As my search for colleges and universities to apply to continues, I have a dilemma. I am unsure of what I want to major in but I do know that it will be along the lines of social entrepreneurship, business/economics, or international relations/affairs. Are there any schools that is good in both type of fields or that are “well-rounded”? Scores and admissions percentages do not matter (yet), I just want the school to be rigorous.
P.S. this would be for an undergraduate degree
What do you mean by well rounded? I’m also unsure what you mean by social entrepreneurship.
Here on the east coast we have Babson college which is strong is the areas you mention. I think you would find the school to be quite rigorous.
IR tends to be interdisciplinary and often will be effectively guided by government/political science departments:
@“Erin’s Dad” when I say well-rounded I mean they are good/excellent and known in all departments, from business humanities to the sciences.
As stated by Wikipedia: Social entrepreneurship is the use of the techniques by start up companies and other entrepreneurs to develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a variety of organizations with different sizes, aims, and beliefs. For-profit entrepreneurs typically measure performance using business metrics like profit, revenues and increases in stock prices, but social entrepreneurs are either non-profits or blend for-profit goals with generating a positive “return to society”. and therefore must use different metrics. Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural, and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.
most of the 3000 +Liberal Arts colleges and Universities in the US are “well rounded”, i.e. they offer majors in many fields.
you should concentrate your search on finding colleges that 1] you can afford to go to, as well as 2] majors they offer. Many students completely change their minds about what they major in once they get to college - that could happen to you to.
There are FEW colleges beyond Stanford that currently offer “Social Entrepreneurship” type inter-department majors. What you need is a complete understanding of how businesses actually work in order to be able to move into a more narrow area of focus such as S.E.
You are putting the cart before the horse.
@menloparkmom so would you recommend majoring in economics and then broadening it with an MBA of choice later on in graduate school?
As far as liberal arts colleges, I am currently looking at Amherst (as a reach of course) and URichmond. My only gripe with liberal arts college is that they are too small for my liking.
I tend to think of Social Entrepreneurship as more of a mindset, or approach to business than an “area of focus” within business. It tends to attract a different type of personality than the “typical” business/finance major.
You might want to check out Tufts.
It has one of the top undergrad IR programs and a special program in Social Entrepreneurship offered through the Institute for Global Leadership. The most popular minor is in Entrepreneurial Leadership and there are yearly $100K business plan competitions with a Social Entrepreneurship category . It is also one of the top programs for Environmental Economics, as well as for Environmental Engineering/Environmental Health/Environmental Studies. (The current head of the EPA is a Tufts Alum.) It has an entire (separately endowed) College of Citizenship and Public Service.
Undergrad population is 2.5 to 3 times that of Amherst.
Similar difficulty of admissions.