@prof2dad - Thanks for a great idea! Which college teaches “health management”? I know that Wharton (UPenn) does. Any other ideas?
At the undergraduate level, I believe you have at least the following choices:
UConn
IU
NYU
Georgetown
Fordham
Rutgers
UPenn
There are far more programs at the graduate (master) level. I believe USNWR has a ranking for healthcare master programs.
My oldest came out of EE/CS and switched to business (MIS), headed into a consulting firm to do hospital management software, SQL query intensive stuff by the way. Data informatics may be worth a look.
We are going through the same thing with S2, STEM school but not committed to the STEM life. Penn has a major specific to Management and Technology, combines their excellent STEM programs with their #1 business school. He applied last week, will hear in March.
The most recruited person from my RPI class was a woman who had combined management with technical writing and a minor in EE.
First, your D does not need to pick her major and future career now. One of my kids (a humanities major) runs a large tech team (had no CS courses in college) for a company which did not exist back in HS, leveraging a cool technology which also did not exist back in HS. Has been promoted every year. If forced to pick a career back in HS would likely be a librarian right now (loved to read).
Second, corporate careers are nothing like what you post. HR is NOT about delivering bad news. Marketing is NOT about whatever you think it is. Tell your D to start to read- Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times. Someone who allegedly is interested in business can make time for a couple of articles and op-ed’s every day. That will help clarify what grown up’s in “business” do all day. You don’t know- which is fine- but she should if this is her plan.
Third- studying “health management” is cutting the bologna way too thin for a kid who wants to wear suits and interact with people. Health management is quickly migrating to a big data career- a 10 hour a day slog analyzing patient outcomes and medical records. If she is really interested in the intersection of patient care and analytics- terrific- but if she doesn’t want a spreadsheet job- this is one to avoid like the plague. Health management is not about walking around a hospital poking into patient rooms- it’s about extrapolating data from millions of records of outcomes, side effects, morbidity, physician error, dosage protocols-- and figuring out how to improve overall care. And that means sitting in front of a computer.
Your D needs to read, learn, figure out what she’s interested in. Picking a college to major in health management because she doesn’t know what else is out there is a little absurd.
I suspect you’ve all hit on business as a major because it sounds more respectable than urban planning or Renaissance Studies. But the CEO of a company I used to work for was a Renaissance Studies major and he is widely considered one of the most successful business leaders of that time at any Fortune 500 company. He spoke several languages; he understood how culture and commerce and history and politics intersect; he was also great with people and highly analytical and wrote well and could motivate people like nobody else.
She really doesn’t need to pick a career right now. Really. And a big university is going to give her exposure to ideas and books and challenging content which will serve her well regardless of where she ends up.
But she needs to read more. And if you want to be helpful, so should you. Just because your ideas about careers and what people do seems stuck in 1958.
I just want to add that many entry level positions involved sitting in front of a screen crunching numbers. Once you get some experience then you get to to tell other people what numbers to crunch. I also have to laugh at the desire for a nice office. In many companies you have to be pretty high up before you actually get walls and a door. She will most likely start out in a cubicle, no matter what she chooses to do.
Another voice in favor of a biz + tech/math-oriented major, for example business analytics. Someone mentioned RPI Lally - they have a good tech-oriented business school, though there are others. https://www.lallyschool.rpi.edu/programs/undergraduate-programs/bs-business-management
Further to @blossom 's excellent post: If what your daughter wants is not to sit in front of a computer, consulting is definitely not for her. Young consulting company employees may get some face time with clients, but their main value is the ability to crunch numbers 15-16 hours/day for weeks on end, and then to write about it. She should avoid anything with “analytics” in its name, too. But, really, you should back off and she should grow up and find her own way. Let her find something that really engages her, and then see where it leads.
A lot of businesses are fine with hiring people without business degrees. They want people who can write and analyse. If you are looking for another business program though Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper school I think is regarded pretty well.
“As long as she has a nice salary and a nice office.” - Then I don’t see the value of biology. From what I’ve read, many bio grads (without grad degree) work in labs for low-ish salary.
Did your daughter start college yet? I thought she was a HS senior. why does she have to pick a major…NOW?
I had a very nice office/room, worked with awesome people, and Had a nice salary… I was NOT a business major.
I work in finance for a fortune 50 company and believe me, some days I wish I could hide in an office and not talk to people. I have a BA with a major in Econ and to this day sit with people amd interact with them all.day.long.
Large companies will employ all manners of people with all sorts of degrees - “business”, Econ, accounting, finance, operations, supply chain management -to work in the business house. Some (senior managers) have offices, most do not. Lower level managers are in cubicles. Since the ratios I see are at least 10:1, getting to that nice office is less likely than working in a non-management role.
The ones who assume they’ll move into the the office quickly are usually the first to leave the company.
I’m a subject matter expert. I get a good salary, work at something rewarding, I’m not suited to management, and since they’ve cut managers dramatically over the last few years, I’m especially happy that I kept to a worker role. (Someone who was a manager up til the end of 2016 took a job that dropped her to a level below me.)
The spouse of a colleague of my husband’s works for a very well known e-retailer. She has a degree in communications/journalism and worked for a major SW company before her current job. She moved into a project manager role and has moved up from there.
