<p>I currently attend UCLA and one of my frat's really prominent Alumni, who is a millionaire, recently stopped by our frat. I missed the memo that I wasn't supposed to ask about school, so I asked him what I need to do to get into a good MBA program (he went to Stanford himself and that's what I'm shooting for). He informed me that he didn't come here to answer questions, but he said "I will tell you, don't major in business econ. Think history or art." Then he winked at me and walked away.</p>
<p>What did he mean by that? I keep hearing people tell me not to major in economics if I want to go to business school, or not to major in bio if I want to do premed. It just doesn't make sense to me.. should you major in some sort of field (for undergrad) that will supplement and make your business career useful? How are you supposed to get job experience working for a business firm if you major yourself in art or history? </p>
<p>I'm assuming he wanted to tell you to take advantage of business schools wanting diversity, which includes diversity of undergrad. major and the type of job you worked in after college.</p>
<p>IMO, he has a point but I wouldn't say that's the key way of getting into BizSchool. BizSchools tend to care more about how you do in your job rather than what you majored as undergrad. sure, the major tend to be correlated with what kind of job you get out of college, but just because you had some exotic job doesn't mean you'll have significant advantage over others with "typical" jobs such as IB, Consulting, and Accounting. It all comes down to how well you did in your job that plays the biggest factor in the MBA admission, asides from your college GPA and GMAT score.</p>
<p>There are a lot of people who think that bus. or econ. undergrads are narrow in focus and lack creativity. This can include b-schools admissions committees. I think this advice is a double-edged sword. I don't know about UCLA so much, but from Berkeley undergrad, it's easier to do something like get into Goldman Sachs coming from Haas (b-school) rather than a liberal arts background. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the people who get into the likes of Stanford demonstrate that they have more going on than just checking a bunch of boxes in the business category. </p>
<p>Why not double major? </p>
<p>Or start a successful business on the side.</p>
<p>Determining your major based off of graduate school is usually not the best way to decide what you will be studying for the next four years. Business and/or Economics majors are perfectly fine, and they'll open more doors in business, which is essential for getting the solid work-experience to get into an excellent MBA program. Moreover, your plans could change, and in that case you'll want to be able to have a degree that gives you flexibility; business and economics majors are some of the most flexible majors you can find. However, if you really like art or history then major in that, but don't do it just so you might have a better shot at getting into an MBA program.</p>
<p>The other thing is that your graduate degree will render your undergraduate education mostly redundant if you get it in the same field you ultimately end up in -- it's like losing a couple years of education. Far better to have the diversity if you can.</p>
<p>And that's coming from an economics major pre-med.</p>
<p>I agree with both Milton Roark and bluedevilmike....don't choose what you want to study just to get into grad school, but also it would be somewhat redundant (and in a way useless) to study business as an undergrad and as a grad. But econ. could be good.</p>
<p>These are reasons I thought a double major might make sense -- assuming you have other interests.</p>
<p>I agree with all the above posts and would like to add;</p>
<p>An MBA is not really a masters degree in the traditional sense that a masters in other subjects might be, i.e. it does not necessarily build on prior knowledge gained in an acedemic setting. Some with a History undergrad, for example, will not be going to get a Masters in Electrical Engineering. However, both undergrads may benefit from an MBA. Why?</p>
<p>An MBA is a masters degree to compliment skills and knowledge, if you have a business degree the skills learned in MBA might not be anything new. History and Art get you good grades, or should, and it will give you a good understanding into strategy and creativity, both essential for a good leader. Other majors may be useful too.</p>
<p>I, for one, agree with that alum. Make yourself stand out and find a way to make an MBA work with your other degree and not just build on that degree.</p>
<p>While econ or business econ is not a large part of the MBA curriculum, art history, sociology, english, or other non-quant majors present a question for the adcom... can the applicant come up to speed on statistics, calculus and other quantitative skills needed to be successful in the MBA program?</p>
<p>Major in something that will help you accomplish your post graduate goals. I would not advise majoring in history or art. If you can do something with it, great. However, most people can't. I know someone with a Masters in Art history an she has two jobs, one of which is working at Starbucks. That is not the type of experience that will get you into a top business school. </p>
<p>(btw, I fully understand about diversity..however, there is a reason that there are a ton of students with engineering, business, and econ backgrounds in graduate business school...if they can all do it, why can't you?)</p>
<p>i think the alum has a point: to get into a top MBA program you have to distinguish yourself from the herd. For sure a lot of successful applicants will have backgrounds (undergraduate majors) in business or economics, but at least as many will come out of IT, engineering, math-statistics, and the liberal arts.</p>
<p>What you do after graduating from college may well count a lot more than what you majored in while in college (or even what your GPA was), because your work experience, leadership, teamwork experience, and your ability to make a plausible case for why an MBA (at the particular school) is logical for you will count more than your undergrad major. And your GMAT score will count more than your GPA, in part because it can demonstrate your basic competency in quantitative and verbal reasoning.</p>
<p>As case in point, my daughter, who attended an art school where she earned a BFA, has been accepted to one of the leading MBA programs (other aps pending), not for her potential as an industrial designer (her undergrad major) but for her demonstrated achievements and her interest in a career in green design business strategy. (It helps a lot that she had strong GMAT scores, including a strong quantitative score, especially because she didn't have any math classes since high school.)</p>
<p>As a prof who has taught 18 years at several very top MBA schools, our MBA classes are deliberately diverse: you get a very interesting mix and it's not a coincidence.</p>