<p>Well, no, as an undergrad at NU you can’t major in finance or marketing or organizational behavior (and thank the lord for that, personally). The closest thing to a business major is the economics major, perhaps with MMSS, the Kellogg certificate, or the business institutions minor if one is so inclined. </p>
<p>But I think you’re not hearing what people are saying to you. Good lord, if your kid is fortunate enough to get into NU (don’t count THAT chicken til it’s hatched, that’s for sure), a economics major at NU? The world is his oyster. Such a kid is at NO disadvantage for ANYTHING compared to a BBA from some other school.</p>
<p>You have it exactly backwards. You have MORE flexibility with an econ degree than a marketing / finance / accounting / org beh degree. Because you’re learning how to think. And that’s more valuable.</p>
<p>I’m not a big proponent of trying to leverage an ED application to get into a school which other than the “caliber” is not a match for the kid. So I think the premise here is off, but that’s my take. And I do not believe that kids are being admitted ED to schools where they are not otherwise competitive candidates just because they applied ED. (I think the only exception may be Penn if you are a legacy. But not for the otherwise unhooked candidate.)</p>
<p>But really- apart from the application strategy- why limit yourself in October (or whenever the application itself needs to be completed) when there seem to be so many unresolved college issues on the table? Throw a wide net, wait to have the argument about BBA vs. Econ (if that’s what it comes to) once you know where the kid has been admitted.</p>
<p>If it were my kid (and of course it’s not) I would be more concerned that my HS senior is willing to throw in an ED application to a college where he hasn’t read the course catalog or figured out what a general course of study in “business” might look like. Whether it’s NU or any other ED school- a kid needs to be very, very sure that if accepted he will attend, no ifs ands or Monday morning quarterbacking allowed. (See? I know a football joke even though I don’t follow football. That’s what 30 years in large corporations can do for you. And I didn’t study business as an undergrad!!!)</p>
<p>Just kidding Amazon. Your son is probably not ready to do his best on an ED application because he doesn’t know enough about NU to convey his excitement in his essays. So your concerns may likely be moot.</p>
<p>There are ED schools which means that they take a large percentage of their class ED and I’m assuming that the criteria are somewhat more relaxed although most schools don’t admit this. I’ve heard something like 1/3 of the class ED although I can’t remember exactly which schools said that. It doesn’t mean that the ED kids are so much less qualified that they wouldn’t be able to hack it but they might be given an edge. Competitive schools have to reject many people who would be able to do well there.</p>
<p>By the time he applies if he applies somewhere ED he will know everything about the school and be willing to commit to going there. And we all know what’s in a business curriculum. I was just telling someone else here.</p>
My guess is that any parent planning to control a kids’ college selection with money already has a relationship that pretty fragile–if a parent is refusing to pay for a college because he doesn’t think it’s the optimum choice, chances are the relationship has been rife with this kind of controlling behavior, and this could be the straw that breaks the relationship’s back. And given the fact that this entire website exists for the purpose of helping students through the college process, it’s odd to me that someone would be a hugely active CC commenter yet downplay how important college selection is to a student (justifiably or not). I don’t think a parent’s dictating where an offspring is going to spend four years of adult life is small potatoes to that offspring.</p>
<p>"And given the fact that this entire website exists for the purpose of helping students through the college process, it’s odd to me that someone would be a hugely active CC commenter yet downplay how important college selection is to a student (justifiably or not). "</p>
<p>If by “someone would be a hugely active CC commenter” you mean me, I would say I see this differently. I would say college selection is an important reflection of all that has come before, and not as some “random”*, independant event in a families life. </p>
<p>I did not find myself here because I was looking for help through the college process. I found myself here because my husband said some people studied for the SAT, and took it twice. I thought that was crazy. I stayed here because it is fascinating to me, that not everybody sees though my eyes. </p>
<p>Maybe one problem is that I don’t see offering to pay a large amount of money, for ANY reason, as the same as " dictating where an offspring is going to spend four years of adult life". Maybe that’s because nobody offered to pay for me, nor anybody I know. I still think of it as an amazing gift. I THINK folks I know would have taken it, and run with it, but I can’t know for sure, since that just didn’t happen. Well, it DID happen for MY kids. Still trusting what I learned here.</p>
