<p>What are the different advantages and disadvatages as they pertain to job opportunities, salaries, and the like.</p>
<p>I feel economics, because if you can do that, you can always slide down to business courses with a good background.</p>
<p>In economics, you generallly need a post bachelors degree to get a good job.In addition, jobs in economincs are less numersous than in accouinting alone. Thus, depending on the business degree, you may have better job prospects. This, in my opinion, is not the case, however, for a general business degree such as management. You would need some sort of speciality such as accounting, finance etc.</p>
<p>The answer depends on both the school and the specific work in either major. It also depends on what your goals are.</p>
<p>Econ is a good solid academic liberal arts/social sci major at most schools. As such it is a "utility" degree that prepares you for many directions, but it does not have a sharp career focus. </p>
<p>Business, in theory, is more practically oriented to the business world. However, it is considered, by many of us grey hairs to be a slacker major. Some colleges do actually have reputable, tough undergrad business programs, but they are the exception, and your prospective employer may not know.</p>
<p>One common fix is to specialize in a business undergrad education with an accounting major, for instance.</p>
<p>NewMassDad wrote everything that I would write. Note perception of slacker major until proved otherwise unless from some place like Penn. A graduate business degree is a professional degree; undergrad business I regard as more vocational, not academic.</p>
<p>TD:</p>
<p>no doubt that Penn/Wharton is highly revered for its undergrad biz program, but there are other non-slacker, great ones out there as well, such as the Haas School at Berkeley.</p>
<p>GameGuy: one consideration is accounting classes if a CPA is a consideration, which really means taking undergrad accounting classes, which are not offered at some schools, particularly LACs.</p>
<p>I agree with the Dads. Many open admissions schools that take any warm body have business majors. I believe it is the most common major out there. On the other hands there are business programs that are very competitive and have a higher admissions requirement than the arts and sciences schools. So there is definitely a difference.</p>
<p>I can also tell you that H hires a lot of administrators and tech kids out of college. He has never hired a business major even from Wharton. Economics is the most common major in his undergrad only brain pool. Now for the MBAs, that is, of course, a whole different story. H also says to add that in all fairness he has not gotten very many resumes from kids coming from the better business programs, and that he would not automatically pitch a business major's job app without reviewing the experience and courses the appliant has on his resume.</p>
<p>BB, I'm aware of Haas. I'm also aware that the UC powers that be would like to do away with undergrad business at Haas but are prevented from doing so by political considerations: too much prestige attached and too many angry alumni. Ah, Regental and Presidential politics...you gotta love it.</p>
<p>I'll join the greys in saying that business is perceived as a slacker major - or as a "I hate writing papers and I couldn't hack engineering" major. To quote my aunt - you know that an English major can write, a philosophy major can think, but a business major - you just don't know what they are really capable of. </p>
<p>Accounting or MBA is a different ball game - those are more professionally geared, esp, if you do the CPA/masters route with accounting.</p>
<p>Edit: Even if the business major is rigourous and paired with a lot of classic liberal arts requirements (writing, foreign language, and history) to make for a great curriculum, it doesn't always matter. What does matter is what the person going through resumes thinks of your curriculum and what the people hiring you think of your curriculum. </p>
<p>Finally, take a few engin. courses if you are interested in finance, specifically MathCad/programming ones. It looks fantastic on a resume.</p>
<p>At any top 20 undergrad business school most grads end up with good career track jobs earning enough (40K+) that they don't need to move home. That means major Fortune 500 firms, banks, consulting firms etc. I'd take those odds over a hope and a prayer with a history degree=welcome to Starbucks--may I take your order?</p>
<p>Ariesathena, you should add a warning that it might not look so fantastic on a transcript to take a few engineering classes. I had my head handed to me in an engineering curriculum without the engineering classes!</p>
<p>But if you are going into business anyway, why not start early and study business instead of Shakespeare and Sartre and stuff you'll never think about again.</p>
<p>I was a business major (back in the day) and went to law school. I think it was a good combination and no one accused me of having a "slacker" major. Indiana undergrad, U of Chicago law school. I wouldn't discourage a kid from the same track.</p>
<p>There is business, and there is business. I worked for very successful small businessmen. Many of them did not even go to college. They had shoe stores, and sandwich kiosks, plumbing businesses, landscaping, restaraunts, you name it. If that is what you want, get your basics at a comm college, local college and learn your market and trade. If you don't want to study Shakespeare and Sartre, that is probably fine. But in some of the executive circles of some of the big businesses, if this is the circle business that interests you, Shakespeare and Sartre may well be important. Your cultural IQ may well come into play. It may make the difference whether you went to South Rockmeade Community College followed by Southeastern State for your business degree or to Yale or UConn. Knowing certain historical facts, having some music appreciation, an art history course, could well make a difference. Besides, it really can be helpful even if you are a fishmonger to be able to spout Shakespeare. It certainy can enrich you life in many ways. You don't necessarily think "fish" all of the time. Many businessmen have a rich life in the arts that do not reflect their livelihoods.</p>
