<p>Let's say you're applying at one of the top business schools, but you don't feel you'd have the credentials to compete with the other 10,000 applicants applying for those 1,700 spots for the business school.</p>
<p>Is it worth applying for a very uncommon and unpopular major just to get IN to the school, and then transferring to the business school?</p>
<p>YES!! Not just to get into the school, but also to get departmental scholarships. Not all departments offer scholarships to incoming freshman so do your research, but generally…the more mundane the better. For example, “Forestry” is more likely to give out scholarships to incoming freshman than marketing. You don’t even have to know squat about Forestry and you definitely don’t have to stick with it.</p>
<p>NO! If you want to go to a top business school, you better apply business. Most of the top business schools accept little to no internal transfers.</p>
<p>So if you want to get into one of the top top top business schools, but don’t feel like you stand a chance because the average scores are ridiculous, it’s better to apply for some unknown major and then to transfer into the business program?</p>
<p><strong><em>EDIT</em></strong>
Didn’t see your post bdl108.</p>
<p>Well first off, is it a 4 year business school?</p>
<p>BaddyCaddy, bdl has a point. What I said works for any school except Top 20 programs in what you’re wanting to study. If it’s business, I promise my plan will work and you simply internally transfer UNLESS it’s a Top 20 program. No chance then.</p>
<p>^Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Most of the universities with “top top top” business programs are highly selective to begin with. Applying with a bs major to a top school will get you rejected outright, and even if you manage to get accepted, your chance of internally transferring to the business school will be next to none.</p>
<p>Just apply for the major you want to pursue. Generally if you apply for a major that you have absolutely no interest in you will probably get rejected because your clubs extracurricular activities will not reflect it.</p>
<p>To be honest I don’t think college admissions people are that intuitive, but I could be wrong. I always thought of it as bein up against a machine! haha</p>
<p>OSU is mistaken. There are many, many places well below the top 20 where this would not work. It doesn’t even work at many 4th tier schools such as the CSUs.</p>
<p>That’s just one of those things where my only response is “suuure…if you say so.” Everybody is going to be steadfast in saying their university would never let someone get away with that, but come on, really now. If you go to a non top-20 school, which includes a lot of respectable schools, you’re going to change your major at least once or twice, and it’s common. Might as well plan on getting some finaid out of it, while you’re at it.</p>
<p>OSU, if only what you say were true, but it’s just not at many, many schools. Majors such as business and engineering are nearly impossible to transfer into at more schools than not. There are schools, one is Cal Poly and I’m sure there are more, that even have it written that if you did not have the grades to get in when you applied you can never transfer in. At many schools these majors are the hardest to get into. If you could easily transfer why wouldn’t everyone lie?</p>
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<p>Huh? Why?</p>
<p>Well, if you like sacrificing your integrity and don’t have much confidence, sure.</p>
<p>hmom, I didn’t say it would compensate for your own poor academic performance. I suggested it as a means of racking up departmental aid while you’re just getting your gen ed courses, like math for non math majors. There’s no way for you to deny that switching majors happens frequently at almost every university, but I hope you don’t think that I am as stupid and naive as to believe people can switch into a prestigious major just to bypass admissions. If your grades suck then you won’t have very many options no matter where you go, but if your grades are good or decent, your options are always open.</p>
<p>I can see you’re a very by-the-book kind of person that looks down on people that bend rules and do whatever they want.</p>
<p>No OSU, I’ve just been around the block a few times and seen many kids fail at trying to get in through back doors. I’m all for back doors if they work. But letting kids think it’s easy to change majors at many schools gets them into trouble. It’s actually the top schools where it can be easy, but many state schools are just big, ugly beauracracies that make everything difficult. I’m just hoping kids do their research before ending up in a major they don’t want with little hope of getting the one they do.</p>
<p>I went to Wharton, I could have switched to any other major at Penn, but only a few very high GPA kids at Penn can make the switch to Wharton. My nephew wanted to switch to engineering at a lower ranked UC. No way was what he faced. A friend’s son wanting business at a SUNY. No. Another friend finding out she will never be eligible for the business school at Cal Poly because she didn’t have the grades 3 years ago when she applied despite a 3.8 now. Summmer NYU intern, no hope at Stern in spite of his brilliance and great job history…</p>
<p>OSU , what you don’t understand is that a school only has a certain number of student slots; for example, say that a prestigious business school has classes of 800 students. Some business schools select an entering class of 800 students, and can’t admit transfers in to the program (internal or external transfers) unless students drop out of the program.</p>
<p>Some schools favor internal transfers and some schools favor external transfers, whether from 2 year programs or from other universities. On the other hand, some schools admit a class of 700 with the expectation of taking in an additional 100 students from internal or external transfers.</p>
<p>And it must be understood that to be able to transfer in to the business major, it is usually required that the student have completed all of the necessary prerequisite courses–both gen eds and business-specific; for example, some schools require students who want to transfer in to the business program to have completed calculus and statistics classes,etc., and often require them to be business stats or business calc–it may be difficult for a non-major to get the required classes because the classes are filled first by the business majors.</p>
<p>Going in the front door is the better strategy, because sometimes the back door is locked and you won’t have the key.</p>
<p>Straight up no.</p>