Hi everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it.
I am a rising senior from New Zealand, and I’m not sure what to major in
I want to do business as a career, however I don’t know whether it is better to gain technical skills first (engineering, CS) or to go straight into business school
This is where my profile stands:
Grades
GPA: 4.0
ACT: 33 Composite (might retake this September)
Cambridge (CIE) AS/A levels: A* in 7 subjects (by senior year)
SAT II: Will sit: Math II, Physics, Chemistry, English literature
Main EC’s:
Varsity Squash - captain
Varsity Basketball
Club basketball (regional team) - national champions
Started a phone case company - won’t go into much detail - $70,000 revenue
Writing a book of a collection of personal stories of and accounts of CEOs and founders - will be published next year
Young Enterprise Scheme - Competition for high school students to start and run their own enterprises within a year, pitch those enterprises to investors and judges for prize money - Regional finalists, competing for nationals (this is separate from my own company), Founder and COO
Internship at World Vision NZ - Digital engagement intern, work alongside marketing team in process mapping and developing campaigns
Internship at consulting firm - alpha designer and beta developer/tester of their CRM website
Learnt html, CSS and Javascript through codeacademy (not sure if relavent)
Awards
NZ Economics competition national winner
Ideastarter NZ national winner (win cash prize to start an idea for a company)
Young Enterprise exam national top scholar (scholarship to a business school in New Zealand)
Any advice is appreciated - I am really conflicted on what major I should apply for - I have a list of preferred schools (Stanford, Berkeley, USC) but any suggestions to what schools I should apply for is also appreciated, particularly if they have certain programmes that may suit me
If you want to do business, major as business. Berkeley has a great business school. But then again, so do any of the Ivy league schools. Just google those if you haven’t heard of them.
You obviously have the capability to major in more “difficult” fields, such as engineering. This would be a great option also (from a fellow chemical engineer). You can become an engineer, and then move up and join the management part of your engineering field.
Another option, if you want to work a little harder, is to double major in engineering and business.
You seem to have a lot of options, giving your stats, but keep in mind, you can always change your major once you get to college. I didn’t know what I wanted to do until my second year of college. Just remember to take Math early on, so you can always do a science major, such as engineering if you change your mind.
@michaelduffy39 thanks for the insight, I really appreciate it - is there a particular major out of my options that I have the highest chance to get accepted for? (Particularly at stanford)
I am of the opinion that it is wonderful to enter college ‘undeclared’ so that you can explore and find your passion before declaring a major. You clearly haven’t identified your academic passion yet (even though you are a capable coder, for example) but this is fine…it’s great.
Many American colleges embrace this. Many of the Ivies, many top research universities, and probably most liberal arts colleges don’t require you to declare a major until maybe start of junior year. I think you should focus on these schools. I think Stanford is in this camp.
As you probably know, other universities DO require you to apply to the college of arts or sciences or engineering or social sciences, etc etc. If you’re not sure where your academic passion is yet, then I don’t think those schools are right for you.
‘Business’ is broad, and successful entrepreneurs, managers, marketers, and CEOs come from a wide range of disciplines. The best engineering manager I ever worked for was a Forestry major (and he became CEO of a tech Fortune 500 company).
So my advice is to relax about major, and focus on schools that look like they’d give you a vibrant academic experience. You can always go to business school later.
Most of the Ivy League business schools are graduate only. For example, you can’t major in business as an undergrad at Columbia, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, or Yale (although there is a special undergraduate concentration in business you can do at Columbia - it’s like a minor - but it’s by application only and slots are limited). You can major in commerce, organizations, and entrepreneurship at Brown, and of course Penn has the Wharton school.
Here’s the thing - ‘business’ is a catch-all term. There are lots of things that are ‘business.’ Do you want to simply work at a business, or do you want to go into fields that are commonly defined as business like marketing, finance, or accounting? You can do marketing, finance, or management with majors in other areas; you don’t have to study them in undergrad at all.
If you want to be an engineer or a software developer, then yes, you should gain technical skills and major in engineering or computer science. If you want to manage people in those roles, then you probably should also get a technical degree. You can also take on roles that have a little bit of a hybrid, like operations research or program management, if you have a technical degree. Many students with quantitative majors like math, statistics, physics, and economics go onto manage hedge funds and do investment banking and all that.