most employers tend to see a BS in Business as a commodity and do not pay that much more for graduates of high prestige programs. According to statistics posted by UCBalumnus the average starting salary for Haas graduates in 2010 was a very respectable $57,000 but that is not a great deal more than their counterparts down the road at SJSU who had an average starting salary of $51,200.</p>
<p>Where the really big money is and the prestige of the program is critical is graduating from an MBA program. While the top companies recruit at the bachelor level in Business at a large number of schools and pay them all about the same, they only recruit MBAs from maybe the ten most prestigious programs in the country (Harvard, MIT Sloan, Wharton, Dartmouth and Stanford mainly) and start them at six figure salaries with a lot of up-side potential.</p>
<p>If I were you I would go to UCB now, get a BA in History while trying to take some business related courses at the same time, work for a couple of years to get experience and then apply to one of top MBA programs if you are really serious about Business.</p>
<p>From what i’ve researched and heard about, this is reasonably representative of almost all law schools except the top 14. Even among the top 14, the only ones that come anywhere near guaranteeing a job that’ll pay back loans in a reasonable amount of time are Yale/Harvard/Stanford.</p>
<p>This isn’t a complete deterrent since I definitely think I could get into a T-14 and possibly even YHS, but it definitely leaves me wanting more options.</p>
<p>It’s ironic that among my close friends/family, most of them are advising I go another year at CCC; but on here it’s an almost unanimous “go to Berkeley now.”</p>
<p>This is a really tough decision for me and I really do appreciate this input and discussion. It’s giving me a lot of opinions I wouldn’t otherwise be getting.</p>
<p>That basically is the reality of a law degree in this day and age. There are more and more law schools but not nearly enough law position for those lawyers.</p>
<p>If your not T-14 It’s a rough road ahead for ya. 100k+ in debt and working a 50k paying job is worse than someone making 20 a hour in a 9-5.</p>
<p>If you are willing to try for a competitive major at UC Berkeley and are looking for a high starting salary with just a BS, the Engineering school is where you should be applying to. UC Berkeley graduates with bachelors degrees in Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering had an average starting salary of $73,045 last year. For SJSU graduates with bachelor’s degrees the figures were $63,207 for Electrical Enineering, $70,850 for Computer Engineering and $75,334 for Software Engineering.</p>
<p>A few observations: Due to their proximity and close ties to Silicon Valley, both UCB and SJSU graduates probably do better than the national average in these fields. For somone who is currently a Liberal Arts major a minimum of two more years of CCC would be needed to take the Math and Physics courses required to transfer as an Engineering major. If you are not applying from within their service area, it is probably more difficult to transfer to SJSU as an Engineering major than it is to get into UCB College of Engineering as a transfer student.</p>
<p>major in history, minor in accounting. If you can’t get into the accounting courses during the year, take them during the summer, INCLUDING THIS SUMMER.</p>
<p>Your goals should be
1 high GPA
2 get a CPA</p>
<p>most top businesses are GPA/prestige whores. B able to say that you graduated from the top of your class from a respectable university. I can’t speak for HAAS, but UC Irvine’s accounting minor is only 7 classes. Most employers will see that you have a relevant minor and consider you fine. Just be involved in business related courses, join the accounting association or something.</p>
I know it’s incredibly stressful!</p>