I am a high school senior and I applied to CSOM, but I was not accepted. However, I was accepted into CLA. I am considering going into CLA and pursuing a degree in Economics and then getting a job in business. Any thoughts on this plan?
I have also been accepted into the business school across town at St. Thomas. U of M is my top choice as a college, but I can go into a more specific business degree at St. Thomas. I am just looking for some outside opinions and any input is welcome.
What specific business program would you pursue at UST? I’d tend to favor the BA in Econ. at the U of MN. St. Thomas is a fine school but U of MN is more rigorous. Hopefully you would be able to take some Carlson classes? (not sure how many classes are open to students outside CSoM). Carlson students get their Econ. from the Econ. dept in CLA so at least for that subject you would have the same access. You can’t get that at UST.
Finance and Econ are much more highly ranked at U of MN. The issue would be accessibility of finance courses at Carlson for students outside the school of business. Here is the current policy on that, from the UMTC Undergraduate economics program website:
"Focused Electives from Other Colleges
In the past CLA students had limits on the number of non-CLA courses they could count towards graduation. This policy is currently not being enforced by the College of Liberal Arts. However, only six credits of Physical Education, Applied Music, and Study Skills coursework can count for graduation. See your CLA adviser for more information about this policy.
Students who are interested in a more focused set of business skills may choose CSOM courses as electives. Any non-Carlson student with 60 or more semester credits and a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher may be able to register for most open 3000-, 4000-, and 5000-level Carslon School courses during open registration (i.e., after the regular registration queue) by calling 612-624-3313 or going to 2-190 Hanson for permission. Prerequisites are strictly enforced."
You might also check to see what if any financial economics courses are offered directly through the dept. of Economics. Perhaps there are parallel courses which fundamentally teach the same concepts, and in that case it’s much easier just to take the courses through the Econ. dept.
Edit/Update: Here’s another snippet I found on the Econ. Dept. website which does suggest there are similar, if not parallel, courses:
"Equivalencies of Financial Economics and Finance Department Courses
Economics 4751 (semester course) and Fina 4241 (semester course) contain similar, but not identical, content. Fina 4241 cannot be used towards the Economics major. Students who have already taken Fina 4241 are prohibited from using Econ 4751 towards their major requirements."
I am more concerned about internships down the road. I don’t want to have job opportunities taken away because I have a Econ major versus an actual finance major.
I don’t think the issue is so much “econ” vs. “business” as it is the difference between the two schools - and they ARE very different institutions. Not just in terms of reputation but also size, private vs. public, Catholic tradition vs. secular, and so forth. I’d advise you to enroll at the institution you see yourself thriving at - and then make your major work for you. But in terms of being “shut out” of internships and jobs due to majoring in economics vs. business - that’s not very likely if you are able to keep up your grades and look for opportunities for personal and professional growth. Economics is generally considered a pretty “employable” major.