<p>I read recently that if you want to pursue a business career, then you should NOT go to an undergrad business school. </p>
<p>The said that most prestigious graduate b-schools want people that are "well rounded." As in, they want people combining the business degree from thier university with something unique that the applicant studied during thier undergrad years.</p>
<p>Is this true at all?</p>
<p>This hypothesis is really easy to prove/disprove... go to your so called "prestigious" b-school website, and take a look at the class profiles. On there, the undergraduate field of study is usually listed, and from the places I have checked (Marriot, Haas,and Ross) they do take business undergrads, so I wouldn't put too much on that theory.</p>
<p>here's the breakdown:</p>
<p>Ross/Michigan: 21% business undergrads
Haas/Berkeley: 16% business, 20% Economics (a business degree at my school)
Marriot/BYU: Business Management 27%, Accounting 3%, Economics 10%</p>
<p>from these numbers, going to a business undergrad school doesn't seem to make too much of a difference. However, whether or not these schools are seeking "well rounded" students is hard to say, because a student studying business for their undergrad can still be "well rounded".</p>
<p>I'll add a couple others:</p>
<p>Harvard MBA: 22% completed undergraduate studies in Business.
Stanford MBA: 18% completed undergraduate studies in Business.
Columbia MBA: 23% completed undergraduate studies in Business.
Wharton: 23% completed undergraduated studies in Business.</p>
<p>I personally do not recommend Business as an undergraduate major, but if you really want to major in Business and your only concern is that it may hurt your chances of getting into a good MBA program, don't worry about it.</p>
<p>Why don't you recommend Business as an undergraduate major? I know a lot of people recommend engineering but that is not an option for everyone. Wouldn't it be better than most liberal arts majors?</p>
<p>you should go to the school that is the most prestigious and offers the best job opportunities.</p>
<p>Alexandre, do you not recommend business as an undergraduate major for the same reason as dcfca?
actually I've heard this alot and it's kinda buggin me since i want to major in business rather than just econ.
I thought majoring in business would have more edge than majoring in econ/liberal arts when looking for jobs etc.
Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Sabeg, I majored in Economics at Michigan. Majoring in Business never even crossed my mind. I personally agree with dcfca to a degree. Majoring in Economics at MIT or Harvard is indeed better than majoring in Business at the UIUC or Minnesota. However, if you can get into Ross or Wharton, the sky's the limit. So, yes, prestige matters, but B schools can be prestigious too. Personally, I recommend you go to a university you love and major in a field that fascinates you. The rest will take care of itself.</p>
<p>Someone on another thread said that if you want to go into investment banking or consulting than any major from a top school is good but if you want something like marketing you should get a business degree. Are people saying that if you study English lit at Williams some company is going to give you on the job training in something like marketing (or finance?) How do you learn what to do on the first day of work? Or how can you compete with someone who's taken 4 college level courses in what you're supposed to be doing at your job?</p>
<p>alexandre: does prestige really matter in the long run? (getting a job)</p>
<p>For example, if I go to a moderately prestigious university (emory, carnegie mellon, michigan), yet get into a top 5 grad school for business, will this affect me when i'm job searching?</p>
<p>Emory Michigan and CMU are not merely "moderately prestigious". Only Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are significantly more pretigious. I'd say Michigan is up there with the likes of Cornell and Penn, Emory is comparable to Rice and Georgetown and CMU is only a step behind MIT and and Caltech.</p>
<p>But say you were to go to a school that were truly moderately prestigious, lile say Case Western or Brandeis or the University of Rochester...or even to a school that isn't prestigious at all, your future is what you make of it. A prestigious school may help you get your foot in the door, but once in, it is only your performance and your ability to play the corporate game that will determine your success.</p>