<p>I am currently a Freshman at Carnegie Mellon University. I am in the process of transferring from the Mellon College of Science to the Tepper School of Business at CMU to double major in Business and Decision Science (a cross between psychology and economics). However, I’m not entirely sure I am happy at CMU. It’s not that I am unhappy, but something doesn’t feel right. The people are too nerdy for me and I wish I were closer to home (I’m from northern NJ) and I would love to be in New York. That being said, I’m not really sure what I should do. </p>
<p>I applied to Columbia originally and got wait-listed, then rejected. I finished my first semester at CMU with a 4.0, while balancing five classes, a job, and multiple clubs/organizations (I’m involved with my sorority, ballroom dancing, debate, happiness club, and a few others).</p>
<p>I’m scared that if I apply, I will be admitting to myself that I am not happy at CMU. If I don’t get in, I think I will be more unhappy at CMU than I am now. My high school GPA is 4.471 (I don’t know unweighted), I have a 2250 SAT, 35 ACT, and some awards/distinctions. I’m also worried - is business at Columbia as good as business at CMU? Tepper is world-renowned; it worries me that Columbia doesn’t have a “school of business.” </p>
<p>What do others think I should do? Should I bother applying to Columbia for a transfer or should I just enjoy my time at CMU?</p>
<p>If you want to study business, I would suggest you reevaluate why you want to transfer to Columbia. They don’t have an undergraduate business major/program. The closest thing they have is a “special concentration” in business management. </p>
<p>Here’s what a current Columbia student (@pwoods) said in another thread just recently:
“But just to be clear: Columbia (College) is a liberal arts school. It does not have an undergraduate business school. It does not have an undergraduate business major. Even the special concentration in business management is relatively new and controversial. If you want to get a degree in business, or you want to go to an undergrad business school, do not come to Columbia.”</p>
<p>I feel a need to qualify pwood’s post because while technically correct, I feel it does not necessarily address the needs of students looking to study “business” at Columbia. Columbia indeed is a liberal arts university, but we do have an extremely sizable population of students interested in more pre-professional pursuits, including business. We do not have a business major nor an undergrad business school and as pwoods addressed, our special concentration is new (and IMO not as much controversial as insubstantial to anything, it’s a concentration after all). </p>
<p>However, I think a question for a student interested in business to ask themselves is what their end goal is. If traditional finance is what you intend to go for, Columbia dominates in this respect (its NYC after all); I would say it’s in a totally different league than CMU. Most people who do finance here at Columbia are economics or IEOR (depending on whether you’re SEAS or CC), and while your curriculum is heavily based in theoretical econ (in the economics case) or math/statistics (in IEORs case), you still have plenty of opportunities to take more traditional “business” classes. I took accounting, corporate finance, and some other finance classes that one would typically expect when going to a business school. Furthermore, even though I’m not keen on the details, I know as an undergrad you can take classes at our business school and many students choose to do this.</p>
<p>We also have special majors (offshoots of econ and IEOR) such as Financial Engineering and Financial Economics, which attract students that are geared towards a more pre-professional focus in business. Financial Economics is sort of new and IMO not really different than our normal econ program, but Financial Engineering is a unique and selective program great for people interested in quantitative methods of finance.</p>
<p>No, you will never be able to have a ‘degree in business’ but that doesn’t mean Columbia can’t provide you with the same skillset. Furthermore, I would argue Columbia at least in the east coast has an extremely strong alumni network for business/finance and as an alum myself I’ve greatly benefited from this. </p>
<p>I don’t think having an undergrad business program is a fair criteria of that school’s strengths in business. At the end of the day what your degree says matters less that the opportunity your education provides you, and while I don’t know your specific goals, I can’t imagine many areas of business (especially coming out of undergrad) where Columbia would be weaker than CMU.</p>
<p>Side note: First post in ~4-5 years at CC. Looking forward to contributing more in the future!</p>