I am majoring in Economics and thinking of minoring in either stats or CS. SDSU is offering me basically a full ride while UCSD would cost about 17-19k per year. (We have savings and I will be working during college and summers so I will likely graduate with only about 20-25k of debt)
I am interested in research and especially internship oportunities. I am also interested in graduate school.
I would definetly prefer to go to UCSD but I feel like it would be foolish to pass up the savings at SDSU.
Prestige only matters for the first job interview and then after that employers just look at your job experience. So i would say SDSU cause you would be practically debt free. But if you prefer UCSD because of the campus, location, and atmosphere, then follow your heart. Be where you will be happy.
Go with SDSU and save money!
Oh yeah, and definitely UCSD if you’re looking for research opportunities. No doubt about it
UCSD economics is more math-based (i.e. better for pre-PhD study), though in either case, you will want to take more advanced math (e.g. real analysis, upper division proof-based linear algebra) and statistics (e.g. calculus-based upper division probability theory and statistics). UCSD also has a joint major in economics and math.
However, at UCSD, math and economics are capacity-limited majors.
https://www.math.ucsd.edu/~handbook/undergraduate/cappedstatus/
https://economics.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/entry-to-the-majors.html
CS is also capacity-limited, and extremely difficult to get into if not directly admitted as frosh.
https://cse.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/cse-capped-major-status
SDSU economics is moderately impacted, while math and computer science appear not to be impacted enough to need a GPA higher than 2.0 to change into there.
http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/transfers/gpa.html
For capacity-limited or impacted majors, do not expect to be able to enroll easily in upper division courses if you are not in the major, since the courses will be filled up by students in the majors who have top priority for them.
The cost/debt consideration obviously favors SDSU.
@ucbalumnus do you think that the higher potential career earnings / internship opportunities at UCSD would make up for the cost?
Unfortunately, neither UCSD nor SDSU has career survey information by major for public access on its web site. You will have to ask their career centers directly for economics-major-specific career survey results and hope they have some to share with you.
If you intend to go on to PhD study in economics, you may want to ask some economics departments if UCSD versus SDSU matters to them in PhD program admissions, assuming that you take additional upper division math and statistics courses as well as economics courses. Whether they will tell much useful information is something you may have to find out by asking.
SDSU has a huge alumni network, especially in their School of Business.
The internships are up and down the state.
You can’t beat SDSU for the networking, activities, and access to CS.
My husband’s company prefers CSU candidates because they tend to have more real “internship” experience.
The label of UCSD won’t necessarily give you more career earnings overall. Where did you get that information? My husband is a product of Stanford graduate school in engineering. His manager, same major, is a CSU SLO graduate. His manager makes a lot more money in salary and stock options.