<p>I wanna study business marketing/advertising,
but are there any majors or programs offered at Smith that would suit me the best?</p>
<p>I love the campus, but it doesn't seem like the best school for business..</p>
<p>is there any "common route" for prospective marketing students ?</p>
<p>Smith doesn’t have a business program – in fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find one at any LAC. Usually, Smithies who are interested in pursuing business after college major in economics or math or computer science or . . . just about anything.</p>
<p>To what MWFN said, most business graduate schools want you to major in almost anything <em>except</em> business as an undergrad. Study marketing when getting your MBA. Pull a double major in something like Econ & French, or Math & Government. Undergrad business programs, with a few exceptions like Wharton (Penn), are generally met with polite disdain in the Real World.</p>
<p>If you want to go into advertising, Smith is a great school. There’s a good alum network so you’ll be competitive for many more internships which are what’s going to pave the way if you want a job at a major marketing firm. Shelly Lazarus, class of 68, was the CEO of Ogilvy and Mather from 1996-2008, and it’s the sixth largest advertising firm in the world. </p>
<p>For advertising, studying psychology, English, economics, sociology, American Studies, Computer Science etc etc etc will probably get you quite far, though you will probably want to get some kind of advanced degree (maybe an MA in communications or an MBA). I’ve also known more than one Smithie who did a self designed major that included a study of media, though usually in a sociological context and you have to be pretty dedicated to self design.</p>
<p>so what major do you suggest I take?
I’m not a math wiz… so I really don’t wanna get into economics …</p>
<p>Well, what interests you the most? And what area of marketing do you think would appeal to you? Are you more of a people person, likes to get out and socialize, someone who would be good working with clients? Or are you more creative, does it appeal to you to help design or write marketing campaigns? Do you want to market products or are you interested in doing something more like PR work (marketing people, who are sometimes also products, like celebrities or politicians)? Obviously you wont’ know all the answers to your questions now, but they’re good to start thinking about. </p>
<p>In the meantime, major in something that you think is interesting and something that you enjoy. And check out the entrance requirements of top graduate schools for business, find out what courses they want you to have taken, I bet they will probably include at least a little econ. At the intro levels, there is not very much math involved in econ anyway, so it’s a good idea if you’re interested in business to at least take intro macro/intro micro and maybe also intermediate (though for intermediate econ you need to have studied statistics).</p>
<p>Fwiw, if you’re seriously interested in marketing, at some point you’ll want an MBA, and for an MBA schools will want to see some decent quant skills. You’re going to need more than Intro Statistics.</p>
<p>As to major, it really doesn’t matter; business schools will be looking at students from all sorts of academic backgrounds. If nothing else, use your first year to sample courses from several different departments. It’s actually pretty rare that someone knows what they’re going to major in from the moment they step on campus and then actually goes on to do so.</p>
<p>My D considered Classics, Bio, and English as possible majors…did a double in Government and Math with several courses in Econ. Invested in two semesters of Latin before coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t going to do Classics. (Had to take the year-long course first year just to keep the option open.)</p>
<p>I am more creative and marketing products is what I wish to do.
I am taking AP Macroecon this year, so I guess that’ll prep me a bit for college econ classes …</p>
<p>Thank you!
you two cleared up a lot of my questions…</p>