I am very interested in a program that combines both business and engineering, but M&T is extremely competitive. Are there any other programs that are less selective?
I’m looking out for similar programs in addition to applying for M&T. USC has this program wherein you can study CS and Business. I found out about it pretty recently, so I don’t know much about it.
Michigan offers a dual degree program with the College of Engineering and the Ross business school.
Doing similar research for my own S17 – Brown has a CS-Economics concentration; Claremont McKenna has a 3/2 Economics/Engineering Major (presumably with Harvey Mudd); Northwestern appears to have some business-related programs within its engineering school. Cornell has a business minor that is available in any of their colleges (both A&S and Engineering have CS majors). I suspect that a number of schools would allow you to double major in CS and business/economics, but that might require more than 4 years.
lehigh IBE
One poster on the engineering majors forum section has mentioned looking at people with engineering / business combinations in college with suspicion when hiring for engineering jobs. To that poster, seeing a lot of business courses was an indicator that the person was less interested in engineering than using engineering as a stepping stone to management.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14541938#Comment_14541938
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15205580#Comment_15205580
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15475116#Comment_15475116
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15559987#Comment_15559987
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18332420#Comment_18332420
Thanks for the suggestions. Although I like Umich and USC, I need quite a bit of financial aid and I have heard they are a little stingy. I did some research on the Lehigh program, but it says that it results in a business degree only, so I don’t understand whats the difference between the program and just declearing a business majoring and taking some engineering courses. I think I would like a engineering major/business minor combo, is this a good combo/is it plausible at most colleges?
@ucbalumnus i read through the posts and he does have a point, I don’t think every recruiter or business looks down upon it. It sucks that he had bad experiences with one or two of them, but its a little extreme to throw away all engineering/business people just because of that.
Also, I am looking into four year options for financial reasons. Is engineering major/business minor useful at all or is it a waste of time?
What is your actual post-graduation goal?
I want to be an engineer and hopefully work my way up into a management type role in an engineering company.
It is common for people with that career goal to get an undergrad engineering degree and then after a few years of working go back to school for an MBA.
Or move into management without needing an MBA or other formal education in business.
Really, if you just major in the kind of engineering you like, and select your humanities and social studies breadth requirement courses well (e.g. particularly in the social studies like economics, sociology, or even one or two business courses that do not have similar courses in social studies departments), you should have plenty of educational background for your intended career path, without raising the kind of red flags that doing a double major in engineering and business, or taking a lot of business courses while majoring in engineering, that some people hiring engineers out of school would not like.
Here is a different poster (in one of the above threads) who is skeptical of seeing engineering + business majors:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/15204990/#Comment_15204990
Yeah, I think the eng/biz program grads are more useful in the biz world than in the eng world. No real surprise, honestly.