Please give my son advice to help him decide on Cal or Cal Poly SLO. He wants to work in financial markets/stock trading. He was accepted to Cal on Friday off the waitlist for the college of Letters and Science. He was previously accepted to Cal Poly SLO for finance. He would like to go to Haas, but must start Cal as undeclared L&S, applying to Haas sophomore year. Haas had a 37% accept rate for undergrad Cal students last year, so it’s not a very sure thing. If he didn’t get into Haas, he would try to get into Econ, but that major is also impacted Cal, letting is just over 50% of applicants. Next fallback major would be Political Economy or something like that. He may want to go to grad school to get a MBA.
Cal Pros:
Haas undergrad’s have high marketability without graduate degree
Both Haas and Econ majors have higher avg. starting salary than Cal Poly SLO finance majors
Better name recognition nationally
Pac 12 football games
Vibrant area (Bay Area)
Cal Cons:
Cost $10K/year more than Cal Poly
No finance major
Low chances of getting into Haas
Fiercely competitive school and classes
Will probably end up with lower GPA than Cal Poly, hurting grad school options
Few good major options if not admitted to Haas or Econ
Cal Poly Pros:
Has a finance major and already accepted to it
Probably get a better GPA allowing better grad school options
Can use extra $$ not spent on Cal for graduate degree
Cal Poly Cons:
Rural area near his home
Less name recognition than Cal
May need a graduate degree for better jobs
D-II football
All advice is welcome to help him make his decision.