<p>S2, a soon-to-be hs junior, says he wants to be a business major and a spanish minor. Is this our cue to rule out looking at LACs and instead look at universities where he can get an actual business degree? To my knowledge, LACs may offer a few business classes but do not offer business programs. </p>
<p>Opinions?</p>
<p>If he wants to be a business major (as opposed to simply a business person), yes, that rules out LACs. There are lots of business schools embedded in larger universities with fine liberal arts offerings - Lehigh, American, Georgetown, Villanova, Santa Clara. What many folks don’t know is that for the last 30 years, accreditation for undergraduate business schools requires that students take at least 50% of their credits outside of business, and that many business schools require more distributional requirements than liberal arts colleges do.</p>
<p>If he is a tippy-top student with those interests, he might look at Claremont-McKenna.</p>
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<p>Honestly, if you want to go into business you don’t necessarily need a business degree–and in fact you may well be better off without one and gaining some expertise in another subject.</p>
<p>Case in point see the recent spread in the NY Times about how in recent years business majors have gained a reputation for having, on average, rather unimpressive credentials and being a bit lacking in key skills relative to their counterparts in other majors. According the the article the hard stats back up that reputation.</p>
<p>While there are some fundamentals that one can either easily teach themselves or pick-up in an internship/summer-job most of what’s required to do well in business is not something you can teach in a classroom and instead requires skills that are transferable from, and some would even say best learned from, other majors.</p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>
<p>If you are not tied to a top 20 LAC then you can get a business major at a LAC.</p>
<p>Richmond has a school of business.
Bucknell has a school of mgt.
Rhodes has a business major.</p>
<p>Let me add Wake Forest to Haystack’s list. Like Richmond and Bucknell, WFU’s got a pretty good Business program attached to its LAC core. </p>
<p>(Boy, those 3 schools seem to overlap a lot.)</p>
<p>I have never understood majoring in business as a undergrad. I would suggest an undergrad degree in Econ or Math and then getting an MBA. JMO.</p>
<p>Well, If you want to do accounting/audit, tax consulting, etc., an undergrad degree in Econ or Math and an MBA still won’t cut it.</p>
<p>Could one “design their own” business major at an LAC? For example, almost all already offer computer science, econ, math and maybe marketing or management. What are some of the classes that a University would offer that an LAC would not? Finance is the only thing that comes to mind right now.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. I have several HS classmates and colleagues who did just that or even an arts & sciences major(i.e. philosophy) who are now auditors, accountants, and tax consultants. </p>
<p>Some were even recruited by the Big 4 right out of undergrad despite having a non-business or even non-econ/math majors in undergrad.</p>
<p>If you want to be a CPA, you will need courses to prep you for that and most LACs do not have them available. You would have to take them at a college that does. Sometimes you can get them through swap programs that local colleges have. Or you have to go summers elsewhere for the courses.</p>
<p>Some of the LAC s with “business” or management offerings seem to me to be nearly worthless. One that we looked at seemed preoccupied with white collar crime and ethics. Many have no accounting program, or finance, without which I wonder how they can be considered legitimate.</p>
<p>Look carefully at who recruits the students. Look carefully at the jobs they take. IMHO, if you have too many teach for america or peace corps volunteers, or too many jobs that look like parental connections supplied them, you should reconsider. You want a program where a smart kid whose parents are blue collar workers can be recruited by a top firm if he has the performance credentials and personality. You don’t want a program where rich kids go to polish themselves up a little while they find out whether their parents can call in a chit and get them a job.</p>
<p>Majoring in business as an undergrad makes sense if that’s what you want to do, and you’re directed. I prefer accounting and finance, though, as fields of concentration. Accounting has become tougher in recent years as certification requirements have moved up. </p>
<p>There are also certificate programs for post BAC students that can help get you where you need to be in accounting, for instance. A friend of mine has a kid who did one at Pitt after attending Northwestern.</p>
