What do you think of this degree from Baruch?

College Majors Business Major
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<p>I was looking at the different majors from Baruch's business school, and I came across their "Statistics and Quantitative Modeling" major. Here is a link to it:</p>

<p>Statistics</a> and Quantitative Modeling — Zicklin School Of Business - Baruch College - CUNY</p>

<p>Besides the fact that there are more math courses to choose under the electives, it pretty much seems to me like IS. Would you agree? Also, would you say this is a good major to take in, or would you say sticking to majoring in accounting is better? Obviously, it depends on what the person is more interested in, but I guess my real question is whether this major is a "waste of time," to be extreme.</p>

<p>The career options that Baruch claims a graduate of this track is given here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/careers/Media/PDF/Students/Major_Guides/Statistics&Quantitative%20Modeling.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/careers/Media/PDF/Students/Major_Guides/Statistics&Quantitative%20Modeling.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>But they say that the main areas are marketing, production, finance, accounting, and IT. Of these, it kind of sounds like IT is the only real one that a graduate can do, unless one takes extra courses outside of the major to specialize. Correct me if I'm wrong.</p>

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<p>First off, I love the fact that you are looking at this degree, and I will admit that my answer is going to be a bit biased.</p>

<p>I happen to think this degree program is awesome. There are sooo many ways you can go with a background like that. Statistics, and especially those with the technical and business savvy to apply statistics, is in demand in every single industry and sector of the economy. Really, once you have a degree like that, you will be set up for a career in pretty much anything want to do, although some of the more lucrative professions will require a masters.</p>

<p>From looking at that program there seems to be the four required courses which form the base, and then the four electives allow you to choose what you want to specialize in. </p>

<p>If you wanted to specialize in IT you might choose to take:</p>

<p>CIS 3400
CIS 4100
STA 4000
MTH 4320 </p>

<p>For finance:</p>

<p>MTH 4451
MTH 4500
STA 3253
ECO 4300</p>

<p>For market research:</p>

<p>ECO 4300
MKT 3600
STA 3156
STA 4157</p>

<p>You could also design a specialization in OR/IE, SCM, actuarial science, or scientific research with the broad range of elective you would have to choose from. Definitely look more into it.</p>

<p>Full disclosure: I love data analysis and I am a stats/econ double major with a minor in CS. If I were attending Zicklin this is the major I would be choosing for sure.</p>

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<p>Ditto to everything Inmotion just posted. Statistics and being able to apply it is a skill that is always desired.</p>

<p>I could see this program being the perfect setup to do economic consulting.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies. For some reason, I just had a feeling you would post, Inmotion. Hehe.</p>

<p>Anyways, I guess I’ll say a little bit about my experiences and of what I know as of now. Yes, I do agree that those four courses form the base, and if you clicked on the other links that show the core courses, you’ll see that all the Zicklin students are required to take the intro business courses (accounting, finance, marketing, etc.). As of now, I was going to go to Baruch as an accounting major, but I’m taking what Baruch calls “Accounting 2101” and I’m not enjoying it very much. However, I know that accounting is a very useful major in the business world, and that was what I was sort of clinging onto: the fact that I should just stick to accounting because of the all the positive things about it. We all know that one shouldn’t pursue a degree in something that one doesn’t find interesting, though, and that’s why I was checking out Zicklin’s other majors.</p>

<p>That brings me to last semester. Last semester was when I still had the mindset of becoming an engineer, even though I hadn’t taken any real college-level science courses yet. After taking chemistry, I changed my whole mindset on engineering, but I also took Intro to C++ (my school had some other stupid name for it. Something like "Intro to Algorithmic Problem Solving, but essentially it’s just learning C++). I didn’t fully grasp the programming language, but I did somehow manage to pull off an A in that class. Perhaps it was due to the rest of the class not doing as well, and there was a curve. I don’t know, but whatever it was, that course made me realize that C++ gets me so frustrated because things like recursion just didn’t make sense to me. Nevertheless, I did always want to do something with computers since I spend a lot of time on them.</p>

<p>That all brings me to whether I’m really fit for this major. I do enjoy math, which makes me assume that I’ll enjoy statistics, but the programming part sort of brings back memories of frustration. However, I know that I’ve already completed what Baruch calls “CIS 3100” so in a way, it sort of seems like I won’t have to program anymore. Of course, it’ll be better for me if I take CIS 4100, but I don’t know if I want to go through that again.</p>

