<p>Is a Finance degree in today's crisis worth it? Which minor is better with a degree in Finance: Human Resources Management or International Management. I am also fluent (spearking and writing) in French and took some German classes when I was in High School. </p>
<p>I am also interested in International Studies/Development or International Relations, but many people told me that these kind of degrees will take me nowhere.</p>
<p>Thanks, for your reply!</p>
<p>If you are graduating say this year it is probably not the best major, but looking 4 or 5 years down the road a lot of jobs in the financial sector have major job growth.</p>
<p>BBA is never worth it unless it’s a top 5 target. otherwise you are better off spending your money on a liberal arts/engineering education.</p>
<p>^I really don’t get why people say majoring in a business degree isn’t worth it unless you go to an ivy league school or something. Not everyone wants to go into investment banking at a bulge bracket or consulting at M/B/B. Yes, those are perhaps the best ways to make a really good living in business, but if people are more interested in accounting, marketing, or something like that, getting a business degree from a state school doesn’t automatically mean you’re screwed. You can be successful no matter where you go, albeit it might take a bit longer. </p>
<p>And trust me, I’ve tried listening to people here and going into engineering since I don’t go to a Harvard-like school, and that was one of the worst decisions I ever made. If you’re not good at/don’t like engineering, you won’t be one of the best, and would probably be better off starting at a lower salary, and then working your way up in something you’re actually good at.</p>
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<p>It blows my mind that people actually think a liberal arts degree from a subpar school is better than a BBA from a subpar school. Liberal Arts degree from subpar school = Starbucks barista.</p>
<p>^this. I’m currently living this scenario.</p>
<p>The only business related degree worth pursuing in a subpar college is accounting and to a lesser degree finance.</p>
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<p>Or Management Information Systems.</p>
<p>how about finance at tulane?</p>
<p>Finance at Tulane:</p>
<p>Energy Trading Video from CNBC:
[Video</a> - CNBC.com](<a href=“http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=615836031&play=1]Video”>http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=615836031&play=1)</p>
<p>Tulane’s Finance Dept. ranked in Top 10 in World
[Tulane</a> University - Financial Times Names Tulane University Among World’s Top 10 Schools for Finance](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/releases/012808.cfm]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/news/releases/012808.cfm)</p>
<p>Tulane’s Equity Research Program
[Freeman</a> School @ Tulane](<a href=“http://www.freeman.tulane.edu/burkenroad/whatis.php]Freeman”>About Burkenroad Reports - Freeman School | Tulane)</p>
<p>Tulane’s Darwin Fenner Program
[Freeman</a> School @ Tulane](<a href=“http://www.freeman.tulane.edu/fenner/]Freeman”>http://www.freeman.tulane.edu/fenner/)</p>
<p>Finance is a good major if you are starting this fall as an undergrad. In 4 years, the market will be strong again and hiring will be back to where it was in 03. The average person really has no concept of finance. Finance is not understanding the economy, that’s economics. Finance is the use of economic info and accounting info (financial statements) to make money. In essence, finance is the math of making money. If you don’t like math, you won’t like finance. If you don’t like computers, you won’t like finance. You don’t have to be great a math to do well, but all you will ever do in 90% of your finance classes is math so you have to tolerate it. THE most secure major for every job market cycle is accounting. Finance is the most relevant degree yet it’s the least understood. Just my 2 cents…</p>
<p>VectorWega, what do you consider a subpar college?</p>
<p>That’s quite arbitrary I guess. I was thinking of non-flagship state universities.</p>
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<p>are you sure MIS is a good degree Vega? Although I’ll admit that I’ve heard some good stories about it, I’ve also read lots of horror stories (not getting a job because they cann’t compete with hardcore CS people, low paying “call desk” jobs). I’m not sure how valid all of those claims are, so what are your experiences with it?</p>
<p>That’s a really tough question to answer. The job market for IT fluctuates a lot. I could definitely see having to do more footwork from a small unknown school, but even poor schools are recruited by a lot of good companies and once you have experience it’s more about production and skills learned on the job rather than undergrad. BTW, I still get calls from IT headhunters and I haven’t done IT in years and keep asking them to stop calling me.</p>
<p>CS majors have an advantage because strong technical skills are generally in demand. Also, they qualify for many jobs that MIS majors don’t (or jobs that are stretches for MIS majors). </p>
<p>At the same time, many companies recruit more from MIS programs. I think this is partially due to the volume of quality students they can get (ie a CS major isn’t going to be all that interested in working for a typical fortune 500 or a big 4 firm…they want to work for hardcore tech companies like Sun Microsystems), and also due to the general personality of the students. MIS majors tend to be more polished and have better people skills, where as CS majors tend to be more computer geeks. Many IT jobs don’t require hardcore technical knowledge and thus the person with the better people skills will be favored (especially for many consulting jobs and project management jobs…many of these jobs aren’t of particular interest to CS majors anyway).</p>
<p>Liberal art degree is useless?? how about economics?? I thought economic is not a useless major…</p>
<p>As far as the comment about Math and Finance…for what it’s worth in my school the prerequisites for the introductory finance class are Finite Math, Calculus, and Statistics(a junior level class which is apparently a real *****). The consensus is that it’s easier to get a degree in Finance than accounting but I don’t think that’s because of the nature of the beast but rather because accounting is focused on the CPA exam(which keeps standards high) while Finance is more what you make of it(more electives means you can avoid harder classes).</p>
<p>I think jonahrubin makes a good point. It matters a great deal which school you get your degree from with regards to how that degree/major is structured. At some schools people steer clear of finance while at others it may be an easier road to take than accounting.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your postings. Benedote, I have really appreciated your words and links.</p>
<p>I’m a finance major at Texas A&M Mays Business school, class of 2010. I’m wondering if maybe I’d be better off trying my hand at grad school, waiting for the job market to pick up.</p>
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<p>You should be able to get a better feel for the job market there than we can. Applying to grad school wouldn’t be a bad backup plan. However, it really depends on what you want to do upon graduation.</p>