<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>So decisions will be coming out in a couple weeks and I'm assuming this forum will get flooded with posts from newly accepted students about various majors. In the past I've seen many questions arise about the Business Economics major, and so I thought I'd give some information for it.</p>
<p>First off, Business Economics is NOT a business major. If you want to work in consulting or investment banking, you would be better off in majoring in Math/Econ or some other math-related field. Biz Econ is mainly a major for those that want to start their career in accounting. The nature of the major is it consists of ~10 economics courses (including pre-reqs) and 6 accounting courses (2 pre-reqs, 4 upper divs). The major is competitive to get into. UCLA implements a system called a Primary Score, which gives you a certain score composed of 50% your UCLA GPA, 25% your Econ pre-requisite GPA, and 25% your microecon theory course GPA (2 classes - Econ 11 and 101). As long as your score is at least a 3.3, you are in. If it is below, even 3.29, you are not in. From past experience, those that were not accepted into Biz Econ would major in international econ, since the requirement were much easier. However, with the elimination of that major, you would most likely have to major in just regular Econ.</p>
<p>Second: contrary to what many people may have heard or believed, the Big 4, as well as Investment Banking firms and many Fortune 500 companies, in general, recruit from UCLA. Having personally just gone through Big 4 summer internship recruiting, I can attest to the fact that they consider UCLA's accounting program very good and prestigious, at the same level as UC Berkeley's Haas and U$C's Marshall and Leventhal. While I can not personally attest to investment banking or consulting, I have seen posts from companies like JP Morgan, BlackRock, Barclays, Accenture, Deloitte Consulting, etc. on the school's career website. They have also held numerous events. These companies are also here and they do recruit. More than likely, however, being a Math/Econ major will be more beneficial for those trying to start a career in IB.</p>
<p>Hope that clears up some confusion and feel free to PM me with any additional questions.</p>