Double posting here and on the Berkeley forum. I hope this is allowed. I would like opinions from both Cal and Cal Poly students/alums.
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 in just over 50% of applicants. Next fallback major would be Political Economy or something like that at Cal. 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
Lower division BCS football
All advice is welcome to help him make his decision.
Can speak on the Haas perspective a bit. Couple of things to keep in mind:
-It’s very difficult to change majors at SLO, even if it’s to a similar discipline. If he goes to SLO, he’d better be certain that he is interested in finance.
-Berkeley is a feeder into top finance firms, even if he doesn’t go to Haas. I think SLO more commonly feeds into things like Big 4 Accounting, which is also a great career path (though it’s not strictly finance). Note that it’s relatively difficult to move into finance from non-finance fields, and often requires B-school in order to do so.
-Cal has a lot of resources, but it’s very easy to get lost in the crowd. Even getting into business clubs often requires a cover letter, resume, and multiple interviews since there’s so many applicants.
-Because Haas is such an insulated community and everyone is trying to do the ABC’s (Accounting, Banking, Consulting), it can kind of pigeon-hole people into only seeing these as viable career options, instead of really critically exploring other areas.
TBH I suspect that many of the most interesting finance jobs of the future will require a more technical skillset. “Stock trading,” which is basically portfolio management, hedge funds, or to some degree sales & trading at banks, are all being crowded out by technology such as robo-advisors/index funds, algorithmic trading (see companies like Citadel and KCG), and technology-driven financial research (see companies like Kensho). The financial divisions of tech companies are also increasingly productizing/automating at a blistering pace.
Switching majors at Cal Poly is not “very difficult,” especially to a similar discipline with a similar acceptance rate within the same college. It certainly isn’t as simple as declaring a change though. Where it becomes very challenging, maybe impossible, is trying to swim way up the acceptance stream. A Mechanical Engineer can pretty much pick and choose any major to transfer to. Not many can transfer into ME. Just food for thought.
Cal Poly is not a hard major switch, as long as you have the credentials to qualify to major in the first place…They look at your grades from HS to see if you could have been admitted to that major. Their philosophy is about preventing kids from back-dooring, not trying to keep students from switching majors.
Top tier investment banks and hedge funds are very hung up on pedigree. They tend to recruit largely from the HYPS, but on occasion will reach down to the likes of Berkeley or Michigan. You can study art history at Yale and get an interview at Goldman, but good luck to even a top finance grad from Cal Poly getting in the door there. Having employees that graduate from elite schools is part of the marketing schtick that these firms use to separate clients (marks) from their money. When your a rich fool or state pension plan paying a hedge fund outrageous fees to underperform the S&P 500 you want the snob appeal of having Thurston from Princeton “managing” your money- not Hank from Cal Poly.
The real talk you should have with your son is why he is interested in pursuing something with negative social utility; i.e… “stock trading”. I would encourage him instead to look into corporate finance which has real value and for which Cal Poly provides excellent training. Who knows- he could be the next Cal Poly grad to go on to be the CFO of Apple.