<p>Hello everyone, long time lurker first time poster...</p>
<p>Well here's a little background on myself, I'm a 25 year old male student who has taken several years off of school for various reasons. </p>
<p>Long story short, I got accepted into UCSD for economics @ muir but from my understanding their program is extremely theoretical and not practical for anything besides research and/or teaching positions. I'm thinking about withdrawing my admission from UCSD and attending CSUF's business admin program w/ an accounting focus. All things considered, I'd be able to meet the educational requirements to take the CPA exam within 3 years...but i'm still on the fence about it...</p>
<p>UCSD is highly ranked and well known, but i'm not sure if the "recognition" is worth the gamble of graduating with lots of academic theory and very few work place applications. </p>
<p>CSUF is AACSB accredited and upon completion of their admin program I'd be eligible to take the new CPA exam and meet california's new education requirements (150+ semester hours or BA + Masters) but CSUF isn't a "name brand" like many UC's are. </p>
<p>CSUF's program will take me nearly an extra year to complete, but it will offer additional accreditation, (CPA IF i pass the exam) </p>
<p>I'm an older student, so I want to choose the best route with the highest probability of financial security and stability. </p>
<p>I am much more of a "people" person with excellent communication skills but from what i've been hearing, both fields are expecting individuals to posses excellent "soft skills" </p>
<p>Economics is much more broad and can be used to apply to several different positions but i am worried about UCSD's reputation treating economics purely as a social science rather than a business degree.</p>
<p>ANY help or opinions would be much appreciated! </p>
<p>In a nutshell UCSD Economics (much like all economics degrees) is theoretical. In terms of a job that means you’ll be basically working with prestige/connections/your personality. An accounting degree is a hard skill, so you are sacrificing prestige for nice safety net. If you are really worried about a job I would suggest CSUF Accounting. The Big 4 accounting firms do recruit from there. </p>
<p>I think CSUF’s Business Administration w/ an Accounting focus will be in your best interest. Their program sounds to suit your interests more than UCSD’s Economics program. Did you already submit your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) to UCSD? That’s pretty early lol </p>
<p>@bomerr thanks for the honest advice, do you think doing well in CSUF look more impressive than doing mediocre at UCSD? i’m not too sure how well i would do in such an academic enviroment</p>
<p>@ocnative i did already submit my SIR to UCSD, lol you could prob guess i was beyond excited when i found out i got accepted. </p>
<p>I did awful in high school so making it to such a well known university was definitely an accomplishment in my book. </p>
<p>I know CSUF would have more job security, but in the long run will a degree from UCSD be worth more? Basically i’m worried that if i go to CSUF with the hopes of getting recruited for a big 4 i might be disappointed w/ my recruitment possibilities and job prospects. </p>
<p>a little background info, my gpa is 3.67 overall, not including this semester if i go to CSUF my gpa transfers w/ me @ 70 units so that gives me a bit of a buffer in terms of GPA requirements for recruitment opportunities. </p>
<p>if i go to UCSD my gpa resets and i’m worried that i will be stuck w/ a terrible GPA if i cant perform well in UCSD. </p>
<p>decisions, decisions…i feel like this is one of the most important decisions i’ve been faced w/ my entire life!!!</p>
<p>I would personally tell you to focus on the most important thing. The curriculum. Idk how UCSD is but at UCLA, UCB, and UCSB less half of the economics transfers actually actually declare the Economics Major. People go into Economics thinking it’s Business, the classes are hard, realize it’s a capped major, fail to get the GPA requirement for entry, realize they don’t actually love economics, then switch to some other major. Which would you prefer, Econometrics + Game Theory, etc. or Accounting + Marketing, etc.? The Economics and Business Curriculums are incredibly different. </p>
<p>and no getting a worse gpa at UCSD won’t help it, it’ll actually hurt you because you just wasted the only advantage the school has, prestige. </p>
<p>If you want some background on me, I only applied to 1 economics program, UCLA. I didn’t think doing economics anywhere else made sense compared to business. </p>
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