My younger daughter started out undeclared, but thinking something in environmental sciences. She ended up majoring in accounting and then added another major when she just wasn’t certain accounting was her life dream. (Forcing a major on 18 yo college applicant is the most ridiculous thing in the US college system.)
Your daughter is a HS senior NOW. She hasn’t even started college. She does NOT need to choose her major now. She doesn’t have to choose her major in a year. At some colleges, she doesn’t have to choose her major until the end of her sophomore year.
And…the very vast majority of college students switch majors multiple times. MULTIPLE TIMES. Even IF you pick a major for your daughter now, she could very well change her mind about it in a month, two months…or even after she gets her degree. Folks actually switch majors between undergrad and grad school as well.
There are plenty of jobs where your daughter can have a nice office, and good salary, and work with people. Business majors aren’t the only ones who have these things, despite what you and your daughter seem to think.
At this point, I would urge you to encourage your daughter to be open minded to many options. Take a variety of courses. See what piques her interest. She may find that business, economics, math, or anything health related are NOT her cup of tea once she is given the opportunity to discover the very vast other choices that are out there.
Please don’t shoe horn her into feeling she needs to make her ultimate major choice now. That sounds like something you should actually discourage her from doing especially since you say she isn’t sure what she wants to do.
Remember…this will be HER major, not yours. She is going to college, not you. She needs to find her major at some point, not you.
Let her do this.
Has she even been accepted to and chosen her college yet??
Several public universities do require applicants to declare majors upon applying and the applications are considered only for that major. It can be difficult if not impossible to transfer into certain majors at UT Austin, for example, if one was not a freshman admit to that major. So yes, high school seniors needing an affordable state option there will need to focus on a specific major or recognize they may need to transfer universities later if they wish to change majors.
I know of one hs senior who was unsure of whether to focus on engineering, computer science, or business technology. Those are 3 different colleges at UT Austin, and transfer among them almost impossible.
That’s true…for certain schools and certain majors. But this parent says…her kid is NOT sure what to do. Would you encourage a kid who is NOT SURE what they want (except a nice office, good salary, and working with people) to declare a specific major? I sure wouldn’t!
And anecdote. This kid could get an undergrad major in something business related because the parent wants that to happen…,and then enroll in graduate studies in something totally unrelated. It happens all the time.
I personally would ONLY encourage direct admit applications for STUDENTS who thonkmthey know what they want to do. Not parents…students.
And even then…kids DO change majors.
^ OP lives in California and all public universities require applicants to declare a major since selectivity varies by major. It’s also relatively difficult to switch, to avoid false declarations. In addition double majoring is a bit more difficult due to impacted majors.
Majoring in biology brings nothing more professionally and since so many are wannabe premeds it may even decrease her odds of admission.
Apparently, for some majors, business + women’s studies or business + African American studies has good outcomes. Marketing with a strong statistics background (and a few sociology or American studies added in). She could add any stem -y minor later on.
She should check out Food Science at CPP : applied chemistry to work in the business world (coke, kelogg’s, nestle, etc).
However few UC’s offer business programs and since CSU’s are strictly GPA x scores her scores are likely to make her a shoo in for business.
As for private universities, she doesn’t need to declare a major, so she should be able to explore till she finds something she likes. In any case, she doesn’t need to major in business to work for a business.
There may be cost or other constraints which weigh heavily on an instate option for some. And yes I fully realize many students change majors in the US. In most of the developed world, however, majors are chosen upon entry to university and those students seem to do just fine in Europe, Canada, etc., and appear at least as satisfied with their career choices as Americans.
Regardless, OP is understandably interested in carer prospects for certain majors which I think is appropriate, as it may be difficult or costly to redress later. We can’t all necessarily pay for graduate school, however appealing that option may be, or for a fifth or sixth year of college which changing majors might require.
Many employers are moving toward portal workstations for their employees. They are equipped with soft phone on their laptop, video conference, white board, movable filing cabinets, so they could work any where. They are also sourcing their employees anywhere, so they could work remotely. I am on such a committee at my company to figure out how we could promote “connected workforce.” There is no connection between nice salary and an office. D2 has a very large windowed office and D1 has a 5x4 desk at work, but D1 makes 5 times more than D2. D1 started with crunching numbers, but now she is facing off to customers.
In many European countries, choosing a broad group of majors is a matter of pre-reqs, with 'streams ’ starting at age 15-16, and students placed into them by teachers. However at University students will frequently register for one major, try it out, change their minds, etc., with tuition being free or nearly free and unemployment high, so no harm no foul.
Most students change majors, because the maturing that goes on between age 17 and 20 means different interests, priorities, professional outlooks, etc.
It’s become a problem in Great Britain, where public universities are now the most expensive in the developed world (a lower income student would end up with 50k in loans for a three year degree after the last scholarships for lower income kids were converted to loans). There are more American-style 'liberal arts ’ programs and joint degrees, but students who change their minds have to start Over from scratch, and thus pile up government-backed loans about half are unable to pay back right now.
We don’t live in another country…and neither does the OP’s daughter.
How about acting? When my family watches TV shows that depict business people…they crack up…because NO ONE in real life dresses or acts like that in the business worlds they see.
@Californiaaa do you have a couple of kids or are we talking about your current HS senior? You have asked about colleges with programs. Hasn’t this student already SENT in all of her applications?