<p>My long term goal: go to grad school and get some sort of masters in finance/financial engineering/computational finance...etcetc; maybe get a front office job....</p>
<p>My choices are:
1. haas
2. econ + math
3. econ + applied math</p>
<p>any comments would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>hass is difficult to get into, doubling in econ and math is also very difficult unless you seem to enjoy math a great deal. my suggestion is to just take econ and do very well in that rathering than doubling and killing yourself later</p>
<p>If your long term goal is finance, i'd just take up econ. Economics will provide a good grounding as far as understanding monetary policy and how it affects the rates at which you borrow money. Most professionals don't actually invest their own money and its good to stay ontop of the current rates so you can borrow money and invest it yourself. I mean, of course, you'll invest portions of your income. But the big picture involves investing other people's money such as starting an investment firm etc. I'm majoring in economics to do just that. However, I'm planning to get a double in grad school. Engineering and operations management. Technology companies are my passion. So I want to build up one before I go and retire as an investor.</p>
<p>As the poster said above, Haas is difficult to get into. I'd have an alternative just to make sure. There's only about 100 spots available each year and with over 1000 students applying to Haas, there's some stiff competition. Remember this is business school, they don't want to see that you can lead ASB, its work experience that matters. From rumor on this board, nearly 500 applicants are disqualified immediately as they turn in their applications because they do not meet the assist.org qualifications. So I mean, there's still a good chance you can get accepted if you have completed all the requirements and maintain a gpa well above 3.8. Otherwise, i'd say its a fighting chance.</p>
<p>The first two things is to maintain that gpa and finish those required courses. Next is extra ciriculars and personal statement. There are tons of students that don't get admitted because they haven't finished their assist premajor reqs or don't have 60 transferrable units by spring prior to transfer.</p>
<p>hmm how about we ignore the admissions part. pretend that for some bizzare reason berkeley offers an applicant those choices. Which one would be more beneficial if the applicant has the same goals I have?</p>
<p>Well this is a college admissions website. Lol, sorry I kind of got off track and went with the previous poster.</p>
<p>Take a look at some of the courses and decide for yourself if there are courses that will go with your intended industry. I mean, finance is a large umbrella of investments. Do you plan to invest in the public stock market? Real estate? Bonds, treasury notes? etc etc etc</p>
<p>What is it that you want to do specifically?</p>
<p>Well ideally I'd like to be a prop trader but that's a few years down the road. I want to go to grad school (if I can't get a good job out of undergrad). I've heard that grad schools prefer traditional majors over technical majors; I just want to get more verification on that. Also, Haas doesn't have that many finance courses for undergrads, compared to e.g. Stern and Wharton. I'm thinking maybe a more liberal art-ish degree will be better in the long run? or perhaps the Haas degree is worth more?</p>
<p>If a job right out of undergrad school is truly your goal. I'd go with a more technical degree(applied theory). Don't choose a school just because of its brand value. I mean, going to Haas will get you a job somewhere nice. But is it the job you really want? Of course, a masters in finance will get you where you want to go. I'd honestly go with an undergrad degree in economics. Economics will provide you with a good grounding in, yet again, monetary policy. And that will help you out a lot. Remember, finance isn't all the hoi poloi the press makes it out to be. Most people start with nothing and borrow money from other people. You need to know when to predict a good time to borrow money and pay it back. That's where economics comes into play. So unless you've already got a million saved up in the bank, i'd try to find out when is a good time to borrow and pay back money.</p>
<p>If graduate school is ultimately your long term goal. I'd just take the easiest route to a graduate degree. Economics is an easy major(for me) versus engineering. Graduate admissions is contingent on high gpa, test scores(gre), and work experience. Try to find the school that you'll do well at, have good internship opportunities, and the ability to stay ontop of studies. Ucla and berkeley are those schools(if you want to stay in the public system). Then there's schools such as stanford, usc etc.</p>
<p>I Like Pie Do You Like Pie?!?!?!</p>
<p>...no one else has any thoughts?</p>
<p>lostincode, if you say your long term goal is to go to grad school, then I would advise you to major in Econ at Berkeley. Grad schools look at 2 things: 1) the school you went to, and 2) your GPA. In the long run, your major is not contingent upon X grad school admission. I know of English majors at Berkeley who have landed jobs at top firms. Major doesn't matter; it's your grades and school that matters. Hope this helped.</p>
<p>whats the dif between math and applied math?</p>
<p>math is like.. pure math
applied math deals with applications in sciences and whatnot</p>
<p>and I've decided to do math/econ instead of haas.. thanks for the comments!</p>