<p>On the other side, you mentioned that there are tons of possibilities with this degree. I personally don’t know much about career possibilities, leaving me sort of clueless on how to use this degree (in terms of how to set up which courses to take) and to turn it into a career. Specifically, I’m in NYC, and I don’t know what specialization to take up so that it’ll increase my job opportunities in my geographical location. I’m guessing that there’s everything here, but I just need confirmation (or a correction) on that matter.</p>

<p>Lastly (and I hate to have to think this way, but it’s sort of reality), which fields really do have the most opportunities in terms of actually getting a job versus a career I could make out of some other specialization? For example, I’m sure the number of jobs available as an actuarial is much, much smaller than those in IT.</p>

<p>I’m not aiming for anything specific (for MY career) as of now because I don’t know what it is that I want to do. I know it’s important to know what I want, but honestly, I just need to take more courses, or at least just keep learning and reading about different fields.</p>

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<p>What would you minor with this?</p>

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<p>Honestly, seek out a true BS in Statistics (or Mathematics) instead of a watered down business version of statistics. It will hold more weight than a BBA. If you plan (or need) on getting a MS in Statistics in the future, the BS will probably look better than the BBA.</p>

<p>If you can handle the math required for it, there’s no reason not go for the harder degree.</p>

<p>For a BS in Statistics you will most likely need Calc 1-3, Linear & Matrix Algebra, Discrete Math, Probability Theory, Statistical Theory, and maybe another math based class or two. </p>

<p>FWIW, there is a lot of programming in a BS in Statistics program, but it’s mostly done with Statistical software packages like SAS, R, SPSS or similar. These are a little more “user friendly” and not as frustrating as pure programming like C++. You do need to know how to write code in SAS and R, though. SPSS is point and click (like Excel).</p>

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<p>I’d just interject a little about Inmotion’s class recommendations:</p>

<p>I wouldn’t take STA 3253 Categorical Data Analysis for a finance/economics track. It doesn’t have too many applications there. It is very helpful for Biostatistics, if you plan on going into that field.</p>

<p>I WOULD instead take STA 4158 Analysis if Time Series, if you plan on finance/economics. There are MANY applications of Time Series analysis (also call Forecasting methods) for finance and economics. It’s basically the study of data (regression models) dependent on time. Obviously business/finance is very cyclical, depending on season, year, etc. Many, many applications that are used everyday in the real world.</p>

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<p>I just took two short courses in SAS and SPSS. SPPS is what social scientists use while SAS is what actual statisticians use. spss seemed more user friendly, but I liked the feeling of control writing codes in sas. There’s a new software package called jump that an sas programmer just came up with that’s supposed to be more user friendly.</p>

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<p>OminousRun</p>

<p>Hm. It does seem, as you said, that the degree in Statistics and Quantitative Modeling is sort of a watered down degree; it seems as though the program tries to make you know a broad range of information, but isn’t too specialized vs. a degree that fully consists of statistics or whatever else that one may choose to do.</p>

<p>With that said, I feel as though I’m torn between a major in statistics or a major in economics. Perhaps I should major in statistics and minor in economics? I would like your opinions, please. BTW, my original question still hasn’t been answered: what would you (anyone) minor in?</p>

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<p>Ij,</p>

<p>Stats major/Econ minor is a good combination. You might look into some your college’s Math program to see if they offer a “Mathematical Economics” track. It’s math/stats/computer-sci/economics intensive. IMO, it’s a very good degree. Probably more difficult than a degree in Statistics or a degree in Economics, though.</p>

<p>Inmotion, </p>

<p>I actually have used JMP (Jump). It’s a much easier program than pure SAS. It can do everything SAS can do, and more. It was created by Dr. Bradley Jones (and another man named Montgomery, I believe - “Jones-Montgomery-Project”). I used it extensively for my Design of Experiments class. Great program that very few people know about. My guess is that it will slowly become the industry standard within a decade. Super easy to build quantitative models in JMP.</p>

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<p>Thanks OminousRun. Yea, the UT-Austin professor I was taking brought it up, I think because I was comparing the accessibility of SPSS vs. the flexibility of SAS. He said he was getting ready to learn it himself and that he liked what he saw of it so far.</p>

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<p>ijamil, I would minor in Computer Science. Actually, I am minoring in Computer Science and for very good reason. Statistics and computation really go hand in hand and you really need to be skilled in both areas to be successful.</p>

<p>If I was in your shoes I would probably be doing the BA in Statistics with a double minor in economics (only 3 courses) and EITHER “Computer Applications in Business” (3 courses) OR “Quantitative Methods and Modeling” (3 courses), depending on where your true interest lies.</p>