transfer school or not???

[Centrum]

Hey,

I'm an international student at a small university in florida. I basically came to the US to play college sports and get a degree.
Since, in my native country there aren't "big" differences between the level of universities I thought it would be the same in the US.

However, first of all this university doesn't have an economics major which is what I actually want to do...so I am currently a business major. Secondly, it doesn't offer any math classes so I basically would have to take all math classes online at another school...in order to be competitive for an M.Sc. in economics.

I am currently a junior with GPA 4.0/4 and have basically 4 more semesters....however I am not sure if I should stay and finish my degree at that school or go back to my orginal country and get a bachelor in math/econ at a "good" university.

My future plans are to pursue my PhD in economics...and I am just really concerned about my chances of getting accepted to a M.Sc. in economics with a business degree from a "bad" university.


I basically have two choices finish my degree in the US and take as many online math classes as possible...and hope to get accepted to a good M.Sc. program in europe afterwards...
OR
go back to my country and start a bachlor in math/econ which will definitely give me a strong quantitative background..

Would be great to hear some opinions...

[bgg]

Is transferring to a better school in the US out of the question?
If you can get into the best economics school in Italy and have a chance to work for well-known economists, this will be a better option than transferring to a small liberal arts college for example.

However if you can get into a respected research university (like Penn State or UMD) this might be an even better option.
Since you have two more years to go I would say transfer

[Centrum]

Yes, unfortunately transferring to another school in the US is out of the question because I am dependent on an athletic scholarship and I won't have a great chance of getting enough funding...

[YoungEconomist]

Can you get a scholarships to play sports at another school? College athletes do transfer schools, it's usually just because they want to play for a better team though. In your case, could you transfer to a school that is better academically, but maybe weaker for sports, because I imagine you could get a sports scholarship if they are happy to have you (like for instance, if you're much better than the players at that school for your sport).

If this is not an option, then you gotta do some soul searching. How much do you love your sport? Do you have dreams/hopes of playing professionally? Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of time because of the love of the sport (meaning, are you willing to finish playing sports for 2 more years, and then go to a masters program in econ, or another school for a bachelors in econ and then go to a PhD program, which is obviously a sacrifice of time, but maybe it's worth it for you)? Are you willing to sacrifice the quality school that you get your PhD from, because of the sport?

[Centrum]

okay...the problem is I already had to transfer from a better school (academically) to my current school...it was a last minute decision because it was already very late and most application deadlines already passed.

So, the NCAA doesn't allow me to transfer again....this is the problem...

The other thing is I don't have any expectations of becoming a professional athlete...I just wanted to use this opportunity to get a college degree in another country..and learn another language.

So, it is not a sacrifice for me to stop playing college sports but it is more a sacrifice not to be able to study what I want to...

The problem is it is just 4 more semesters and I would have a business degree with probably close to 4.0 GPA...and if I transfer now the university in my country wouldn't give me any credit for the courses I have taken because they won't consider them...so I have to start all over and the 3 semesters I have taken are useless...

But on the other side if I am not able to get into a solid econ masters program with my degree it is not worth to finish it...I mean I'm planning on taking Calc.II, Adv. Calc., Lin. Alegbra online but I don't know how much this will help...

[bgg]

Another idea could be to study abroad. For example, I was on scholarship but my school gave me the money to study abroad. Some people even do it for a year. There are study abroad programs in Oxford and LSE.
If you do that, you will be able to take some rigorous courses and also make some connections with professors.
If this is not an option I would still recommend transferring. I myself felt that I didn't learn that much my last two years because the environment wasn't challenging and I do regret not exploring options for transferring. Also you have great GPA which helps.

[TruDog]

What sport do you play and is it Division I or II? If it's Division I, I'm pretty sure that you can transfer to a Division II school without redshirting at all.

[Centrum]

I played DI transferred to DII because of financial reasons...I checked already I can't transfer again without redshirting a year...

and I'm sure that I can't study a year abroad because my coach won't give me any money if I can't play...

Staying in the US is basically just possible at my current school...the only thing what I could have tried is transferring to an Ivy since they have fin. aid but I figured getting in and getting funding as a transfer would be almost impossible...

[sonicskat]

Here's a possible option...it sounds like you have the interest but lack the background to enter into a phd program. If you want to get your phd, you simply need the math. It is not just an indicator of what type of student you are, but required skills for classes. While you can get away at a lower level master's school with minimal math skills, a phd will require multi-variate calc, linear algebra, and some real analysis skills from day one.

I suggest that you graduate with the business degree and then enter into a masters in Math program somewhere. It can be international, but make sure that you can handle the material and it can prepare you for the phd. After a year or two I would apply for the econ phd. Or, if you can get a job at your country's central bank and take math classes at night, that could be good too.

[kkitkat]

I suggest that you graduate with the business degree and then enter into a masters in Math program somewhere.

This sounds like a sound advice to me with a bit of a caveat. Does anyone know how easy\hard it is to get into a Math masters program. Does it require undergrad math major\minor and such, any math prerequisites? Because if it does then I can't imagine how OP would get into the program. However, if getting into math masters doesn't require any previous math "experience" then doing math masters is a good strategy.

If that's not an option I would go for transfer. Sometimes it's better to start all over again with clear goals in mind. This way you can concentrate on taking all the necessary courses, doing well, and hopefully eventually getting great admits.