My dream job is to be a businessman. According to one previous thread of mine, Business is not a major in some of my target school (Harvard, Yale, etc.). I have heard that economics is a similar major you could take, any other idea? What undergrad major should I choose if I want to attend a Business School later. Thanks in advance.
What do you mean by “businessman”?
“Business” is simply offering good and/or services for a price. There are many different kinds of businesses that you can engage in, and you can major in anything and go into business in any one of those. So do you want to create your own tech startup? Could major in computer science or an engineering field. Want to provide a research consultancy that will execute short- and medium-term research projects for people? Statistics, or psychology, or sociology could work. Do you want to rise through the ranks in a pharmaceutical company directing sales or making decisions about R&D? A major like chemistry or biology could add there.
Basically, you can be a “businessman” with any major. I know a recent grad who is COO of a small company and he majored in philosophy. Another works in a huge marketing firm and was a psychology major. Another student double majored in political science and linguistics and is currently in the Business Leadership Program at LinkedIn (one of those fellowship rotation programs).
Economics is not really similar to business. It covers a related area, but economics is a social science - the social science that studies how people make, distribute, and consume products and services. A business is one component of an economy, and business majors typically study the nuts and bolts of how to make businesses (using private companies in capitalist economies as the model) run in the context of a pre-professional major. Economics majors take a much more big-picture look at how the production and consumption of good and services works overall - how social/economic actors affect and are affected by consumption processes; how entire governments and political structures contribute to and are influenced by economic influences; how historical fluctuations in economy have affected the world and vice versa; the math/statistics of economic activity and exchange - etc. It’s grounded in the liberal arts, so you’ll read the work of economic theorists from the 18th and 19th centuries and discuss how their work is applicable today; you’ll take some advanced coursework in math/statistics to learn how to create the models economists work with; you’ll write papers analyzing macro and micro issues in the field; you’ll learn how to do research from a social scientist’s perspective.
Economics is a popular major for business school hopefuls - but you could major in literally anything and go to business school.