Liberal Arts Degrees

<p>i plan on getting a liberal arts degree when i transfer to either PSU or UDel. I am unsure which would be best for getting into a grad school for business later on down the road. im assuming economics but i could be completely off base. which are the easier majors in the liberal arts sector? just some basic info would be great!</p>

<p>The key thing is to major in what you are interested in and what you will do well in. Entrance into a good MBA program is a matter of the quality of the undergrad college you went to, your GPA (a 2.70 from, say Penn or F&M may get you further than a 3.50 from an easy school where the Mean grade is a B plus). Your GMAT score will be very important, not because it is a good predictor (all the tests s-ck), but because an MBA program wants to make sure that the mean GPA of accepted students is high. Also, as you probably know, you need at least two years of the real world under your belt and what your job is may help.
OK, to your question. This is complex. Some of the best MBA programs do NOT want undergrads with business degrees - someone who majors in theatre, but can demonstrate that they have good quantitative skills, may get the nod - NOTE - take quantitative courses and bust your tail, as these grades will be the first thing they may look at (analytical and quantitative reasoning). On the other hand, a Bus undergrad may be able to complete an MBA program in 18 or less months because they have taken the basic accounting, etc. courses.
It also depends upon your specialty in the MBA, though some programs leave little room for specialization. If you are a finance/investment type, think economics and quantitative courses. If you plan to do marketing I do not think your major matters</p>

<p>I agree with Brian -- your MBA program will assume you know some differential calculus (although I don't know what for -- I've made it through my career since B-school without ever using it), and I can't stress enough how much a couple semesters of probability and statistics will help you later on. I still don't see the value of a lot of econ courses to a B-school candidate, although I don't think a semester of micro would hurt.</p>

<p>Other than that, it just doesn't matter. I CAN say the worst drudges I knew in B-school had undergraduate degrees in business and accounting. Not universal, of course, but far more likely to be the "is this going to be on the final?" kind of student than the "what can I learn from this?" sort.</p>

<p>I've written elsewhere in CC that I think an undergraduate science or engineering degree is perfect prep for a career in business. If you are interested in marketing, I'd do even more statistics and perhaps some anthro and psych. If you want to do finance and accounting, take a bachelor's in whatever you want. A lot of management these days requires a solid knowledge of IT -- don't forget a couple of basic courses in information systems (this is not the same as programmin, by the way).</p>

<p>I would recommend taking calculus, statistics, and macro+micro econ for MBA pre-reqs. Econ will be the best major in terms of getting you a job, so that would be my advice even though MBA programs tend to not care about your major that much.</p>