Hi folks, I’m a high school senior who’s choosing between whether to go to UCSB or Virginia Tech next year. My major which I’ve been accepted for at each of these schools is accounting. I personally prefer Virginia Tech over UCSB, however there’s a reason as to why I’m torn on whether or not I should go to UCSB instead of Virginia Tech, and that’s because of UCSB’s greater overall reputation/name than Virginia Tech’s.
I like Virginia Tech better because of the fact that their accounting program and college of business (which UCSB actually doesn’t have a college of business at all, a major drawback for me) are as a whole much stronger than UCSB’s. The accounting program at Virginia Tech is among the best in the nation, and the business school is very well rounded and seems to provide a huge amount of potential with internship/career related programs. In addition, after visiting both campuses and researching student organizations at each college online, Virginia Tech feels to me like a place where I will fit in better and be happier as a whole than UCSB (although at the end of the day I’m sure I would be perfectly happy at either school). I’m from California, and due to the high cost of tuition here and the financial aid I’ve received at Virginia Tech, the cost to go to Virginia Tech would only be a bit more expensive than UCSB, so cost isn’t a huge factor for me.
Despite feeling as though Virginia Tech is where I belong and being interested in accounting and the business school there, I’m worried about the possibility that I’ll get to Virginia Tech and change my mind about wanting to be in the business school, and end up switching into a different program that’s potentially not as good as it’s equivalent at UCSB which wouldn’t have costed as much to begin with. (I’m guessing most of UCSB’s programs are stronger than Virginia Tech’s due to UCSB’s prestige, however I haven’t verified this for anything but engineering, which to my surprise is actually stronger at Virginia Tech.) I also worry about the possibility of me wanting to go to graduate or professional (like law or medical school) school after college. I haven’t ever been interested in going to graduate or professional school after earning a bachelor’s degree, but of course it’s possible I could change my mind once in college, and from there I worry that it may be more difficult to get into a graduate or professional school from Virginia Tech due to it not having the same recognition of being prestigious as UCSB. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve heard name recognition is extremely important in admissions for these types of schools.
To put it simply, my two questions are: Would being in a non-business major at Virginia Tech that’s potentially not as well recognized of a program as it’s UCSB counterpart be a major issue or hinderance to me in the long run, so much so that I should go to UCSB instead of Virginia tech just to avoid this possibility? And, would trying to enter a graduate or professional school from Virginia Tech be significantly more difficult to the point that I should go to UCSB instead?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!