<p>I have lived in the U.S. since age 5, and am a permanent resident. I was born in Switzerland. As far as American colleges go, I was accepted at UF, waitlisted at Cornell, and rejected from 4 other top schools. I am looking at a future regarding economics/business.
If I go to UF, I would do an econ major in the business school, and possibly add a math major to that…
But…I am now seriously considering ETH Zurich. However, they do not offer an economics bachelors degree, so I think if I went there, I would do math. The problem is, I don’t know how I’d cope with math as a major at ETH. For one, it is one of the best schools in the world, which means that the courses/professors are at a very high level. Second, my German is not perfect at all, and I don’t really know mathematical terms in German. And finally, will a math degree allow me to apply to economics grad schools, or MBAs?
If it helps, I scored a 6 in IB Math Studies, got an A in College Algebra as a Dual Enrollment class, and have had an A all year in Honors Calculus, which I took as an elective. If I choose ETH, I will be self studying German/Math all summer.</p>
<p>If you sincerely want to go into econ or business, I don’t understand why you would choose to attend a university that has neither. American economics graduate programs welcome math majors with open arms, but that’s usually math majors with a minor or double-major in economics. I suspect that you’ll have a hard time getting into an economics graduate program without some undergraduate background in the field. </p>
<p>May I ask what attracts you to ETH in particular? Why not another Swiss or German or Austrian university with an economics department?</p>
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If you are somewhat proficient in German, you’ll pick up on mathematical German pretty quickly. International students who come to the US for college don’t know all of the English terms for physiology, economics and literature either. I would have been screwed without a dictionary my first semester in college, but after my second semester I have barely used one at all. Plus mathematicians are usually pretty good about defining the terms they are using :)</p>
<p>How about University of BAsel or University of Zurich? They have good Economics dept. Why do you want to choose ETH instead when they do not have Economics dept?</p>
<p>Also one needs to pass a very high level proficiency German exam to get into ETH or University of Zurich.</p>