<p>Bucknell and Skidmore also have business programs … Id’ suggest grabbing one of the fat college guidebooks and checking which LACs have business programs and which do not … my (faulty) memory tells me that there are quite a few that do (at least in the northeast or mid-atlantic) but that they do not tend to be the tippy-top LACs</p>
<p>dadx makes some good points. If your child is even thinking about accounting, that is one major/career that you just can’t complete at an LAC that does not offer the required sequence of classes. Also, remember that the requirements for the CPA vary by state.</p>
<p>And mini is right too. Business/accouting majors now fulfill half their credits outside the business school offerrings. Go ahead, ask my D about jewish history!</p>
<p>Dickinson has an International Business & Management major.</p>
<p>Washington & Lee is probably the most academically elite LAC with a business program.</p>
<p>I don’t know what area of the country or what rigour of school you’re looking for, but several LACs come to mind: Franklin & Marshall, Skidmore, Earlham, Beloit, Wheaton, Rhodes, Susquehanna, McDaniel, Juniata (I know the last two have Accounting majors, but will require additional coursework to get the CPA).</p>
<p>Additionally, most LACs offer an Economics major that many choose if they’re interested in the Business route. I know that the Econ or Management majors who are graduating from my daughter’s school (Gettysburg) are doing pretty well, a couple landing jobs with Vanguard and other national firms.</p>
<p>“Business” is a broad term so it’s hard to know what branch you’re aiming for.</p>
<p>The NY Times story was nearly worthless BS. It focused on some 4th tier school I never even heard of before–Radford??. You know what–most Radford students are not all that great nor do they study much nor do most of them really belong in college with an average SAT of around 1000 or a 20 ACT. It is considered among the worst state U’s in Virginia. Why not focus more at UVa, W&M, James Madison and a few others before you get down to Radford?
Now take any Top 25-50 rated undergrad business program and you will see a much more focused and ultimately successful group. Also NYT mentioned an average business salary of around $60,000 after working some time. What they skipped over were the finance, accting, marketing and a few other majors that actually compromise the vast majority of business majors and the much higher pay they were earning–generally in the top third of the entire list with finance near the top overall. </p>
<p>The biggest problem with most LAC based business programs is the limited recruitment on campus. Of course the top 10 or so get recruited by Wall Street etc. But after that it really drops off. Most Top 50 schools will get 200-400 firms a year coming to recruit. I doubt most LAC based programs for those schools that are not very well known get even 50 firms. I’d want to see their placement data before paying $40,000+. </p>
<p>Also these are not the 60’s or 70’s or even 80’s where companies had training programs and did recruit all majors for their programs. Or the DotCom days where they hired anyone with a pulse and a personality. I’d guess the number of company mgt training programs has declined 90%.</p>
<p>My son is a Business major (actually management/finance) at a small LAC. He will take 50% of his courses in the liberal arts and we think this is wonderful blend. He is obsessed with business and will continue on to get an MBA - many feel this is redundant or a waste of time, but this is his dream. Within the “MBA” there are multiple areas of concentration. </p>
<p>Many of the smaller and non top LAC’s may not have a business school, but they might offer a business major with various concentrations. Look for a school that has an active business environment pulling in resources from Corporate America and a strong internship program.</p>
<p>LACs with Business…</p>
<p>Agnes Scott College
Bucknell University
Calvin College
Claremont McKenna College
Eckerd College
Franklin and Marshall College
Gettysburg College
Guilford College
Hendrix College
Lafayette College
Lake Forest College
Lewis and Clark College
Millsaps College
Morehouse College
Muhlenberg College
Oglethorpe College
Ohio Wesleyan University
Rhodes College
Ripon College
Skidmore College
Southwestern University
Stetson College
Susquehanna University
Washington and Jefferson College
Washington and Lee University
Whittier College
Wofford College</p>
<p>Small Universities with Business:</p>
<p>Babson College
Clarkson University
DePauw University
Fairfield University
Furman University
Lehigh University
Trinity University (TX)
University of Hartford
Worcester Poytechnic Institute
Xavier University (LA)</p>
<p>You left out Wake Forest - as DougBetsy mentioned - top 25 university with a highly ranked business school. Students take a wide range of liberal arts distribution requirements and then their business major courses - so you have the best of both worlds. Many business students also add a liberal arts minor.</p>