<p>I'll agree with Jamimom but for different reasons. People will often judge you by your vocabulary - and a great education can make you sound more erudite. Right? Consequently, the interviewee who can talk about different subjects with some confidence and seems to be bright might have an edge. </p>
<p>I'm also a fan of learning for its own sake, not as a means to an end. It's tough to realize that you won't have the types of learning opportunities that you have in college ever again - think of it as your last chance to get an education. There's plenty of time to learn a trade, but not to learn how to read Sartre in the original French.</p>
<p>Thanks Jamimom - I should have mentioned that! If grades are at all important, reconsider my engin. advice. A girl in my class did chem-e, then moved to finance after graduation. Even in a lousy economy, she got a ton of job offers because of the comp. skills on her resume. She also had the second-highest GPA in our class, so she could play with the liberal arts types.</p>
<p>So, amended advice: take, oh, ONE engineering class or a computer class - something that will teach you MathCad or some other good-to-know computer program. As your schedule will be lighter than the engineers, you might have a prayer at getting a decent grade. Alternatively, take those classes over the summer, when grading is easier (or you could take it at another school so it wouldn't mess up your transcript). I'll stand by the general advice to take some computer courses, as they do look fantastic on a resume and help you stand out - but, if the GPA is a concern, tread with caution. I should know!</p>
<p>One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet but is important is that some colleges only have econ degrees but not business degrees at the undergrad level. But such schools may be great recruiting grounds by business. One example is the University of Chicago. Undergrad econ majors at Chicago are among the most highly recruited by businesses. Not the least reason for this is that they are generally broadly trained, able to do statistics, skilled in independent research, and trained in a foreign language. The same is true of several liberal arts colleges with econ but no business undergrad degrees. Their graduates may do extremely well and are highly recruited.</p>
<p>TD: actually, many of the faculty at Haas would like to eliminate the undergrad program bcos it hurts in the rankings -- an undergrad pgm kills the faculty/student ratio. That being said, since the program is over 30 years old, it ain't gonna go away anytime soom</p>
<p>the fact that everyone seems to think of business as being a slacker major really bugs me. i mean, i have a specialization and whatnot, and not just general business, but still. </p>
<p>let's see.. what have I done in my business courses?</p>
<p>aside from the multiple 100+ page papers, presentations in front of company CEO's, visits to local businesses, and dozens of long term projects... I guess I haven't done anything.</p>
<p>but I DO know that i've done more work than the graphic design, communications, and science majors.. So I guess I should be bustin' on all of those fields, as they MUST be slacker majors...</p>
<p>Can someone tell me about MIT Sloan Business undergrad program? Do they offer business undergrad as a degree?</p>
<p>For some reason many folks here view business majors as a "slacker major" with the implication that it won't get you as far ( I guess in jobs or grad school admissions) as other types of academic majors. This perception may very well be INCORRECT.</p>
<p>A lot depends on what type of business major, what school you come from, and what you are using the major for.</p>
<p>If you are attending a school such as Carnegie Melon or Wharton, their graduates don't have any problem getting great jobs. Moreover, I am an accounting graduate with a CPA. I never, ever had a tough time getting a good job. In fact, most accounting majors that I know have had multiple job offers. As a result of the Enron debacle, jobs in accounting, especially in forensic accounting, have been mushrooming!
Several days ago, Netscape in the careers section noted that accounting is now the most popular major due to the increased demand for its graduates.</p>
<p>As far as graduate or professional schools, for the most part, they go by your GPA. Yes, I can hear it now that schools claim to take a "holistic approach" to their applicants. However, the GPA is most crucial. Law schools, for example, have no problem admitting business and accounting graduates.</p>
<p>I will admit, the the "general business" degree does have its perceived limitations. However, usually business school graduates with specific concentrations such as accounting or finance or operations research etc, should have little problems with either professional school admissions or with jobs.</p>
<p>By the way, I want to make it very clear, this does NOT imply that liberal arts graduates can't get good jobs. That is not what I am saying at all. I just don't believe that an undergraduate degree in economics is superior to a business major from a top school or a business major with a specialized concentration as far as job prospects and professional school admissions. In fact, if the student doesn't attend graduate or professional school, I think that the business major and especially the accounting major will have a leg up on job prospects over a student with an undergraduate degree in economics.</p>