Transfer undergraduate student that wants to work in Europe. Finance or Economics?

Hi. I am a freshman majoring in business administration with a concentration in finance at the University of Vermont. I am a US citizen who grew up in Europe and who may want to come back and work there some time in the future. I know what UVM is not a target for finance majors at all. I didn't have a chance to take any finance classes yet so I am not quite sure what I really want to do with that degree after I graduate. I only took macro- and micro- economics courses out of the business core. From what I've heard finance major is vary practical and considering that I may want to go back to Europe to work there, I assume it would be a useful degree. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I still have an option to change my concentration either to accounting or economics, but when it comes to accounting I know you have to take CPA exams in order to be an accountant and I am not quite sure if they are generally accepted in Europe. Economics, on the other hand, seems to be very theoretical and macro- and micro- classes I have been taking focus mostly on the US political, economic etc systems. Finally, I am also thinking about minoring in Computer Science.

I finished my first semester with 3.87 GPA (classes taken: macroeconomics, calculus I, Intermediate Spanish, Intro to Business, World regional geography) and I am quite confident I will be able to finish my freshman year with around 3.7 GPA or higher. Therefore, I decided to give it a try and apply for transfer to some more reputable universities. Here is the list of the schools I am applying to (business admin major or finance major depending on the school):

- USC
- Lehigh
- Northestern
- Babson College
- Bentley University
- Goerge Washington University
- Syracuse University

I also decided to apply to three top school for economics major: Boston College, Vanderbilt University, Cornell University. The reason I applied for econ major is that they either don't offer finance major (Vanderbilt) or the admission to their business schools is so competitive that I know I have no chance to get in. I will major in econ, but will minor in business or finance if i get into any of these three schools.

My final questions are: Assuming that I get into all of these schools is it worth transferring to them considering I'm at UVM right now? Would econ major from either of these three top schools I listed benefit me more in the long run than a typical business/finance degree from the schools listed above? I also want to point out that I am not thinking about going to graduate school right after my undergraduate education. Thank you very much in advance.

3 Comments
 

I think you should try for USC, Vanderbilt, NYU, UVA, Boston College, Georgetown, Cornell, and Emory in no particular order. All those schools accept a decent amount of transfers, and If your trying to do banking/consulting some of those other schools on that list won't help much. I think you'd have a decent chance at all of those places with a 3.7+. I got into 4 of the above schools as a transfer student after my freshman year and believe that they would be a pretty good step up especially for recruiting.

 
Best Response
onmywayup

I think you should try for USC, Vanderbilt, NYU, UVA, Boston College, Georgetown, Cornell, and Emory in no particular order. All those schools accept a decent amount of transfers, and If your trying to do banking/consulting some of those other schools on that list won't help much. I think you'd have a decent chance at all of those places with a 3.7+. I got into 4 of the above schools as a transfer student after my freshman year and believe that they would be a pretty good step up especially for recruiting.

Thanks for that advice, but is it essential that I major in finance at these universities or econ major will still open many doors for me? Obviously it is easier to transfer to these schools as an econ major and that makes me wonder: would econ degree from any of these prestigious school be much more meaningful in the business world than business administration degree from UVM?

And secondly, can someone experienced in that matter tell me whether finance or economics degree would be more useful when it comes to finding a job in Europe?

 

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