Selecting bus/econ major and CA school for international Student

michalvitek95
Sat, 03 Aug 2013 22:38:47 +0000

Hello,
in 2012, I came to United States from Czech republic to study as a foreign exchange student on high school in Torrance (Los Angeles County), California. After a year, I literally fell in love with America and local educational system and decided to stay in the US for at least another 4 years of college.

This fall, I am going to attend El Camino Community College. I chose community college for many reasons.

1. it’s cheap

2. I will live with host family close by (free housing)

3. I believe I can perform better than I did in highs chool and transfer to a better university (my GPA was around 3.7, but I didn’t really try my first 3 years in my country)

4. I missed CSU and UC deadlines for fall 2013 (I decided to stay in the US in 2013)

For my first year, I chose pretty general course that cover requirements for all majors I am thinking about. I will be taking 16 credits - precalculus, macroeconomics, managerial accounting, and english (reading and composition).

For my transfer universities, I am pretty sure I will be transferring to CSU, because UCs are just way too expensive and ROI is very low for me.

I want to major either in economics, business economics, or different types of business and management (not sure which since my knowledge of this topic is not that broad yet). I am pretty interested international business, since I am an international student and my dad, who has a company I may run in future, owns truck transportation business (export-import) between Russia and Czech republic, and he also runs wood production company. I would be interested of developing his company by getting connections in the US and maybe expanding somewhere else than just Russia. I am also interested in economics, since it is better to have economics undergraduate degree for possible MBA school. The problem is I am not sure if I want to stay in the US after college, get MBA, or even work here. Would international business major be worthless in case I stayed in the US, worked, or got a job? What do you think of this?

My top choice schools and majors are (1. = top choice, 2. = after top choice, …):

1. Cal Poly SLO - business administration (not sure of concentration, but probably management, finance, or accounting)

2. SDSU - besides business administration, I am interested in their International business connected with regional studies and language (Russia and central Europe) and one semester abroad. Since I already had 2 years of Russian in HS and my dad runs business with them, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. But again, I am not sure whether to stay in the US and start from scratch or take charge of my dad’s company and stay there. I like life in California better, but I think it is better to start with 12 trucks than nothing. On the other hand, average salary in the US is 55,000 dollars/year and while in Czech republic, it is only about 12,000/year.
[San Diego State University | Admissions](Academic Programs | San Diego State University)
[International Business | San Diego State University](http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~ib/)

3. CSULB/CSUF

4. UCSB - business management, UCLA, UCB (Haas), UCI, UCSD - but only in case I got some form of scholarship, my dad all of a sudden became a billionaire, and I also got in.

My other career choice would be either (with some luck), working for the BIG 4, or starting my own business - since I was a foreign exchange student and I have some experience with it, I would like to make on company for helping students from Czech republic study in the US and vice versa, which is also some kind of “international business”.

Also, are my chances as a transfer student higher, lower? I may think for reasons for both. Higher, because we pay more money and lower, because there is probably limited space.

So these are my thoughts for what to do in my future years. Anything can change (especially after I know I changed my life from scratch during this 1 year abroad). I will be applying to universities in approximately a year, but the sooner I start, the better. What are your thoughts?

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