Hi, I’m a senior and am trying to narrow down my college options. My top choices are Emory, Rice, Georgia Tech, NYU, and Columbia. I applied as an Engineer to all except Emory and NYU (applied for business at those two). I don’t know if I want to do engineering or business, so I could see myself switching around in college. Can anyone tell me about the academics aspect of these schools and what the dorms are like? How is the school spirit? Safety? Thank you!
Career-wise, an engineering degree with a business minor (if that’s possible - it would be crazy-hard-work) and then an MBA later would be the most lucrative. But all are great (I’m a Ga. Tech grad). My question would be about money. Are you from Georgia? That would decide it for me.
Have you been accepted by all of these places? If you need financial aid, do you have your aid packages yet?
Until you know where you have been admitted and if those places are affordable, it is too early to start choosing between them.
@digmedia I live in FL. So you think it would be better if I majored in engineering and then minored in finance? I don’t want to feel forced to go to graduate school however. /:
You can easily go into a job in engineering or “business” with an engineering degree (even without the finance minor). So focus on getting a B.S. in engineering…you’ll have plenty of time to study finance later, or pick up finance knowledge on the job.
@moooop even if I want a business job right out of undergrad??
You definitely can’t work as an engineer if you don’t major in it… and it would be really hard to go back for that (you would have to go back and pick up another undergrad degree to do it, essentially). It is MUCH easier to pick up some business classes and work in business than to pick up engineering later. IF you really want to be an engineer. It wouldn’t be much fun to be an engineering major if you don’t really like it, though.
If you’ve already applied, why are you asking us to narrow down your options? That’s putting the cart before the horse.
Which of those choices are affordable for your family? Run the Net Price Calculator for each if you haven’t already. Have you been accepted to any of them yet?
Have you been admitted to all? If so, can you list for each
College name = (tuition, fees, room&board) - (grant+scholarship) = $…,000
I would really just like some help deciding if I should do business or engineering at this point. No cart is being placed before a horse, I’m trying to just understand my potential futures a little better. @MYOS1634 @austinmshauri @merlion @intparent
@CocoMojo13, I don’t think we can really decide which one is best for you, but just know that in most schools the two majors are almost mutually exclusive… of course you can take business courses while pursuing an engineering degree and vice-versa. Like another poster suggested, you can always go back to school for an MBA after getting an engineering degree, which is a pretty common practice in certain fields like medicine (where M.D. grads get MBAs to start clinics, etc). At the end of the day, you’re the only one that can make this decision. However, always remember that the great thing about our education system is that no door is completely closed for you!
First see where you get in. Second see what you can afford. Third decide what you want to study (nobody here can decide that for you and it would be hard to switch between these disciplines once you start college). After these steps are completed then re-post your options.
I don’t think anyone on this board can make a career choice for you. I will say that it is very hard to switch into an engineering curriculum and still graduate on time because many of the course are sequential in nature so if you don’t start freshman year you will be behind. Business also has a specific core curriculum and it would be difficult to switch into and graduate on time as well. In addition many colleges have specific business or engineering schools which you need to gain admittance to so if you switch you’d have to apply for an internal transfer which is difficult at some schools.
And I wouldn’t worry quite yet about which school to attend until you get your acceptances and (if you need it) your financial aid information.
Lots of non-business majors get “business” jobs at graduation. Also, it is usually easier to switch from engineering to business in college than the other way around (due to the greater prerequisite course work for engineering), so starting as an engineering major keeps your options more open for longer. However, sometimes there are fairly high internal transfer admission barriers around one or both types of majors, due to their popularity.
Also, industrial engineering has considerable applicability to business problems, but from a more mathematical and statistical point of view.
I’m in the same boat as you. Interested in both engineering and business/finance. Ultimately I decided to start with engineering because it’s easy to switch out of engineering but nearly impossible to switch into it. Even if it’s not your passion, you’ll still be fine because engineers have tons of options once they graduate - most people who were engineering majors don’t even work in traditional engineering jobs. It’s very easy to get an MBA or go into a different field because you’ll gain great quantitative skills from an engineering degree.
You don’t need to major in business to get a job in business. Actually, you’re better off if you don’t!
You could do STEM-MBA (I know UAlabama does that), where you get a STEM degree along with business pre-reqs, and get an MBA in one year; it’s a selective program. Other universities offer it, too.
But, overall, if you want to work in business, engineering is a fine major. It’s also very hard and it doesn’t have space for electives, with courses to be taken in a specific sequence so that, if you miss one step, you are set back by one semester.
CS and Applied Math tend to have good job prospects without requiring the same precribed path, which could give you more flexibility and the option of having a Business minor.
You could also do Quantitative Economics.
(Actually, depending on the school you hope to attend, you could major in History, in Urban Studies, etc… and work in business. What matters isn’t your major, but rather your internships and the skill set you’ve acquired. An art history major from Williams has better career prospects than a general business major from South Central State U.)
I know you didn’t apply there, but Michigan offers a dual engineering/business degree. My guess it that it is grueling, though; I have a degree from Ross, and lived with a bunch of engineering students who worked insanely hard. Here is a link to their program so you can see the requirements on the business side to get some idea of what classes you might take if you tried to design your own dual major (although it is vague about the engineering courses). You could also Google the schools you did apply to and see if any of them offer dual degrees in these two areas. I know at Michigan you can’t just take most business classes without being admitted to Ross (maybe a couple, but you can’t just register and take 10 classes in the business school if you have not been specifically admitted there). You should check on your colleges (both business and engineering programs) and see if there are restrictions like that.
http://www2.bus.umich.edu/MyiMpact/academics/bba-dual/engineering#req
I totally agree with MYOS1634. My son also was between engineering and business with pretty much the same thoughts as yours. In the end he decided to go with business because he knew he could not manage the lack of flexibility in an engineering program. He looked at all the classes he needed to take as an engineer and a lot of them looked like a chore. What is your personality like? When we make plans we really have to take that in to account too, not just what’s the “best” in general. Look at the detail program both of an engineering major and a business major and see which classes excite you the best. If you are more in to the math and science and truly enjoy those classes it is one think. But if you are a bit more interdisciplinary and really enjoy some other type of classes and want room to explore business might be better.
@am9799 do you know if it is true that undergraduate business majors actually hurt your chances at an MBA?