LMU or UC (UCSB/ UCSD)

With the approaching UC SIR deadline, I am still unsure about who to submit a deposit to.
I am leaning towards LMU because of the network and location. I also got in to their Business Entrepreneurship program which seems like a great program. UCSB does not have a business program so my major is Global Studies and I got in to UCSD for International Business but have heard their focus is on science. Thoughts? Experiences?

also price is not a concern since I will receive enough aid from LMU to make the cost about the same

I vote for LMU, since the cost differential is the same.
Their business program will likely offer you more immediate and accessible perks, such as internships
and professor attention. Since you’re a transfer student, it may be easier to connect at a smaller school.

Remember that all of your options are good.
Check out the specific course requirements for each major at each school (requirements can be very different from school to school, even within the UC’s) and determine which of those classes are most appealing to you.

Whichever the school, you’ll get out of it what you put in.

If you ever have any inclination toward accounting, UCSB does have a great accounting program, even better than UCSD or LMU.

@hop Thank you! I visited UCSD’s campus today and it seems that they also have a great program but I still feel that private offers a different kind of classroom environment and network. (I’m not big on the giant lectures.)

@sstranfer . . . absolutely, a small private like LMU “offers a different kind of classroom environment…” I’m not sure about the network thing because it’s not large enough to have a widespread influence. Locally, in the South Bay of LA County, and somewhat in LA itself, there would be connectivity with alumni, but again, it is certainly regionalized.

The thing about class sizes is that the professor has a certain amount of material to get through (in the case of LMU) in a semester. Her office hours will be incredible and there’s a good chance she will be able to teach the class by herself. (I’m bringing forth a gender-specific clause in my writeup, though I’m not in any way invoking PC.) But the last thing she would want is to be slowed down by students who have a lot of questions no matter how small the class. This is the reason why these professors are called lecturers. And this is why medium to large universities gather students in 200-300 seat lecture halls, with a host of TAs assisting. Additionally, the classes for lower division are larger because if there were classes with 75-100 people in three sections, then grade-distribution disparity and class material progression could come into play, etc. But once a student reaches upper division, then students spread out among their major courses and usually only one offering is needed.

And I’m not in anyway trying to dissuade you from attending LMU. It’s a very good university. But I’d be a bit leery of majoring in Entrepreneurship. Minoring, fine, but majoring – I don’t know. You’ll probably do a senior thesis with a business plan, but unless you have something in mind, an innate or taught skill in which to engage, then I’m not sure I’d go that route. If you have a lot of capital, fine, then be a serial entrepreneur and start many businesses, and fund others’ projects. Workshops, otherwise, are probably good enough to clue a person into starting his or her or their own bus, because you’re undoubtedly bright enough to do a self-study in the matter.

Best of luck.

@firmament2x I live in and love LA so that network would suffice. (I haven’t heard from USC yet which would be my top choice.) I am also a junior transfer so almost all my general education should be complete.
Interesting take on the Entrepreneurship program. I hadn’t thought about employment from that major that way. I am quite entrepreneurial minded and have started small businesses so I thought that the major would be interesting. Do you think that the Entrepreneurship degree would impact future employment compared to their Finance, Management or Marketing programs? They only have a Business Administration Minor.

@sstranfer . . . you’re already an entrepreneur because you’ve already started your own businesses, and you’d be mainly studying it because of self-interest. This sounds like you’re transferring to a four-year mainly to earn a sheepskin. And you’re doing this maybe to appease your parents or maybe as a fallback in case your businesses don’t immediately become profitable. But if the latter is the case, then why not obtain a skill in case you need to be employed while waiting or to help your businesses’ survivability? As you questioned, stated or inferred, studying finance, management, and/or marketing would help you in for both, because, again, the study of entrepreneurship isn’t helping you produce a marketable skill. Since LMU’s website on the program mentions Silicon Beach, wouldn’t it be better rather to study CS or Engineering if you wanted to create a startup in the area? How, would Entrepreneurship help you there?

Many forget that start-ups, while requiring the technical skills (CS & Engineering) to fulfill the brief of the company, must also be run as the businesses they are, or be relegated to the scrap heap. Good ideas and solid CS/Engineering can fall fast without knowledgeable, supporting business systems.

Someone at the company must be familiar with solid business practices, which include reporting to early investors, creating business plans for new investors, then the day-to-day mechanics (including HR, payroll/benefits, taxes) and any legal ramifications, including hiring lawyers to protect copyright and intellectual property interests.

Sounds like a Business degree to me.

My take is that schools such as LMU, Babson and others who emphasize their Entrepreneurship qualities,
are riding a tech trend wave and working to factor in new student interests to already established programs.

If you look at the courses on offer for those majors, you’ll see that they are very close to a regular business or Global business majors. Meaning regardless of what the major is called, when selecting a school, the most important thing is to be sure you carefully inspect the required courses, determining if these are classes that will advance your skill set or not.

@sstransfer, be sure to let us know what the final result is.

@hop . . . if LMU prepares a student for much of what you state in your second paragraph within its entrepreneurial program, then it does well. But this sounds like an employee; maybe this was what OP meant when referencing employment in his post #6. I didn’t consider that someone who would study this at LMU would seek such a position within a company – fledgling or established – but rather to be his or her own boss.

I’m sure too, though, that the incubators, those who supply seed money, etc., will be mentoring the student/graduate/dropout (hopefully not the last) all throughout, including that he or she will be starting out really small. Once established, then he or she could bring those on board who can run the everyday parts of the business that you stated in your second paragraph.

Thank you both for your input! I do want to be self-employed throughout my life however I believe we all have to start somewhere to learn and work our way up. I would hope to gain the business skill set to do both (entrepreneurship and employment qualities) with my degree.

@firmament2x Just re-read what I wrote earlier and it sounds like a pointed jab at your post, which was not at all intended. Sorry. No disrespect intended.

What I did intend, is to say that it take a range of skills for a successful start-up, including business.

Any ‘entrepreneurship’ major is intended to enhance and educate those seeking a business major, providing the business skill sets to allow them to start and/or run their own businesses at some point - tech or otherwise.
Whether it achieves what it intends can be another story.

My ham-fisted attempt to define academic success for an ‘entrepreneurship’ major, was meant to say that it’s predicated on the departmental course offerings and requirements of the individual school(s), coupled with how well those align with student goals and motivation.

Most interested in business are likely not to be the same students who would gravitate toward CS/Engineering,
although UC Berkeley does have a specific major for exactly that - M.E.T.
https://met.berkeley.edu/
https://met.berkeley.edu/admissions/

Again, I’m sorry if I sounded harsh or flippant.

I just found out I didn’t get into USC, my original first choice. So I will accept Cornell’s SHA offer. Surprised by my acceptances but still grateful to have such great options.

@hop . . . trust me, you were not harsh or flippant but you were extremely informational and undoubtedly very helpful to the OP.

@sstranfer . . . congrats on Cornell; wow, that was out of the blue. I was just looking at its placement, excellent.

@firmament2x Thank you! I guess I fit what they were looking for. I am nervous to move to the east coast to such a small town and also about the rigor of classes there coming from a community college. Ultimately, I am so excited to receive such a highly regarded education, especially coming from community.

@sstransfer . . . of the Ivies, Cornell and Columbia appear to be the ones most readily accepting of community-college xfers. I bet that you’ll do well. Best of luck.