<p>I'm currently a CS freshman at CMU and I'm super miserable. I want to change my major to economics but is that a good idea is this dire economic time? Do business majors make a decent amount of money right out of undergrad? Is it difficult to get a job/internships?</p>
<p>Please keep straight the difference between Economics (BA or BS) with Business (BSE); they are different degrees entirely and provide a different flavor of education, while similar in many ways.</p>
<p>Economics focuses on the theory of the economy, including game theory and some behavioral economics. You can expect to take political science, pyschology, sociology and philosophy courses in addition to economics courses. Coming out of school with this kind of degree will give you a tremendous understanding of the world around you but leave you with little in the way of management skills or business acumen, unless you’ve done an internship.</p>
<p>Business focuses on the practical aspects of economics. You learn, essentially, how to be a productive member of the workforce, and you will probably need to concentrate in some more specific business function (for example, management, accounting, finance, etc). Generally courses will be focused more on real world situations instead of academic ideas. You will graduate more prepared for the workforce but lacking an extremely high understanding of economics and game theory.</p>
<p>In short, an economics degree gives you the academic base, and a business degree gives you the practical base. It’s your responsibility to make up for what your education could not provide, by doing independent research and getting jobs (remember, jobs beget more jobs, so if you don’t have any experience, it’s going to be harder to get new experience…meaning if you have yet to work, START NOW, and don’t overestimate your worth; without experience, you will start out at a low paying, simple job, and as you get experience, your prospects will improve).</p>
<p>All that said, unless and until capitalism falls, there will ALWAYS be a need for people to join the business world. Just like with anything else, you need to perform well in your major in order to succeed out of college, and even then, you can expect to struggle. Hate to break it to you, but as I’ve said many times before, there is no golden ticket to easy street.</p>
<p>Every major is “risky,” so get over that. Some majors are less useful than others in the business world, but you must have life and professional experience to get good jobs anyway, so it is your experience, attitude and grades that go along with your major to help you get your foot in the door of private industry. Whether it is Communications, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering or Business, you still need to do very well in school to do very well after you graduate.</p>