<p>"Someone once said that it's pretty useless; with an English degree, your employer believes that you can write and spell; with a philosophy degree, they believe that you can think; with a business degree...?? "</p>
<p>Aries, again I have to take issue with a statement you've posted. I realize that "someone once said" this, so I'll try my best to avoid shooting the messenger. Any perceived frustration is aimed not at you, but whoever said this, or believes this.</p>
<p>Many business employers look specifically for the skillset that only a business (and perhaps economics) student attains. I remember a specific Merrill presentation where, upon being asked if other majors (meaning non-business) were considered by Merrill in the recruiting process, the recruiter responded "well, all other thing being equal, of course we're going to take the business major over some english student who's never seen an income statement in the course of his or her studies." She later remarked that only liberal arts majors from the most elite schools were seriously considered.</p>
<p>This is not to say that liberal arts majors encounter difficulty securing jobs in the business world. However, I would argue that the most prestigous and most well-compensated business positions out of undergrad are extremely difficult to attain for liberal arts majors (ivies and de-facto ivies excepted). After all, the Merrill woman makes a valid point. Why would they choose someone who's not only failed to show interest in the job they're pursuing by picking an unrelated major, but also someone who's not necessarily proven adequate quantitative ability, nor fundamental functioning business knowledge. </p>
<p>According to Vault's "Guide to Finance Interviews," a typical interview question is "If the strike price on a put option is below the current price, is the option holder at the money, in the money, or out of the money?" I'm sorry, but if you're a English major, good luck using your knowledge of the capitalization nuances in e.e. cummings' poems to answer this. If your a philosophy major, good luck "thinking" about this one. Pondering this and drawing vague parallels to existentialism won't answer this.</p>
<p>There's this notion out there -- an unfortunately widespread one -- that getting into a top MBA program with a liberal arts major is just as easy as doing so with an undergrad b-major. Elite schools aside, this is simply not the case. Why? Because the primary determinant in MBA admissions is work experience -- that is, QUALITY OF BUSINESS work experience. With a philosophy major, you're just not likely to attain a job impressive enough to satisfy MBA adcoms. A high scchool English teacher may have amassed 20 years of grueling, difficult, and challenging work experience; but this doesn't mean he/she can expect to get into a top business school.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what the statistics are for other business schools (though I'm sure they'd mirror this), but at least at USC-Marshall (where I work for the MBA program), the most common undergrad major of admitees is business/economics. In distant second comes all of the "liberal arts" majors lumped together (I'm not sure why it's done like this), and then engineering. Coincidence? No.</p>