<p>I am a third year student at University of California (Irvine) attempting to transfer into several Canadian universities.</p>
<p>While I was at UCI I studied Business Economics, although all the classes I took were economics related and had little to do with business itself. I realized I have absolutely no interest in accounting or finance, so I don't see much career opportunities for me ahead.</p>
<p>I thought about transferring in as a different major/concentration under Business where there wouldn't be a huge focus on finance or accounting. My first question is, is this possible? If so, what major(s) would you recommend? I've seen all types of business and commerce majors such as Business Process Management and Operations Management. I've done some research and I still don't get what theyre about and the differences among all these.</p>
<p>Second question. If I do switch into a different business major with lesser focus on accounting/finance, how much of my economics courses do you suppose will overlap with the new major? Do you think I'll have to basically restart from scratch?</p>
<p>Finally, I've thought about going into engineering since I enjoy teamwork and sharing ideas. This has led me to look into civil engineering and maybe industrial engineering. If that's the case, is it even worth it to look into undergrad business (since I could always go into MBA later anyway)? Are there any other engineering concentrations you would recommend?</p>
<p>I think it would be hard to transfer from business to engineering unless you originally had very strong math scores and aced any business math courses to begin with. To be honest, engineering is much harder and more time consuming than business. If you post your math background that would help. Like you said, if you did get an engineering degree, you could than get an MBA, many have done it that way. Maybe you can take/audit an engineering class to see what it’s like, assuming you have the math prerequistes (e.g., completed Calculus). Talk to a professor in those departments you’re interested in and they can help you with a path forward.</p>
<p>Remember stven007, engineers can work in business but business majors can not work in engineering. An engineering degree will provide opportunities to work on the technical side of things or the business side of things or somewhere in between. The fact is many degreed engineers end up working in sales, management, even finance etc but a business major will almost never be able to work as an engineer. My opinion, granted I’m biased, is that an engineering degree is more versatile than a business degree. That being said, if you want to pursue an engineering degree, you better be ready to put in a lot of hours and work. Lets not kid ourselves, any engineering degree is going to be much more difficult than a business degree but it if you enjoy engineering it will be worth it.</p>
<p>I think you need a better reason than that to be able to stick through with engineering. Sure, some people do it for employability, but engineering is primarily for people who really like mathematical, technical, and creative things. Maybe you do enjoy these things, I don’t know, but I certainly wouldn’t go into it just for the teamwork and idea-sharing aspects of it.</p>
<p>A student can observe this in school. Engineering students often take junior and senior level business courses and do well. Business students are unlikely to be able to do well in junior and senior level engineering courses.</p>
<p>To switch into engineering, a student who has been studying business has to take two years of math and a year or two of physics and other freshman and sophomore level engineering or science courses before being able to take the junior and senior level engineering courses.</p>