I recently just ended my junior year with a pretty abysmal GPA. I really want to get into a competitive business school for undergraduate studies. However, due to my low statistics, I don’t know what quality university would still accept me. Could you guys possibly name a few safe,realistic,and realistic reach schools for me? I plan to major in either accounting or finance. Also, I am open to do an early decision to help reinforce my acceptance. If I were to do an early decision, what would be a fine school to do so.
My Statistics are
Freshman year
Geometry CP A/A-
English I A/A-
Biology CP A/A
Chinese I A+/A
Music I A+/A+
Computer Usage/Health A-/A-
Sophomore year
Algebra 2 CP B+/B
English II A/B
Chemistry Honors A-/B+
Chinese II A/A+
Music II A/A
AP European History A/A-
Junior year
Math Analysis CP B/C+
English III A/A
AP Chemistry B+
Chinese III A/A
AP US History B-/A-
AP Chemistry Lab A/A
Senior year (not like it matters much for admissions)
AP Calculus AB
English IV
IB Environmental Science
Chinese IV AP
Government/Economics CP
AP Human Geography
ACT-32
Subject Test- US History- 720
AP scores - 4’s all around
Overall GPA
Weighted- 3.7
Unweighted- 3.66
(Freshman and Sophomore - high school top 30 in California)
(Junior and Senior- high school top 40 in California)
I ran JV track for 2 years, did 1 year of JV volleyball, and I am set to be in varsity volleyball next year.
I did some basic volunteering at tutoring centers, hospitals, and shelters. I also have a variety of recommendation letters from my AP Chemistry teacher and Chinese III teacher.
UCs and CSUs. Obviously the CCCs are safeties. How much can your afford?
I can afford most schools with aid. I was looking at attending the IU Kelley Business School as a non-direct admit.
This means nothing without parameters. How much aid you need will depend on the cost of the school. That’s why I wrote my question the way I did. Are you saying you can afford Kelley OOS?
I would say north of $30,000 would be my maximum just for tuition.
Consider UCI/Cal poly SLO although GPA is a bit low so a slight Reach. Match schools would be UCR/SDSU/Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach. Safeties could be Cal poly Pomona and San Jose State. All these schools would give you a great Business education and you can always strive for a more prestigious/competitive university for an MBA.
$30,000/year would cover tuition/room/board at the UC’s and CSU’s as an in-state resident. If you plan to go OOS, the price tags will be much higher so you should run the net price calculators for each school.
The issue I have with the UCs is that all of them are research schools. Therefore, they don’t offer specific vocational majors such as finance. If I went to UCI, I would have to major in “Business Economics”. Does it really matter if I major in finance compared to something like business econ?
The Cal states were setup to place graduates into the work force and they offer Finance as a major so consider the CSU’s listed above. All are well within your budget.
I’m not a pro in business schools, but I know that accounting major requires good math skills, best to take sat2 math
accounting requires that you be able to add and subtract. There is no real need in accounting for high level math - I’m a CPA who sucks at high level math and transferred out of engineering to accounting for that very reason. As I like to explain to people - accounting is just a set of rules that make sense to accountants. Its almost more of an art thatn anything.
Whether or not business econ is interchangeable with finance depends on what kind of job you want to go into.
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