<p>Thus far, I have planned on going on after my undergraduate education to get an MBA. Initially, I was interested in attending a good business school for my undergrad years and going from there. However, as I have researched prospects over time, I have become more interested in a liberal arts education of sorts (Economics-Mathematics). </p>
<p>As of now, I am still unsure as to what I want to pursue after graduating - but business school is still my main prospect. I have no desire to attend medical school, so that's off the list. However, law school has interested me and I don't want to rule it out. For several of the schools I am looking into, it is not worth it to not apply to their business school. If I did end up going to one of those schools (NYU, UT-Austin, Georgetown, Cornell), I would be majoring in Finance and minoring in Philosophy. Would this business degree make it more difficult to possibly go on to law school (or even graduate school for Econ, Math, etc. if I desire to do so) instead of business school?</p>
<p>It just seems that majoring in Economics (or some variation of it) will keep more doors open than a pre-professional business degree. Is that a valid assumption to make, or will I be fine either way?</p>
<p>yes that is a valid assumption, but then again it becomes harder to get into those doors that have a pre- watever like medical, optometry, law
but then again everything's a toss up in professional schools</p>
<p>my dad has an aquatiance who is a stanford alumni who majored in business graduated with a degree in economics and business, but then ended up in stanford medical school...now he practices gynecology</p>
<p>so... what im trying to say is life is full of randomness and you have no idea what ur gona be hahhahaa</p>
<p>I'm kind of experiencing something similar...I'm not sure if I want to bother with business anymore, just because I feel like the degree won't be very educational, and won't really matter if I intend to go to law school. I think I'll stay with business at the schools I'm applying to that offer it, but I'll try to double major in economics as well.</p>
<p>if i were u and since u dont know what u wana do specifically? try majoring in business first then apply to competitive business schools. if u dont get accepted allow some more time so you can get your 2nd major in economics minor in w/e while building up ur portfolio and interning for companies. invest in the stock market and try to be succesful. do things that would seem beneficial while double majoring and then re-apply?</p>
<p>try to prove to schools that your worth it through statistics. start your own stock market portfolio. show your starting amount, percent growth each month, how much you've increased your portfolio from the start, successful trades, etc... then compare that portfolio with other people your age.</p>
<p>even if its a slight amount joining the stock market proves 3 things to your potential school:
1. you take action and not only talk
2. your not afraid of taking risks
3. you understand how the economy and businesses work</p>
<p>I would rather not go for a second major... :$</p>
<p>Those are some interesting ideas for adding to my business school application though - so thanks.</p>
<p>But I was looking more for an idea of whether going pre-professional for undergrad limits my options, other than business school, after I graduate.</p>
<p>Well my opinion would be, not to go into a pre-professional program if you don't intend to go after that with your graduate studies. Economics might be more broad than finance, but if you want to get an MBA either one should be fine. If you want to do some other type of graduate studies (non-business related), go for what's related to that, although there's no pre-law major, so you're still right back with Finance or economics, w/e you like the most. </p>
<p>If you want to do law school I would really think either one is fine, since again there's no "pre-law" major. What do you think students that go into Law school study ? pre-med ? history ?, nah (although sme of them still do), the most popular are some form of business or econ, stuff related to that law area. If you feel Economics will open more doors for you, look at Finance as Business-Economics. It's really still economics after all, just more aimed at businesses and more applied than regular Economics (you have to find a way to allocate resources for a business to operate), and you can get a head start on the "business world" (know how it works and all that stuff) for your MBA if you do decide to do it. If not, Finance won't hurt your chances for Law School. </p>
<p>Economics = Teach you how to think and analyze stuff
Business-Economics = same, but at the same time apply such thinking into functions of businesses.</p>
<p>I will go straight to some post-grad program, though I am undecided between law school and grad school. Perhaps I'll just go to whichever program accepts me.</p>
<p>A Ph.D is easy to afford, since, well, the department pays you. Most cannot afford a law degree: they take out loans instead. If you happen to attend Harvard, Yale, or Stanford, they will help in paying those loans for you (provided that certain conditions are met).</p>
<p>if you really want the MBA, work a few years first. There's a dual obstacle otherwise: 1) admissions, and 2) the classroom</p>
<p>1) The vast majority of MBA students are in their late-20's and have worked for a few years. Admissions kind of expects it, unless you have some incredible internship experience. </p>
<p>2) One of my friends at Cornell (was '06, now MBA '08) was one of those students who had alot of hard core internship experience (even took a year off of Cornell to work at Goldman Sachs), though talking to him a few weeks ago led me to understand why most MBA students have years of work experience: they work they do in business school pretty much requires it. It's not so much ability based as it is other factors - for instance, he said that tests and papers often have the "please discuss based on your experiences as well" question in them so his ability to answer based on limited experience is severely inhibited. Also, he's said that participating in class is much more difficult as well with the lack of experience - this can rub off on your grades.</p>
<p>my mom's CEO at her company got a MBA from stanford, and I remember her talking about how MBA students are more successful when they have some real-life work under their belt, because you'll pick up on things that are needed in a MBA degree course, but, you're not graded on it (except maybe if you badly screw up you lose the job...but if someone does that, i doubt anyone would be successful in a post-grad school)
also, MBAs will let you work in an business field basically, so i doubt trying to get into a busniess-type major grad school would be hard with a MBA...not sure if the order would matter, it seems that working for a bit, getting a MBA to get a better job so you can afford grad school, and then going on in grad school, but then again, you could go to grad school, get a good job, then a few years later try for a MBA...i think either route would be good, its just whether you'd rather get grad or professional school out of the way first</p>
<p>I suffer from that at my program, even if it's not an MBA program. It's kind of frustrating in curved classes on NGOs or security to have to compete with military officers and former deputies of various NGOs...</p>