<p>Hey, I was wondering if anyone's willing to give a profile about the academics in the business school (Average GPA, workload, stress, classes to take, etc.)</p>
<p>Business sounds very interesting to me, and having researched the expectations of qualities needed, I think it suits me, but I've never had any experience in any field of business before, so this decision kinda seems like a leap of faith to me, and I don't want it to be a mistake.</p>
<p>I also did look through CC for similar topics, but it seems like premed's taking center stage in those...</p>
<p>Business classes are a lot easier than any other school on campus…so obviously less workload, higher gpa (althugh many business students are lazy), less stress.</p>
<p>As for classes to take, check Olin’s website or undergrad bulletin for requirements for degrees.</p>
<p>A lot of the B-school people I know can be very hard working, though I will admit it was a little frustrating to see their schedules compared to the standard BME. It’s hard to compare the two because business often involves things such as case competitions, which can eat up big portions of time, while hard sciences usually involve more conventional hard work.</p>
<p>^Yeah my thoughts exactly. But I feel like I, along with many others, can learn better through things like case competitions and projects instead pure exams, which I believe is the case for many science classes, especially BME.</p>
<p>also, DJEureka, about how many b school students do you know are hardworking? I plan to work hard too, but I know business is quite teamwork-oriented, and I don’t prefer to hang out/work with people who party a lot of such.</p>
<p>I hate it when people bash the b-school and dismiss it as “easy.” I mean, sure, I definitely don’t study as much as a pre-med/BME but I put in a lot of hours with my case comp group and use a lot of my free time networking. There are some pretty challenging classes like Accounting and Finance where you really have to study to make an A. Of course there are also classes like Management 100 where I studied TWICE in the whole semester and made a solid A. One thing I don’t understand is why the b-school teachers curve the classes when most people are making B’s/A’s anyway. I’m not complaining though.</p>
<p>B-school is THE school, not pre-school</p>
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<p>I’d say the majority of b-school students party, but that’s the beauty of the b-school: you can network at frat parties.</p>
<p>Compare someone that graduates from engineering with someone that graduates from Olin. It’s hands down easier (and I’ve taken my share of business courses).</p>
<p>And you say you spend a lot of your free time networking, I’m assuming for internships / summer jobs / jobs after graduation? Not like others don’t have to go through the same thing…this hardly counts as Olin coursework.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to put anyone down, which is why I answered the question that was asked.</p>
<p>Personal anecdote, when I went to nationals for a club sport, the business major was the only one who actually did any work. A lot of the B-school kids I know do party a lot, but there are plenty on the sub-free floors too.</p>
<p>Also, BME=business major eventually.</p>
<p>Well I’m not AGAINST partying and such; I just don’t wanna spend too much of my time on it. </p>
<p>And I’m looking at finance or accounting; I hear from some it’s like mini-engineering; it’s problem-solving and math oriented, but to a much lesser degree. Is that true?</p>
<p>There’s only like 5-6 finance courses total offered at Olin for undergrad. Compared to 40+ for each engineering. I suppose you call it super-mini engineering, but you’ll soon run out of courses. Finance classes are probably the hardest of Olin, but no more difficult that a Math or Econ class.</p>
<p>And to reiterate, all of this is obviously a generalization. There are plenty of Olin’ers that do more work than majority of engineering (but in general, an engineer will do much more work than an average b-school student). </p>
<p>The op asked a question about Olin, which obviously turns it into a generalization. As such, posts are generalized answers about the majority of Olin, and not individual people as a whole. Some classes in Olin are hard and time consuming, but same with any other department on campus. Some people will work flat out, but again same with any other department. In general though, Olin is considered by everyone to be an easy undergrad…and that comes from mostly people that have taken courses at Olin / business school students themselves.</p>
<p>some B-school courses can be really hard. That’s no denying. Ask people who are taking Microeconomics with McDonald. Also, classes like Finance or Accounting might take up huge amount of time to get a good grade</p>
<p>^Agreed, (but econ courses in artsci are much harder than econ in olin – I’ve had both).</p>
<p>^I had one question about that. Do business students take some of the came courses for their major as econ students? For example, do they both take the same intro to micro/macro, or is it a different course in the b-school?</p>
<p>different courses. but if your primary major is econ in art-sci and also want to do business major, you can use your econ department’s course to fulfill the bschool’s requirement.</p>
<p>^Correct, however the revere isn’t usually true (a business student wouldn’t be able to count most of his econ business courses towards an artsci major in econ). Artsci econ is the standard economics major.</p>
<p>So if I start out econ, some of the courses I take in the first semester or two could still be counted if I switch over to business. That’s good. However, would it be better to start out business to establish relationships in the courses that require a lot of teamwork?</p>
<p>I just keep going back and forth between the two. I know I’ll end up doing one of the two, but for someone who is really on the fence, does one of them make more sense to start in?</p>
<p>Depends…are you talking about majoring in business with economics emphasis vs majoring in economics (artsci)?</p>
<p>I’d start off with artsci. You can also take the artsci econ courses, and other business courses to meet people.</p>
<p>Most courses at Wash U don’t require a lot of teamwork, no matter the school. Some of course do, but not a lot.</p>
<p>^right because I believe the way business works is that there’s really only one “major” in business, but there are many specialties to choose from. We need to take like 40+ credits for general business requirements and then only a few, maybe 12, credits specific to a certain specialty. Idk the differences between artsci and business econ, but I’d imagine, you’d have to take other business classes to be eligible for the upper level econ courses in the b school</p>
<p>Hi, My son will be attending the Olin School this Fall 2012. Can anyone at the Olin School please tell me what textbooks are followed for the Management 100 course? Also, is there any textbook/handbook for the English Composition that every freshman has to take to fulfill the graduation requirement? Thanks.</p>