<p>If i want to eventually get an MBA, what should I major in? Econ?</p>
<p>ehhhhhhhhh</p>
<p>Most MBA schools require several years of work as a requirement for admission. So, you could essentially major in anything you want. Do what you love, not what will get you into an MBA program. I'm sure they get all sorts of different majors applying, my dad graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1978, went to work, didnt earn his MBA until 1990. </p>
<p>whatever you major in, find internships and jobs. These opportunities will set you up better for a decent MBA program, more so than what you undergrdaduate major was.</p>
<p>Whatever you major in, be it Econ, Math or English, make sure you know how to write well by the time you graduate. If you don't major in a humanities discipline, think about minoring in one. The business world needs people who are capable in writing and communicating.</p>
<p>Most of our assistants were English and LA majors. We use them to polish the written materials and they work cheap. More important to have a good grasp of math, accounting and econ.</p>
<p>You can major in anything and get an MBA. Although I wouldn't recommend business because I think that is redundant. Your work experience, GMAT scores, and college GPA will mean infinitely more than your specific major. It's more about doing well in college, having analytical (and test-taking) ability, and doing well at work before applying.</p>
<p>is usc undergrad business program a smart choice, if I'm planning on applying to a top business grad school and earn an MBA?</p>
<p>As others have said, major doesn't matter compared to GOOD work experience. So go to a college that attracts a better class of recruiters, one that has a good reputation.</p>
<p>if you want to get a (good) MBA, then the key is getting a good job to build up your resume before you apply to business school. what majors would feed to these "good jobs"? well, any major really, but business and economics are common because they are usually seen as more employable than a liberal arts major.</p>
<p>Mikemac and kfc4u are right - one of the largest factors in mba admissions (if not the factor with the most weight) is quality if work experience. </p>
<p>Which major lends itself best to MBA admissions is tricky based on the above. Students from elite schools can major in the humanities and still have their pick of jobs that MBA admissions look favorably upon, while top business job recruiters tend to only recruit from the econ and business departments of more middle-tier schools. Of course, these are not absolutes, but hold true in most cases.</p>
<p>That said, you should major in what you're passionate about. If it's not business/econ, perhaps pick one of those up as a minor, and be diligent in securing summer internships in these fields to show you not only have the interest, but the skills as well to land a top corporate job.</p>
<p>Engineering also tends to be a common choice. In most top B-schools, something like 20-35% of incoming MBA students hold engineering degrees, a remarkable percentage when you realize that only 5% of all bachelor's degrees conferred in the US are engineering degrees.</p>
<p>Don't get an undergrad degree in business if you're sure about the MBA. It is redundant. Remember that "business" is very generic. It is a little like being a jack of all trades and a master of none. That's okay, but you don't want to spend 5 or 6 years doing that. </p>
<p>If you have some idea of where you'd ultimately like to end up (e.g., at a consulting firm, investment bank, running a company, etc.), google the major players in the industry and look for the pages where they give the bios of the powers that be. The bios often include their undergrad. For example, here is A.T. Kearney's: <a href="http://www.atkearney.com/main.taf?p=2,5,1%5B/url%5D">http://www.atkearney.com/main.taf?p=2,5,1</a> Note how many have engineering undergraduate degrees. ATK is a management consulting firm. They get a lot of jobs related to major industries and industrial government studies, so naturally engineering plays a prominent role there. </p>
<p>Obviously you will find far fewer engineering undergrads at Goldman Sachs, but math will be something you should probably be good at if you want to work for Goldman. </p>
<p>If you hope to someday play a prominent role in something like the National Endowment for the Arts, art or even econ would probably make more sense than chemical engineering. But if you want to run a department at Dupont, chemical engineering could be a good place to start.</p>
<p>If you have no idea where you hope to go with an MBA, then follow your passion and talent. No matter what it is, if you love it and you are good at it, you will be more successful than if you are just tolerating it and have to push yourself every day to remain competitive. If you love art, major in art history, go work at a gallery and learn the business. If you love music, study that and perhaps you'll end up in Sony's Audio Business Group.</p>
<p>Two options:
1) Go to any top 15 school (Ivies, Duke, etc) and major in ANYTHING (econ is a boost) but get a decent GPA (over a 3.4).</p>
<p>2) Go to a top 20 business school (UNC, UCLA, etc) and get a good gpa.</p>
