I am looking to major in business but don’t really know which type. I want to work in investment banking or other corporate job for a company. Which major can prepare me for this. do employers really care which major you have as long as its in Business? i realize that some schools have either or so i need to know if i have to pick schools accordingly
First off a business major and an economics major are very different. Economics is a liberal arts course of study and will have a liberal arts core curriculum. In addition, economics gets pretty theoretical at the upper levels. If you were to attend a business school/program of course you will take liberal arts core but you will also have a business core with introductory classes in things like finance, accounting, IT, management etc. and you will major in one of those disciplines. Within a business school there is no need to declare a major until the end of sophomore/start of junior year so you will have time to take different classes and see what you like and what you are good at. IMO (and some may disagree) the most straightforward path to a business job is with a business degree (unless you are coming out of a school like Harvard). If you choose to go for an undergraduate business degree you will have to seek out school that offer such a program and it will eliminate some schools that might otherwise be a good fit.
Thanks for the reply. So what about a college like Duke and other schools that don’t have a business school? Will choosing either or make a difference to employers? i am in the NC area and my top choices are UNC and Duke. UNC has a business school but Duke only has an econ major in the Arts and Sciences. Granted that i actually get in to Duke, which school should i choose if i want to have a career in investment banking?
I won’t opine on that. You need to do the legwork and make your own decision. Ask where people from both schools end up, look at the courses you will take in each program and see what appeals to you etc. In general, the odds of getting into investment banking are small.
Duke does have a business school. Look up Fuqua
@bwalts61 If you look up Fuqua I believe you will see that they only offer graduate programs. I believe that the OP is looking for an undergraduate school at this moment. http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/
@happy1 OK.
@bksoccer7 Have you looked at Wake Forest?
@bksoccer7 Finance is your best bet if you want to go into the investment world. As an employer in a bank, I would pick a grad with a finance degree over a business degree. A business degree is too broad compared to a finance degree where you actually learn how finance works compared to a business degree.
In terms of degree recruitment it depends on a lot of factors. Certain schools have stronger ties to certain firms and those schools may or may not have specific undergraduate business offerings. Some schools such as Cornell have strong ties in finance and although they don’t offer a degree in finance, they offer many finance courses through their other schools (really weird structure). Duke has really strong recruiting efforts on campus from firms and although they technically don’t offer Finance as a major they have a ton of Finance electives offered to those in pursuit of a BS in Econ. Recruiters and their alumni know what courses are taught at which schools so the degree itself doesn’t matter a whole lot. Having gone to Stern the Duke curriculum offers a ton of the same advanced courses in finance it’s just structured differently.
@bksoccer7 shortlist the schools you are interested in and then from there it will be easier to decide between programs. I wouldn’t filter your college search by degree offering.