<p>
No, not really. Santa Cruz is seperated by a mountain range from the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area (a subset of which is “Sillicon Valley”) and principally known for tourism, agriculture and its university. </p>
<p>However, Santa Cruz is within easy driving distance of the Bay Area, which may be convenient when you’re applying for jobs. </p>
<p>^okay for “not really” but… really… it’s well-located for CS. “Bay Area” and “Silicon Valley” are synonymous when seen from Europe.
And certainly much better than Romania (which has excellent engineers, but its issues are economic.) 
I understand that Lionkid wants top-notch universities but, bar admission to, say, HarveyMudd or Stanford, one of the universities I listed would do the job better than his/her current university for a job on the West Coast, right?</p>
<p>Umm, @MYOS1634, where did that CS thing come from. The OP said he’s studying finance/banking.</p>
<p>BTW, to the OP, what are your grades like? Most grads schools do not requite work experience and many PhD programs are funded (through which you can get at least a Masters fairly easily). If your grades are good, that seems more realistic than trying to get a bachelors in the US (in any sort of fashion).</p>
<p>Well, my grades are pretty good especially in my 2nd year.My third year will probably my hardest since I also have a huge project similar to a thesis.
The requirements to get into a good master’s program in the US in my opinion is slightly difficult for me to meet. I have don’t have the relevant work experience nor those “special” EC’s to weigh in. I don’t even know how I will be able to meet those requirements.
Probably it’s too early for me to worry about the future, the only thing i’m in control now is my grades so i’ll make sure I atleast heave the GPA.</p>
<p>You understand that outside of MBA programs, work experience usually is not required?</p>
<p>Does this apply to all graduate school rankings or only at certain rankings?</p>
<p>Apologies. I’m offline and mix some posts evidently… was sure OP was in CS! 
What is crucial for PHD admission is research experience and that can be hard to come by in European universities, even if the thesis is a good start - unfortunately it’d require something more and applying for Fall 2016 since the thesis would likely be defended in 2015?</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 and @Purpletitan I do no wish to pursue a PhD since I don’t plan on becoming a professor.
Is there a site where I can view summer schools from various universities or community service/voluntary programs during summer or winter?</p>
<p>What type of Master’s program are you thinking of?
In the US, many master’s programs are linked to a PHD, but you’re right, there are also many “professional” master’s degrees (to become a teacher, a physical therapist, an engineer, plus the famous MBA) that are “terminal” Masters. Regardless, professional and/or research experience would be expected for most graduate programs.</p>
<p>OP, I fail to see how a second bachelor’s degree in the same field is going to help you at all, unless your Romanian university is basically a diploma mill.</p>
<p>If you want to get an MBA you’d need the work experience regardless of whether you went to a Romanian college or an American one, so transferring/getting a second bachelor’s degree won’t help you.</p>
<p>If you want to get a professional master’s in finance or a related field, most of those programs don’t require any work experience. Some prefer it, and again - that will matter regardless of whether you went to a Romanian college or an American one. For the ones that don’t care, if you’re worried about not being competitive it is not the actual school that makes you non-competitive but your lack of internships and extracurriculars. If that’s the case, the best thing you can do is…get some work experience.</p>
<p>Honestly, it sounds like working in your field for 2-3 years after college sounds like the best and least expensive way to get what you want.</p>
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<p>…not really. If you want to know about summer schools, you can visit individual universities’ websites to see if they have them. I know that NYU has a pretty popular summer school, and I think Wesleyan also has intensive summer classes for both their students and non-students.</p>
<p>As for other kinds of summer programs, try Google searching. It depends on what you want to do.</p>
<p>I see what you mean, but there aren’t really any internships or beginner positions from which I can start.
Thanks for the help though.</p>
<p>LionKid: do you want to stay in finance or work in another field?
I understand why being in the US would help - right now, with a BA, it’s basically impossible to find an actual job in Romania (and many countries in Europe). In the US, in finance especially, there’d be opportunities for internships.
You need to evaluate your odds of getting admitted to a Master’s program from Romania (pretty hard) vs. doing 2 years as an undergraduate in the US then applying for a Master’s program (pretty expensive).</p>
<p>Getting a degree and also a master’s is as easy as applying for a degree in a CC. All you got to do is apply. Problem is romanian degrees aren’t really that respected and aren’t really hard to get. </p>
<p>Let me rephrase “getting admitted to an American Master’s program from Romania (pretty hard) vs. doing 2 years as an undergraduate in the US then applying for a Master’s program (pretty expensive).”
I didn’t think you’d want to stay in Romania for your Master’s degree or you wouldn’t be on this thread :d</p>
<p>You could try transferring (to any American college). Then maybe aim for a Master’s later that.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the advice, I have decided that it’s best for me to finish my studies in Romania. I kind of got used to the idea that it is too late to transfer or do something else about it.
My main reasons I have decided to finish my studies in Romania is because there was a lot of uncertainty regarding acceptance,opportunities and the ability to keep up with the peers from the US.
The other reason is that even though I value education, I also value the money I spend on it - there really isn’t any point in getting a degree if you won’t get anything out of it (at least in my case).</p>
<p>You should go for a MS…</p>