<p>Just out of curiosity, which major would be more preferred by MBA adcoms? </p>
<p>Assume two candidates, both from Ivies with equal GPAs, GMATs, and job titles. Which one gets the nod?</p>
<p>per my response to combin’s thread:</p>
<p>Definitely economics, hands down no questions asked. Economics is almost always graded easier than business majors, and is actually smiled upon more favorably by adcoms. Part of the reason is because many top undergrad universities do not offer business undergrad majors, and instead only offer economics.</p>
<p>Cynical but true, adcoms at these MBA programs turn a blind eye to the fact that average grades in business majors are much much lower than average grades in economics programs for precisely the reason that they prefer to admit their own, and their own are econ majors.</p>
<p>The toughest part about coming out with an econ major is landing a job, especially in this economy. It’s sort of an all-or-nothing: either you get a big-shot job in consulting or banking or you get nothing impressive at all, so you have to be sure to get very good grades (but that shouldn’t be too hard, per the above).</p>
<p>To answer your question more specifically, I think econ and finance would be looked at equally, which is a big advantage for the econ major, since finance probably has a much lower grade curve.</p>
<p>Either way, make sure you take a lot of math classes. Also, I agree that economics is better. It is useful to know in general, too, even for lawyers, engineers, doctors etc.</p>