Haas Students

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

<p>Because most of them want to work. This is why they did business, and not something more "academic" so to speak. </p>

<p>I believe a lot end up working in banks and financial firms. The thing is that the business major is extremely narrow and focused, so it's more applicable to the real world and working situations, and hence not as "academic." For example, if you do accounting, well, that's the only thing you will learn. Unless you want to become a CPA or whatever, there's not much else.</p>

<p>I'd say it's a reasonable goal, but I'd also recommend that you double major and major in something that enhances your writing/logic/analytical abilities. I find the business major to be quite lacking in these respects.</p>

22

<p>That definitely sounds like a good idea. I want to double major in something that does not have THAT heavy a courseload but improves my analytical/writing/logic abilities. Any suggestions?</p>

23

<p>Well, English or Philosophy would probably be good.</p>

<p>I do know though that English essays are horrendous to write at Berkeley though, meaning not a lot of straight As are allotted.</p>

<p>For me, I am doing history as well, which requires a lot of reading and writing and analysis, but it's not as analytical/logical as Philosophy or writing-intensive as English. So, it's an okay major to prep for law school, but the first two would probably help more. The reason I chose history though is because I enjoy it and the professors here are really incredible. </p>

<p>However, if you want a GPA booster and pre-law prepper, you could try Political science.</p>

<p>Another choice is Political Economy of Industrial Societies (PEIS). It shares classes with Haas; it has a bit of Economics, Poli Sci, and languages combined. So some PEIS classes can overlap with business classes.</p>

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<p>I'm hella interested in political science. I think I will definitely do that! Thanks NeedAdvice!</p>

25

<p>
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Yeah, but business does not help AT ALL regarding logical, analytical, and writing skills. There's absolutely no use for business classes if you want some law school prep/

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<p>The way I see it is, it gives you a backup degree in case you don't get into a decent law school (or don't get into ANY law school, which happens to some people). </p>

<p>Besides, the fact is, there are plenty of non-bus-ad classes out there that don't exactly give you a whole lot of help in logic/analysis/writing either. </p>

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Berkeley Haas undergraduate majors usually make about 45,000 starting pay or so, which is basically nothing

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<p>In 2004, they made an average of 54k. I would expect that this year would be substantially better, because of inflation and because of a better economy. Here is the data again.</p>

<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/BusAd.stm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/BusAd.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Second of all, 45k is pretty darn good. 45k would outearn the vast majority of majors at Berkeley. I'll put it to you this way. If you say that 45k is nothing, then what do you have to say about the salaries earned by the Development Studies graduates from Berkeley? Is that "less than nothing"? </p>

<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm#salary%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm#salary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thirdly, you have to keep in mind that salary figures are just that - only salary. Yet the fact is, many jobs, notably business jobs, weigh much of their compensation in bonuses. For example, investment banking analysts may only get 60k in "salary", but they generally make another 50-70 k in bonuses (signing bonus, year-end bonus, etc.). And no, these are not 'unusual' bonuses for unusually strong performance, but rather typical bonuses that the average analyst can expect. High performers can make substantially higher bonuses than that. </p>

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Wow. I am shocked at how few undergraduates from HAAS decide to go to graduate school. I am personally planning to try to get into a JD/MBA program or apply to Law school at another college after (hopefully) getting an undergraduate degree from HAAS.</p>

<p>Is this a reasonable goal? Is there any reason why most HAAS graduates dont decide to do something like this?

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<p>I think the answer is simple - they don't go to graduate school because, frankly, they don't really have to. They can already get a decent job with just a bachelor's degree. </p>

<p>The other factor is that the most popular graduate degree for them would obviously be the MBA. However, it is extremely difficult to get into a strong MBA program right out of college. The good MBA programs place great weighting on your work experience, and if you don't have any, then that's not good. So the typical path of a Haas student would be to work for a few years and then go to MBA school. But those students who do this are not reflected in the above data.</p>

26

<p>A word of advice: Don't major in English because you think it will be non intensive. If you like to read huge amounts of literature and don't mind writing alot of essays than yeah, come on in cause it's a fun major, but its not a walk in the park by any means.</p>

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<p>


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<p>I suppose. But if I were to double major--while going to Haas--my other major would be Economics. Then I would definitely have no writing or reading, particularly since I would probably choose to do accounting or finance. </p>

<p>Also, like I've said previously in another post, business majors do not do well on the LSAT exam. They are ranked quite low out of all majorswho take the LSAT. Given there are other variables, I suppose that business does not help you at all prep for the LSAT.</p>

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<p>Well Haas business graduates' MEDIAN salary--which is more accurate than the average salary--is 50K, not 54K. </p>

