<p>I have been thinking about getting an economics degree from Vanderbilt and I am wondering if it is a good idea or not. I want to have an IBanking/consulting job after college. I have read multiple comments about how the economics program at Vanderbilt isn't that good and it is hard to find good jobs after graduating. I also heard that getting an economics degree is inferior to a business degree. Is any of this true? If I go to Vanderbilt for economics will I be in a bad position for getting a job?</p>
<p>While recruitment here is improving significantly, there are plenty of top schools with better recruitment for IBanking. If your only priority is getting recruited by top firms, there are obviously better places to go. </p>
<p>Still, the econ program at Vandy is fine. It’s consistently ranked in the top 40 (according to Vandy’s website anyway). I believe a Vanderbilt’s econ degree mostly holds weight just because Vanderbilt is a rigorous, well-rounded school-- not because the econ program is particularly prestigious. You may be in a “bad position” for getting a job relative to graduates from top econ programs, but not in a “bad position” relative to the other 99% of universities.</p>
<p>As for the econ vs business degree, no. It doesn’t matter. Many of the top recruiting target schools don’t even offer a “business” degree. Vanderbilt has a business minor.</p>
<p>S1 is an econ grad of Duke in the crash of 2008-09. Duke is definitely one of the top recruit schools. However, you will not be recruited without the commensurate top GPA in Econ classes. At one time MIT was a huge hire school as well, taking a huge percentage of grads into IB starter jobs. All that changed in the crash. Which is why Duke added on a one year Masters program that was not exactly an MBA but added hard skills to Duke grads underqualified for the job market. Vandy also has a very good one year post grad business/accounting program.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s reputation for having 1600 students in each class with top testing talent is no doubt increasing its reputation in companies that are looking for quantitative talent. </p>
<p>That said, my Duke son worked along with a flagship college grad with an undergrad business degree and with graduates of engineering schools with degrees in industrial engineering and commented that they were very “job project ready.” They had applied learning skills that he did not have and had been doing business projects in undergraduate school while our son was almost exclusively studying only quantitative courses as an Econ major who didn’t do the business cluster available at Duke. He insisted on a double major in history and loved every class so wouldn’t give up time for the applied courses in the business certificate cluster at Duke. Vandy does teach applied business courses in clusters as well. Just go online and examine them.</p>
<p>Where ever you go it is wise to push yourself in quantitative courses to be able to perform well in tomorrow’s job market–you won’t regret it. Vanderbilt is such an outstanding four year all over experience. S1 lives with a Bain employee who fulfilled the entire tippy top GPA requirements at Duke. S1 uses his quantitative mind every day in his job. After being out in the work force, he knows he has to go back and will start MBA work soon to get more skills.</p>
<p>From what I have heard from the class of 2009, I agree with every word above from Pancaked. Once you have your admits in front of you April 1…go where you can learn the most and be happiest.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, Vandy does have a really cool 1-year program that guarantees you an internship (and most of the time, eventual job offer) at one of the partner firms. Could go into it from any school of course, but Vandy students do get preference I believe.</p>
<p>I’m not sure whether the quality of the economics program is an issue. I think the problem comes down to recruiting. IBanks don’t recruit as heavily at Vandy as they do other top schools. I think that is changing since Vanderbilt student stats are as good, if not better, than other top 20 schools.</p>
<p>I did Econ as did my friends. You’ll be fine as long as your undergrad GPA is good. Also, realize there are jobs outside of IBanking. Firms like Bain and McKinsey actually recruit at Vandy too…but, all things equal, Duke, Georgetown, and a bunch of other East Coast schools are better for IBanking than Vanderbilt. At least that’s how it was a couple years ago. Don’t know about right now.</p>