Hi I’m currently in the summer before my freshman year. I am enrolled at an instate university planning to major in engineering. However, I highly doubt I want to do engineering. I chose my instate university because it was free over other better state colleges out of state that were better in business. I plan on switching to business and prefer Management Informations Systems (is this a good major?). However, my I state university does NOT offer MIS but has a decent business program. I believe it is too late to switch schools as my orientation is week away. What should I do? Transfer after my first year? Thanks
If you get a Business degree as an undergraduate at your current university, you can always get your Masters in MIS. Some employers will even pay for their employees to get those kinds of Masters degrees.
You can still try to take CS/IT related classes and self study for independent certifications.
Another path, if you were already accepted into the college of engineering, might be to explore Operations Research and Industrial Engineering if those are offered at your university. Both have some overlap with MIS from an analysis point of view although with a different emphasis.
In short, head off to college with the intention of making the most of where you are. Don’t start out thinking about transferring or you’ll miss too many opportunities (like internships, connections with professors, etc).
Hi thanks for that. I actually did a little more research and I found out that I can not major in MIS but I can minor in it. In my college, it’s a collateral course. Any business major must be paired with a collateral. I thought about majoring in supply chain management since my college is too 5 and minoring in MIS. Is this a good idea? Do they have a lot in common where I can use both in jobs? And I plan on getting an MBA but plan on focusing more on MIS (but it’s a minor) so would that still be good or would I be better off transferring to a school that I can solely major in MIS.
Also how many years does it take to get an MBA and do people generally switch to better colleges for MBAs or stay at current ones?
Bump - also, is majoring in supply chain a good idea? I have heard from many that it is a good major but I have also read that it can be bad because it is based off of connections. I plan on interning and believe you need good connections for any majors. Also asking because I know what supply chain managers do but am not extremely certain everything they do so any explanation would be appreciated (yes I have googled)
I am admittedly old, but my recommendation would be to get a job then go for your MBA at night. That’s what I did, and it was paid 100% by my employer. It didn’t take me a ridiculously long time doing it part-time and I gained work experience while getting the degree free of cost.
@bubbagump First of all I like your user name. Also, it sounds like you have reasonable options at your in-state university. For the first couple of years you should take courses in several fields that you are interested in. An engineering or business major with multiple business, CS, math, and if possible operations research / industrial engineering courses sounds like a very good place to start. A minor in MIS can make sense with a range of possible majors.
It is very common to switch colleges/universities for an MBA (or any Master’s degree). When you get to this point, you will want to be more focused on one area and pick a school which suits what you want to focus on. Graduating from undergrad with very little or no debt is huge and will help you to afford your Master’s much more easily (whether you do it part time while employed as post #4 suggests, or do it full time).
I do know of students who have changed majors at their incoming students orientation or in the first week of university. More common would be changing majors sometime during or at the end of your freshman year, and later than this is still common. Depending upon what courses are offered sometimes during orientation students can sign up for “Introduction to subject X for subject X majors” (even if they are majoring in something else) instead of the more general less demanding introduction for non-majors. This for example can be useful if you later change your major to “X”.
By the way, good luck with your orientation. My daughter and I just attended her orientation for incoming students where she will be in the fall and it was a great experience.