<p>So I am a senior in high school and am trying to figure out where I want to go to college. I know I want to go into the field of business. Though I'm still trying to figure what exactly I want to do, I'm interested in international business, marketing, and management side; I'm definitely not as interested in the banking or finance side. I've done my research and found of bunch of great school with business programs, including: UPenn, Cornell, UC Berkeley, USC, NYU, WashU, and Emory. However, here's the conundrum.</p>
<p>Should I only limit myself to schools with undergraduate business programs? What other options do I have? I've heard that it's better to pursue a liberal arts education for a bachelors and then focus on business for a masters. However, I can't imagine not pursuing any sort of business degree during my first four years of college. So College Confidential community, what opinions do you have?</p>
<p>You can look for a LAC with a management or business major/minor. Dickinson’s is quite good (international management, with junior year abroad and a 2nd semester internship at your abroad location). A degree in economics may be useful, and depending on what in business interests you, statistics/applied math/math, design/art, foreign language, computer science… can all be good complements. Finally, if your goal is to have a career in business, you don’t have to have a business degree. What will matter most is your internships. (You can google “how my daughter made the most ouf of college” to have a good example of this.)
Wharton and Stern are essentially liberal arts degree + strong business degree due to very broad requirements. They require a very strong math background.
Other programs may be more technical/vocational.</p>
<p>MBA’s typically require 2-5 years of professional experience.</p>
<p>What’s in-state for you?
What’s your parents’ budget - will you need need-based aid or merit aid?
What are your stats (GPA/test scores/any AP?)</p>
<p>Go for econ as well. Any top school will do it.</p>
<p>As for MBA, here’s my 2c. Do whatever degree that will allow you to get a good job after graduation, one that allows a lot of upward mobility. There are people who do an MBA after a BBA but it is redundant. Usually though, its paid by their employer who would like to see the qualification met.</p>
<p>Given the subjects you seem to be interested in, I’d definitely go for a business degree as an undergraduate. Most good MBA programs require you work for at least a couple of years after college so it is unlikely you’d go for an MBA right after college. It is probably good to position yourself to find a job you will enjoy after your undergraduate education. </p>
<p>A BS and a MBA could have a little bit of overlap but the coursework but there is enough variety in terms of subject and classes that it doesn’t have to be redundant. My husband has a BS in accounting and a MBA in finance (which he got years later) and the two programs had almost no overlap as he was able to place out of some of the introductory MBA classes. </p>
<p>Economics is a liberal arts course of study so it is a very different program than a business. As an economics major you don’t take classes like marketing, business law, management where classes like that are generally part of a core requirement for any business program. </p>
<p>Look at some programs for business schools and for economics degrees and see which course of study really interests you.</p>
<p>In terms of stats, my unweighted GPA is 3.97 and my ACT (which I have only taken once so far) is 33. Also, I will not require need-based or merit aid.</p>
<p>In regards to working after getting a bachelors and before pursuing a masters, that is why I have been focusing on schools with undergraduate business programs. As a high school student, I haven’t had experiences with business related classes. I’ve only been able to take AP microeconomics and AP macroeconomics. That’s why I feel like I need to be immersed in some sort of undergraduate business program. Plus, who knows what circumstances will be like in 5 years. I want to know that I will have the background to find a good job after graduation.</p>
<p>The other thing that is influencing where I’d like to go to college is location. I live in the midwest, and want to branch out to where I feel there is more opportunity. I’ve been to the Silicon Valley area of California and feel like it has a lot to offer. Soon, I’m going to visit LA to see University of Southern California. I haven’t visited the northeast at all, but it seems a lot of the good schools are located there. While I know where I go to college doesn’t necessarily mean that is where I will live, I cannot imagine myself living in the midwest or south. For example, University of Michigan, Indiana, and North Carolina all have great business programs, but I don’t seem to have a desire to go there.</p>
<p>Anyway, hopefully this information will help keep the conversation going.</p>