<p>An MBA is definitely valuable, and it can help your career grow, but I agree with chestergumbo that you should get an engineering degree in undergrad. Engineering degrees are tough (at good schools) and getting one requires you to completely change the way you think; you get a lot better at problem-solving and you will understand the industry. Who do you think can make a better decision in an engineering firm, a businessman with an MBA or an engineer with an MBA? </p>
<p>And definitely do at least 2-3 years of work before you bother applying to a top MBA school. You have to be a prodigy to get in right out of undergrad.</p>
<p>What if the OP doesn't want to be an engineer? It's good if he does but if he doesn't, I don't think engineering would be a good path for someone to take towards a MBA.</p>
<p>I definitely would never ever want to be an engineer, I built a tower and it was horrible that and math are the subjects i would never consider, unless solely for a job but that is what the finance is for. I have a side question: My family wants me to attend like Harvard or Yale, but they don't have undergrad B-School and I think UT would be better for a career in Texas do you think the opportunites would be better at UT for in Texas? I would be open to Wharton but UPenn isn't as name-brand so my parents might not allow me to go.</p>
<p>Wharton is the single most elite undergraduate business school, so uh, I would probably tell your parents to separate the business school from the overall school in their mind (it's still an Ivy, even if it's the 'worst' of them). A Harvard or Yale degree is relevant anywhere, a UT degree is relevant in Texas. Assuming you can actually get into Harvard or Yale (their admissions numbers are so low that at this point even if you're stellar it's impossible to say you'll be admitted) and you get close to a free ride you should absolutely go there. Yes, they don't have an undergraduate business school, but there are unparalleled internship opportunities and you can easily get into a business school summer program.</p>
<p>I would rather go with Finance for more options but do not worry about graduating with a BBA, it is much better than a liberal arts degree where your options are limited to a social worker or a teacher. If you go to UT for undergrad business ecxpect the number one ranked college career services office in the country and a good paying job after you graduate. How is UT only relevant in Texas??? It is Number 7 in the entire country...we have goldman Sachs every year reqruiting students for intern/analyst positions just to mention one famous I-bank.</p>
<p>Heres a good read from the New York Times explaining the lack of need for an MBA nowadays...</p>
<p>I visted UT and love it, I am contemplating a degree in energy finance bc I want to work in texas and energy pretty much drives our economy and UT energy sector jobs are among the highest paying right out.</p>
<p>@utexas2010
"I would rather go with Finance for more options but do not worry about graduating with a BBA, it is much better than a liberal arts degree where your options are limited to a social worker or a teacher."</p>
<p>Using your "social worker or teacher" train of logic, the best a BBA is going to do is end up a middle manager at a medium-sized medical billing claims company. The social worker and teacher will have government benefits that will far surpass the quality of benefits the middle manager will get, and after several years the teacher will be practically immune to dismissal.</p>
<p>Here's a little secret: A BBA isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Almost no degree is worth it, actually. The only exceptions are the hard sciences. You don't need a degree in any specific subject to enter law school, med school or graduate school for pretty much any field. The name of the school matters, the overall quality of education matters, the facilities matter, the alumni network matters, the relationship you develop (or don't) with your professors matter. What you major in doesn't matter unless you know you want to be a chemist or an industrial engineer. And by the way, for Goldman Sachs, an economics degree from Harvard is worth more than a BBA from anywhere but Wharton.</p>
<p>If you genuinely believe that a UT degree is more 'relevant' to the world than Harvard or Yale, I don't know what to say. You're delusional. There's nothing wrong with UT, and if you specifically want to stay in Texas then it's fine, but to say you absolutely want to stay in one state and you only want to do one thing when you're still young is just being misguided. If you love UT, or you think you want to stay near home during school, or you're going to get a full-ride then it's another story. But if you're just choosing based on what you're going to get when you leave school, you would be absolutely insane to go to UT over Harvard or Yale.</p>
<p>Are you from Texas, Dbate? If so, are you planning on working in Texas?</p>
<p>If you answer yes to both of those you really don't need to go to an Ivy from a career standpoint. If you can get into McCombs that will do wonders for you. It's not worth spending that much more money to go OOS to an Ivy if you can accomplish what you want to accomplish with a degree from McCombs.</p>
<p>A degree only opens doors for you; it's up to you to get to where you want to be afterwards.</p>
<p>
[quote]
and if you specifically want to stay in Texas then it's fine, but to say you absolutely want to stay in one state and you only want to do one thing when you're still young is just being misguided.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You're an idiot. How about you come back to the real world with the rest of us, huh?</p>
<p>
[quote]
You're an idiot. How about you come back to the real world with the rest of us, huh?
[/quote]
I qualified that sentence with the one after it. I've met kids who never wanted to leave X, and the second they got to go to some weekend information session for high schoolers at UM they wanted to live in Miami.</p>
<p>No matter what you want to believe, you're never going to know for sure where you'll be in four years. If he loves UT, he should go to UT. If UT offers a specific program Yale or Harvard doesn't offer that he wants to be in, he should go to UT. However, if he's solely going to UT because he honestly believes it'll give him greater chances for employment after school, he shouldn't go to UT. McCombs might be great in Texas, McCombs might be great in general, but despite what most Texans might think it ain't a country. There are 49 other states, and a Harvard or Yale degree is going to be worth more than a UT degree in all of them.</p>
<p>If you're generally worried about employment opportunities after school, you go to the school with the most prestige, because that matters right out of college. If he specifically wants something from UT, he should go to UT, but anyone who's going to say a McCombs BBA with a focus in finance is worth more than a Yale degree in economics, or a McCombs BBA with a focus on MIS is worth more than a Harvard degree in computer science, well... they'd be the one not living in the real world.</p>
<p>His initial question, the one I responded to, was whether or not UT was better for a career in Texas. It didn't have anything to do with his love of the school. His second post said he visited the school and loved it. That's why he should attend it. Not because it's better for job opportunities- it isn't. My second post (which you quoted) was in response to the stupidity of utexas2010, and had nothing to do with Dbate.</p>
<p>McCombs actually has a program which allows one to specialize in the energy sector and then a program that would give me guaranteed admission into their MBA after working for three years, that in mind is UT better than Harvard undergrad? Also I might consider Harvard for my MBA and I hear it is hard to get into the grad from their undergrad, but that is for direct admit so I don't know if it is the same for b-school.</p>