<p>What you say is certainly true, DaRaverLa, as far as students competing on the strengths of their own profiles rather than their schools.</p>
<p>Perhaps "leftover scraps" was poorly worded, yet I must point out that it's generally been accepted in the business community over here due in part to word-of-mouth from many UCLA students (including some on this board) that recruiters visit UCLA with biz econ students in mind. Subsequently, many regular econ majors who've wanted to go into business have lamented the fact that they're not nearly as targeted as their biz counterparts.</p>
<p>As you pointed out, this statement is based completely on hearsay and so you can take it with a grain of salt. I'd be hesitant to call it a subjective assessment though as it's merely based off of the experiences voiced by the UCLA econ students I've spoken with. Who knows though; this could be just a select, vocal minority. </p>
<p>Personally, I've never really challenged this notion as I've heard it even on College Confidential on the UCLA board. However, I'd hate to toss it around on CC when you, another BizEcon student, say it's untrue DaRaverLa. Can anyone else also offer some insight or comment on the validity of this?</p>
<p>Themegastud,</p>
<p>Log on to interviewtrak. Look at what the companies are looking for. Notice that some, but not all, are looking for Business Administration majors. If you are majoring in any other subject you are not even allowed to click on hte send button to submit your resume. You will get an error message that says something like you do not meet the companys requirements. The same message will happen if the company is looking for a computer science major and you try to send your resume as a business major. Something very similar happens at UCLA if you are not a BizEcon major. Of course, this is not for every company and in fact it is not even for most companies.</p>
<p>Even though this is something that happens for campus recruiting at UCLA and USC (the only two schools I can account for), this does NOT happen in real life. In real life, i.e. in the job market outside of school, an econ degree is ALMOST ALWAYS a substitute for a business degree.</p>
<p>Ah but Shyboy, this is often in the case for schools that do not offer a business degree and whose closest substitute is in fact an econ degree, such as Stanford.</p>
<p>I've heard from many econ majors here who didn't do the dual Master's/Bachelor's degree program that during business interviews, one question often fielded was something like "If you're interested in [job being applied to], why didn't you major in Business Administration at USC?" Essentially, if your school offers a business major and you want to go into business, why didn't you take it? Whether or not this had any bearing on subsequent hiring can't be determined, but I can only assume the same question is posed to other econ students at a school, such as UCLA, that has a business-focused alternative.</p>
<p>Let me add that this isn't saying choosing econ is in any way prohibitive or restrictive. Merely that the "barriers to entry" (har har) for one wanting to do business may be a tad higher.</p>
<p>themegastud, I think you and Shyboy are both true regarding the perceived reputation of econ students here at UCLA.</p>
<p>As I have noted in the past on this board, there is a visible perception that Biz Econ students are superior than Econ students in quality since only a majority of current econ students are considered "rejects from the Biz Econ major", which is probably not the case at all.</p>
<p>After all, an econ major with 3.8 (I have seen many, many) isnt, and shouldnt be considered "inferior" over a biz econ major with 3.25.</p>
<p>Shyboy is right in his assessment that most companies, over 90% based on my personal experience back in 2001, recruit both Biz econ and econ students.</p>
<p>I know this because I didnt get into Biz Econ until the last quarter of my undergraduate, and I was so apprehensive of the prospect of entering the job market with "only" econ degree.</p>
<p>However, contrary to my initial expectation, most companies that recruited at UCLA were very, very open about interviewing students with a wide range of different majors.</p>
<p>themegastud,</p>
<p>Although that is an interesting theory, I really dont buy it. It may have some validity but I dont think it is significant at all. In my experience, the real world in not as nit picky as students tend to think. In fact, students often receive a culture shock of sorts when they begin their first job (as an analyst perhaps) and realize that they have to do things that are not remotely related to what they learned in school. Students think they are going to be handed all this responsibility when in reality they must work their way up to actually doing truly responsible things. Another example is when students think they are "owed" a job because they graduated from a specific school/program. Truthfully, your interview is much more important than where you went to school. </p>
<p>In other words, the real world is not what students think it will be like.</p>
<p>Truthfully, your interview is much more important than where you went to school. </p>
<p>Absolutely. As long as you have a good GPA (over 3.5), you can always make the strong argument for your case: </p>
<p>"I didnt major Business Administration at USC/ Biz Econ at UCLA, because I really, really loved the econ courses. It wasnt that I couldnt get into Marshall/Biz Econ, as strongly evidenced by my high GPA."</p>
<p>While there is indeed a certain degree of hierarchy between Business and Econ majors at USC and Biz Econ and Econ majors at UCLA, the degree of such perception is much, much stronger among students than among recruiters.</p>