<p>I have always wondered about this. In terms of salary, job placement, and other good stuff, which field is more beneficial/lucrative right now.</p>
<p>I don't know about the <em>now</em> part, but here are the starting salaries for UT grads in both areas. </p>
<p>Engineering Student</a> Interactive - Full-time Salary Survey</p>
<p>Business Statistics</a> - Employers - McCombs Career Services - The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin</p>
<p>Consider this. Engineering is a professional degree. Without that degree, you can't be an engineer.
Many of the business majors are not professional degree which means, with any degree, you can do the same work. However, for accounting, you have to have a degree in it.</p>
<p>Investment banking used to be the super lucrative one, it gives you very high starting salary + bonus. You can get into investment banking from any degree.
But, I'm not sure about now since a lot of these companies doing investments are badly hit by the economy.</p>
<p>Engineering is always safer and has a higher starting salary.</p>
<p>That being said, if you want the most $s possible, you should figure out what you love. I know that may be hard for you at this point, but if you know that you aren't interested in engineering don't do it.</p>
<p>If you do get an engineering degree, I'd recommend going for an MBA after 3 to 5 years if you are interested in making the big bucks and/or want to transition out of engineering.</p>
<p>The greater upside is certainly in business, but as previously stated, a business degree may not be necessary. I'd say finance has the biggest upside. (perhaps the greatest risk right now)</p>