<p>*I usually hate the use of “random”, and wanted to say “spurious”, but random actually works better.</p>
<p>I thought I would share a story about one of our neighbor’s kids. During his freshman year, he informed his parents that he wanted to change his major from computer science to broadcast journalism. He wanted to be a sports caster. Needless to say, his very practical parents hit the roof. They actually told him that if he changed his major, they would no longer pay for college. He ended up getting a degree in broadcast journalism and paid for it himself. After graduating, it took him quite a long time to find a job but he finally got a job with a small local cable tv station. He worked there for about a year and then he was laid off. He was unemployed for about two years after that. During this time he was living at home with his parents. He ended up getting a masters degree in computer science which enabled him to land a stable and high-paying job. He finally moved away from home about five years after graduating from college and got married. He is still on very good terms with his parents and visits them every week.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m not sure what I would do if I were in this situation. Fortunately, our daughter has decided to major in comp sci so we’re not very worried about her job prospects when she graduates. She also has a merit scholarship that pays for all but about $5000 of her college costs each year. If she were to change her major, she would lose this scholarship.</p>
<p>@amazon
Read some of the threads as to whether ED really gives an edge to the average applicant for a school. The stats on ED are decptive. At most schools there are a limited number of ED spots. A good portion go to recruited athletes who all must apply ED. The vast majority of the remaining slots go to well qualified (top third of the stats) applicants with a hook- legacy, URM, development. The average stat unhooked applicant does not really get much of a boost except at a few schools which highly value demonstrated interest.</p>
<p>I would suggest taking the pressure off and just applying RD.</p>
<p>There are differences among those schools. Penn accepts half of its entering class ED; Northwestern used to accept only a quarter, although they seem to have inched up to a third recently.</p>
<p>Amazon, I think you are totally correct in expecting that your son make rational decisions in connection with his college choices. And yes, that includes considering what the employment prospects might be upon graduation. Unfortunately, adults and teenagers usually disagree on the definition of what constitutes a “rational decision”, so you need to look for some common ground - a solution that might work for both of you.</p>
<p>We, too, are a family that will not qualify for any FA whatsoever. I have already told my children to begin taking note of what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what subjects truly arouse their interests. They already know that we will finance 4 years of college and perhaps some graduate work, if they have formulated a path that makes some semblance of sense. From our POV, “some semblance of sense” means being able to support themselves at the end of it all. If they have not loosely defined their interests by their senior year in High School, then we have some terrific state schools where they can enroll for a year or two. I am also a huge proponent of taking a “gap year” between High School and College for those who are still undecided on where their talents might lie.</p>
<p>Our teenagers need our guidance, perhaps not in defining their inherent interests/passions but in finding a “real world” application for those passions. I think you do a child no favors by willingly underwriting anything (much less a $50,000 a year education) that does not have some well thought out purpose or direction.</p>
<p>Perhaps my children are different, but I find teenagers to be the quintessential dreamers - they really have no idea how tough the world can be. Further, they are facing a world very different from the one that existed when we graduated. I wonder whether they will ever be able to offer their children the gift of a fully paid 4 year college education.</p>
<p>How exactly does the above agree with the following?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you don’t want others to harp all over you for deciding your child’s future for him (not saying this is true), you probably shouldn’t have included the former.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize when I posted earlier that the school you were objecting to was Northwestern.</p>
<p>Northwestern is prestigious enough that companies in several areas of business that hire people for their talent rather than their training – such as investment banking and consulting – recruit there for people with bachelor’s degrees. And they’re not recruiting for business majors because Northwestern doesn’t offer a business major at the bachelor’s level.</p>
<p>I think this changes the picture a bit. Because of Northwestern’s prestige, its graduates have opportunities that graduates of lower-tier colleges don’t have, including opportunities for jobs in the business world.</p>
