Hi!
My top three schools currently are UCSD, UCSB, and Chapman.
At Chapman, I am a business major, and then at the UC schools, I am an Economics major. I am still pretty undecided on my career path so I want to keep it broad. I want to study abroad and also get my master’s at a different school.
Please please please give me advice! What should I choose?
Well we don’t know what your costs are, etc.
So econ is a social science. It’s theory based, etc. although I think UCSB offers an accounting track in Econ.
Business school will be pre professional - marketing, finance, operations, Chapman’s econ program is in the B school which isn’t typical.
So it depends on what you want to study - business or econ.
As far as study abroad, you can do that from anywhere (just about) and typically a Master’s if you’re thinking business (MBA) - your major doesn’t matter (so doesn’t have to be one of these - I was journalism/history) and you’ll need two years plus work experience to get into a school that would be worth your investment.
Figure out if you want business (where you’ll take classes like accounting, finance, marketing, org behavior) or econ - which will be theory.
Once you decide that, if you want more general and it’s econ - well you can do that at Chapman too…
So is cost an issue? If so, use that - but then visit all three (they’re close enough) and see which “talks” to you.
If you want business, then Chapman it is.
So in this case, it’s less about the school and more about what you want to study as a first cut.
Good luck.
Thank you!
With FA the costs are all about the same. The tricky thing is I do not know what I want to study. I like investment banking along with finance. Although I have also been thinking about engineering.
What is a "b"school?
And also I have toured all three and am still lost. Campus wise I like UCSB and Chapman. They feel like a community.
OK - so eliminate UCSD.
B school is business school.
I think the tricky thing is changing majors. Let’s say you want to transfer into engineering, can you?
But if that’s a possibility, then UCSB for sure - because it’s strong relative to Chapman.
But can you transfer in - see attached.
I’d be partial to UCSB but my guess is it’s harder to change majors than at Chapman - but this is what you should research.
Change of Major into College of Engineering | College of Engineering - UC Santa Barbara (ucsb.edu)
At a UC such as UCSB it is going to be almost impossible for many students to decide they want to change into engineering. Not because of grades and limited space, but because they’ll run out of time. The most realistic way to switch to engineering is to enter college planning on changing and starting right away on the required classes to apply for a change. Then, if you don’t make it, pick another major or transfer.
A glance at the required classes shows they include year-long sequences. So if you spend frosh year mulling it over and then decide to go for it soph year then by the time you’ve taken the required classes and can apply to change majors you’ll be entering junior year. You may not have enough units left as an undergrad to complete an engineering major.
Thank you!
A transfer (if wanted) seems challenging but possible. I will most likely choose UCSB. I know someone there who started as an econ major, transferred to physics, then graduated in mech engineering.
Thank you. I will consider this. If I knew what I wanted to do I would apply for a transfer immediately.