I am looking to go into investment banking. My options for undergrad schools are UC Berkeley, PSU, and UCLA.?


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I am from Pennsylvania so tuition at psu is about $27,000 whereas the other two are in the low $50000. Also, I am hoping to double major in both finance and economics. Which is more important? Is UCB worth the price over PSU? And is it possible to double major with about 7 scores of 4 or above on ap tests?


Answer (1):

Tom

The Berkeley and UCLA quotes are for tuition + living expenses in the residence halls. UC residence halls cost substantially more than higher quality residence halls at Stanford, Harvard or Yale because a large segment of the UC residence hall fee is used to subsidize the residence hall fees of Blue and Gold students by means of university grants to pay the residence hall fees. At Berkeley, it is actually significantly less costly to live in an apartment that can be closer to the campus than the residence halls. Foothill and Clark Kerr are the most livable and expensive; however, Clark Kerr is quite a hike from the campus. At UCLA, the surrounding area is so expensive-Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Westwood- that for students who don't live in residence halls or fraternities, it is essentially a commuter campus. At Berkeley, there are the Coops which are far less than the residence halls and many are located on the Northside, the oldest student neighborhood.
The Fraternities are also significantly less than the residence halls and most are not like Frats at many campuses, with loud music blaring out of the widows at all hours of the day and night. The living situation most conducive to studying would be an apartment in the Holy Hill area of the Northside on a street that does not see much car traffic.
Berkeley is worth it if it is the most prestigious university you have been admitted. Regardless of US News rankings, which don't directly consider the quality of the faculty, there is some difference between the international reputations of Berkeley and UCLA.
http://arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp
http://timeshighereducation.co.uk/wo...
The US News Grad school rankings consider the quality of the faculty and since the same faculty teach graduates as undergraduates at UC's and most universities, they are helpful.
Most of the major Investment Banks interview for their coveted financial analyst positions at Berkeley and Stanford but not necessarily at UCLA. There is no Finance major at Berkeley or UCLA and the Investment Banks do not expect anyone hired as a Financial Analyst to have a Finance major. Most of the schools they recruit do not offer Finance degrees or undergraduate business degrees. Only Penn in the ivy league does; Stanford does not and neither does Chicago despite their high power Business Schools. The expectation is that after two years, the Junior Financial Analyst will go to a top tier Business School and attain an MBA. Top Tier MBA programs do not look for applicants with undergrad Business or Finance degrees. An undergrad Economics degree supplemented with a few Financial Accounting classes, and maybe having passed the CFA Level I, II and III exams after graduation, is a great complement to a Finance MBA.
http://cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/p...
There is no need to have any AP credit to complete simultaneous degrees: BA In Economics in L&S and BS, Business Administration at Haas. The same goes for a BA in L&S that includes a major in Economics and some other L&S major. L&S likes to see each major from a different field. For instance, Economics(Social Science Field) and East Asian Languages, Chinese or Japanese, (Humanities Field.) Humanities majors at UC's tend to be small majors where most students in the major know each other and the classes are small, sort of like a Humanities major in a small liberal arts college with the resources of a world class research university. Another possible combination might be Economics and Applied Mathematics.
http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/double.html
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/
http://ealc.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/index.htm
http://econ.berkeley.edu/undergrad/current/major-requirements
Berkeley is on the Semester system while UCLA and all other UC's except Merced are on the quarter system. The semester system works well with the UC system. Berkeley has a dead week that is actually around ten days from the end of classes to the start of Finals. At quarter system UC's, classes end and Finals begin almost the next day. And not only finals, often it can be the 3rd week of classes till the schedule is set and in quarter system UC's the quarter is one third over by the 3rd week and mid term exams are beginning. At Berkeley, mid terms usually don't start till the 5th or 6th week. Berkeley has the highest Gpa in the UC system:
http://statfinder.ucop.edu/library/tables/table_139.aspx
Significantly higher than Penn State, scroll down:
http://gradeinflation.com/Pennstate.html
Good Luck!