I’ll be applying to schools this fall and I’ve been told that it is a good idea to declare your major, some schools even require it. I’m pretty positive that I want a business degree, but I’m not exactly sure where my focus should be. I’ve been saying that I want to go into marketing but what I mean by that is, I want to come up with slogans, advertising ideas, plans, designs, themes, etc. I also really love to write but I’m not sure where to apply that. Both of my parents are college graduates but neither of them seem to know which major is best suited for the type of job direction I’d like to go in. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
You can always declare a major and then change it later. If you want to come up with advertisements, then you can get a bachelors in Marketing or a bachelors in Business. However, if you wanted to join an MBA program that concentrates in Marketing and Advertising, then you can major in something like Journalism/English/Creative Writing that will highly improve your writing ability and overall creativity skills, and then join an MBA program. Many people say that a bachelors in business is not the preferred major for MBA programs since there is a lot of overlap and may be going over things you already learned. Plus, business schools want to diversify their classes and bring in more than just business majors, much like med schools don’t just want to bring in biology majors, and law schools don’t just want to bring in poli science majors.
However, a business degree will probably give you an easier time getting a job right aftercollege, where as a writing/english degree wont.
There is a ton of time to decide what major you want, but for now you can declare and then change. I’d read up on what people in advertisement/marketing do and research other potential career paths.
Possible majors (or, possibly as minor or certificate programs to supplement a business major): Marketing; Advertising; Strategic Communication (in a department or school of communication or journalism); Communications; Professional Writing (standalone major or as a subtrack within an English major); Visual Communication/Graphic Design (if you have an art background); Media; English; Business
Depending on the school, you’ll might find different titles for these majors and/or find them situated in different academic units of a university. You really need to check the specific requirements of each program to determine the exact content and emphasis of some of these majors.
Most colleges do not require you to declare a major at application; most colleges also don’t care what your major is - in other words, applying as undecided won’t affect your admission at the vast majority of colleges. At some colleges you will have to apply to the business school separately.
What you pick will depend on the college. Some colleges have a business major but that’s it - no specializations, no tracks. Some colleges have a business major with different tracks, one of them possibly being marketing. And some schools (few, I think) might have a marketing major.
But you can go into marketing with any kind of major - I know a couple of psychology majors in marketing/advertising, and English could work too especially if you want to write copy.