<p>1Down2togo,</p>
<p>Business is not like being a jack of all trades and a master of none - at all. Yes, the field can encompass many things (accounting, finance, marketing, ops mgmt, information systems, OB/HR, management, entrepreneurship), but surely no more than another major like say english (with its various time periods, movements, and genres) does. Second, one always chooses a concentration within business. A finance concentrator is surely grounded in the fundamentals of marketing strategy, but knows portfolio theory and derivatives in far more depth.</p>
<p>Secondly, doing undergrad business then getting an MBA is not always a bad route and is certainly not always redundant. If you don't go to an ivy or ivy equivalent, a business/econ or engineering major is basically required for a top ibanking or management consulting position. Regarding redundancy, most MBA programs allow students to test out of/petition against taking classes they're already well versed in (finance, marketing, etc.) so they can take other graduate-level business courses not offered to undergrads... such as the business of entertainment, real estate development, hospitality management, and so forth.</p>
<p>I was a bus admin undergrad at Cal, so I do know what subjects are studied, at least at Cal. After almost 25 years in "business" -- corporate turnarounds, general consulting, and operations -- neither my husband nor I have run into many (any? I can't think of any, but maybe there were a few we weren't aware of) people with an undergrad in business and an MBA. With no exceptions that come to mind (but I will admit that some may have slipped my mind), everyone we've worked with who possess an MBA majored in something other than "business administration" as an undergrad. Econ, engineering, history, poly sci, cs come to mind as the most popular, but there were others as well. </p>
<p>Can it be done? Sure, of course. Will it hurt? Probably not. But it's nice to know about something else too. I believe that is the reason Stanford does not have an undergraduate business program.</p>
<p>MBA can programs give you exposure to industry at a high level (retail, media, whatever) that undergrad business programs usually do not. For people going into Banking/ consulting it can be a real boost for career switchers.</p>
<p>Okay well I have classmates from Wharton who have gone back, are back, or are going back for MBAs... but they say that it's easy because they've taken most of those courses already. And at Wharton you can take MBA classes as an undergrad (and most people will do at least one). So they aren't going back for the academic experience at all, but for the credential and for the networking.</p>
<p>If you aren't passionate about business (or engineering for that matter), I wouldn't recommend majoring in that as an undergrad.</p>
<p>If you bother to look at any top 20 MBA program at least a fifth of the students had ug business majors so they are indeed common.</p>
<p>barrons, just because a fifth of the students in MBA programs have ug business majors doesn't make it the right path (or the wrong one). There are people in law school today who were paralegals and doctors who started out in nursing. Just because people do it, doesn't mean they planned it that way. And, yes, it probably does make it easier, but "easier" when you're paying good money as well as opportunity cost? Okay, whatever. Go for easy.</p>
<p>Here's some interesting data:</p>
<p>Carlton (Carly) Fiorina Chairman, President, and CEO for Hewlett-Packard, undergraduate major: medieval history and philosophy</p>
<p>Michael Eisner CEO, Walt Disney Corporation, undergraduate major: English literature and theater</p>
<p>Alan G. Lafley President and CEO, Procter and Gamble Company Undergraduate major: history</p>
<p>Steve Case CEO and Co-founder, America Online, undergraduate major: political science</p>
<p>Meg Whitman CEO, E-Bay, undergraduate major: economics</p>
<p>Jill Barad CEO, Mattel Inc, undergraduate majors: psychology and English</p>
<p>Brian Lamb CEO, C-Span, undergraduate majors: speech and communication</p>
<p>Steve Forbes CEO Forbes Inc., undergraduate major: American history</p>
<p>Steve Jobs, while he does not have an MBA, has managed a few successful business. He dropped out of Reed but he sat in on courses and studied calligraphy--something he had a passion for. Years later, his passion for calligraphy was built into the first Macinstosh computer.</p>
<p>I personally know that getting an MBA vaulted my career bigtime, it did in two years what would have taken seven. Opportunity cost? Totally worth it.</p>
<p>1Down2togo: The reason you have not met many people who have gone to both undergrad and grad business schools is because it was simply not done too often in the past. The accepted logic was to get an engineering or econ degree and then get an MBA. That is changing, however, as some business schools develop certain skills that one would not develop as an econ/engineering major. While many people still choose to go the undergrad econ/eng route, it is not the dominant school of thought it was previously. In fact, some people will find that certain jobs are limited to business majors if they attend a school outside the top 20.</p>