<p>Sure that's a decent starting salary, but it's not great at all, considering most people probably stayed in California where the cost of living is extremely high. You could barely survive off 50K if you lived in al arge city like San Francisco.</p>

29

<p>marry another business person = $100k :D</p>

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<p>Hello, on the topic of Haas, how many straight math courses are usually required? I'm talking about straight Calculus, and other pains of the sort.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

31

<p>Practically nothing. You only have to take Calc 1, Calc 2, and Statistics 21.</p>

<p>Unlimited...haha, ok 100k IS decent. However, I'd say a doctor should marry a lawyer for free legal aid and free healthcare bothways, and business people should NOT marry each other because of their ambitious, selfish personalities conflicting. The relationship would never work.</p>

32

<p>^^^ How tough are these classes, how are they graded, and how many terms do they spread over?</p>

33

<p>You can take either the 16 series or the 1 series. If you know you don't want go to med school, major in math, or do a science, then there's not really a need to take the 1 series.</p>

<p>The 16 series is pretty easy. 1A is a piece of cake, while 1B has the highest flunk rate. </p>

<p>Statistics 21 is easy in my opinion. (However, I did take AP Statistics and got a 5 on the AP test, meaning that it wasn't the first time I saw the material.) The only thing that might bite people in the arse is the fact that it's curved harshly. When I took it, a 95% or higher was an A, a 90 or so was a B, and below that was a C. At least this was the distribution for the midterm. In the end, I heard someone with an 85% got a C minus in the course. </p>

<p>It's only one semester for each, hence 3 semesters of math total.</p>

34

<p>I consider Econ more difficult than Business (as a major) because of all the mathematics involved. Especially if you're going to graduate school...you have to at least minor in Math (or double-major in it to be safe) to go on to graduate school...that doesn't sound easy at all!</p>

35

<p>Well yes, if you want to go to graduate school for Econ, you should take 1A, 1B, 53, 54, and some more Calculus and Statistics clases. It is recommended you double major in Mathematics. And yes, the courses are harder than Business's by far.</p>

36

<p>
[quote]
Sure that's a decent starting salary, but it's not great at all, considering most people probably stayed in California where the cost of living is extremely high. You could barely survive off 50K if you lived in al arge city like San Francisco.

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<p>It's all relative. You may say that surviving off 50k (or 54k) might be tough, but hey, what about those Development Studies majors trying to survive off 25k? What about those Rhetoric majors trying to survive off 29k? I think we can all agree that the Haas grads are far better off financially than those people, and in fact, better off than most Berkeley grads. </p>

<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

37

<p>
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<p>It's all relative. You may say that surviving off 50k (or 54k) might be tough, but hey, what about those Development Studies majors trying to survive off 25k? What about those Rhetoric majors trying to survive off 29k? I think we can all agree that the Haas grads are far better off financially than those people, and in fact, better off than most Berkeley grads.</p>

<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/CarDest/2004Majors.stm&lt;/a>

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<p>Well yes, but it seems many Haas students don't pursue grad degrees, despite the good yet still too low salary. (I'm amazed how low some engineers get paid, but chem E and EE seem to do quite well.)</p>

<p>!</p>

38

<p>Those are just averages. Engineers that have 3.8's and whatnot do quite well. In general there is a bimodal distribution of income. I'm guessing for a lot of these "top" majors there are a slice of people that make like 70-80k after college and most make around 35-40k averaging out to 50k. The career center numbers are soooo useless without a knowledge of distribution or the characteristics and statistics of those that do well.</p>

<p>For example, I thought I had no chance at certain law schools because of my gpa but my lsat score made up for the slack in my gpa when I visited other, more informative sites.</p>

39

<p>Yeah, it's all relative, sakky. But what about the goals of a rhetoric vs. a business major? Do you think there's anything we can do to imagine who's more interested in money, who's less interested, ect? Do you think this matters at all? If some business major went into the business world wanting to make all the money in the world, and made say 50k to start, and some rhetoric major went out into the world not as concerned about money, choosing to do something low-paying over a job with a hire wage, doesn't that matter? Are we dealing with correlation, or causation? I think the statistics we are dealing with only give so much information. Sure, people would generally rather make more money over less money, this is usually the case, of course, but I couldn't imagine some business and engineering majors I know even considering less money for something they like a little more. I heard one engineering major who works as a businessman and will go into business ask a friend what in the world she's thinking volunteering her time for free. Work without any pay? Absurd to him!</p>

40

<p>According to many, 16A is a breeze.. on a nice sunny beach during the summer.</p>