<p>I've heard from school and read on here that business is a backup degree for engineers if they can't succeed in engineering. Why is that so?</p>
<p>If you can’t be an engineer, you can be an engineer’s boss instead.</p>
<p>I’ve wondered this too…</p>
<p>The business school curriculum is easier than the hard math and science courses required to get into an engineering school. However, some prestigious business schools, like UC Berkeley’s Haas, require a full year of calculus to get in. Also, in a big name school (UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Univ. of Washington, etc.), generally, both the business school (or UCLA’s bus. econ.) and the engineering school require a high GPA to be admitted. It is easier to get a high GPA to get into business school than a high GPA to get into an engineering school. </p>
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<p>Or you can work hard and go into business as an engineering consultant and work out of your home at a high hourly rate. :)</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn What kind of degree would you get to get a job like that or to get a good job in business?</p>
<p>My husband and I each have a master’s degree in structural engineering. We worked as engineers for several years, then started our own firm in 1999. A couple of years have been challenging, but the rest have been excellent. You do need to make sure you have enough experience before launching out on your own.</p>
<p>You can work as a highly paid consultant without the engineering degree, too. 
I do it with a business degree. A lot depends on getting a variety of good experiences in your first several years in the workforce (working for a large consulting firm helped me, but isn’t the only route). You also need the personality for it – you need to be able to get along with a lot of different kinds of people, willing to work crazy hard when needed, and be adaptable and do well with a lot of change.</p>
<p>Probably the simplest answer is this:</p>
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<li>Both require a lot of math.</li>
</ul>
<p>There’s also a lot of qualitative work in a business degree – it is essential to use the soft sciences to understand people, and a businessperson must understand his investors, customers, and employees.</p>
I’ve heard this too and have wondered…