<p>People ask me what I plan on majoring in my undergrad college and I tell them something in business, maybe economics. They kind of chuckle and say economics is far from a business major, because it requires a lot more intellectual capacity to major in economics.</p>
<p>Economics has a similar relationship to business that physics has to engineering - physicists are interested in why the universe is the way it is, engineers just want to make a small part of it do something useful. Likewise, economists study a lot of theory and general concepts, whereas most “business” majors are more on the practical applications side of things. The common perception in both cases is that the more theoretical types are smarter but less useful.</p>
<p>Don’t let the talk sway you, though - economists are generally better prepared to go into the practical side than the business majors are to spout theory. Study what you want, and you can almost always still do what you want.</p>
<p>Full disclosure: I am an engineer, not an economist. My opinion is based on those days when I was still deciding between the two.</p>
<p>So basically</p>
<p>Study Economics to know how and why it works</p>
<p>Study Business to see how it works by actually doing it</p>
<p>Yes, that’s a good way of thinking about it. Business is more like vocational training, while economics is theory.</p>
<p>Economics is much more broad than just business. Much of microeconomics and branches of it involves the study of “rational choice theory”, which provides a viewpoint on human decisionmaking and can be applied to many different areas (law, crime, sports, etc.). I, as a major, see economics as an intersection between math and psychology, scrutinizing behavior through a scientific lens. Macroeconomics is more applicable to business, dealing with interest rates, inflation, and such. All of economics deals with value/utility maximization, essentially efficiency…also applicable to business.</p>
<p>Business, on the other hand, is more job-oriented. You can learn things like marketing, finance, accounting, mangament techniques, communications and more, each of which is applicable to a type of business job you wish to pursue after college. It’s definitely easier to get a job after undergrad with business.</p>
<p>But could I get into a good MBA program with an undergrad major in Economics</p>
<p>You can get into an MBA program with any undergrad major. Can you get a good job with an economics major? That is the more important question.</p>
<p>BTW, economics is probably the most common individual undergrad major of students at top business schools (i’d guess about 1 out of 5 students were econ majors).</p>
<p>Yes, absolutely. In fact, MBA schools tend to look down on BBAs. However, the catch-22 is that a business major makes it easier to get a good job after graduation, and job experience is very important for admissions.</p>
<p>Economics is based more on theory and models whereas business generally focus on applications and professional training. Studying supply, demand, marginal cost, marginal benefit, precede-proceed, cost-benefit, etc. will not make you a successful businessperson alone. Of course understanding market forces does not hrt. Economics as a subject is too broad to be considered solely business. While an econ class in financial markets may be considered business-oriented, another in environmental economics will probably not.</p>
<p>“In fact, MBA schools tend to look down on BBAs. However, the catch-22 is that a business major makes it easier to get a good job after graduation, and job experience is very important for admissions.”</p>
<p>That’s why I’ve been debating between a BA and a BBA, but it would be much cheaper for me to attend a top business school (in-state) than a top liberal arts school, so BBA it is.</p>
<p>A degree in Economics, along with intro classes in Accounting and Finance, will give you a solid foundation for B-School. For many liberal arts schools, Economics is the closest you can get to a Business degree for undergrads.</p>
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<p>The idea that business schools look down on BBAs doesn’t really hold any weight. BBAs make up 20 to 25% of the class at top MBA programs. What you accomplish after graduating is what really matters. Obviously, going to a top 10 undergrad business school will provide you with the necessary opportunities.</p>
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<p>I agree.
Even at the top undergrad business school, everyone at Wharton gets a Bachelors of Science in Economics degree.</p>
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<p>Depending on the school you’re coming from, I don’t know if a business major has any easier time getting a job than an economics major, an art history major would be a different story.</p>
<p>Quick question:</p>
<p>My wife took courses in Econ… Is it concidered as business courses?
She is a child care provider and we are wanting to open a full daycare, and business classes are required for this.</p>
<p>Economics has nothing to do with the actual running of a business. I think what the daycare requirement would be is something to give confidence that those running the business are capable of doing so. Hence, courses like HR, accounting, business law, etc. would be more valuable than economics.</p>
<p>In my experience (Canada), most business-related job postings specify 'undergraduate degree in business, finance, economics or commerce required. </p>
<p>The point is that economics is a highly quantitative discipline; the impicit assumption is that people having studied economics are capable of working in and understanding business. Further, a number of areas in econ are directly business-related: i.e. macro has direct applictions to investment and portfolio management, micro has direct applications to management and decision-making (output, cost, revenue, etc).</p>
<p>If you study accounting and nothing else (for example), you are going to be workiing in accounting and nothing else. Get a broad education and don’t discount anything. As another poster mentioned, a degree in Econ coupled with at least some classes in acounting and finance can go a long way towards a number of opportunities in business and elsewhere.</p>
<p>cosmicfish has got it nailed down. In my personal experience, a few finance/accounting courses in addition to economics should prepare you to interview for the Wall Street jobs.</p>
<p>In general, there’s some fantastic discussion here. Math/psychology is another great analogy. My focus has been on microeconomics, specifically on behavioral, where we study decision-making and motivation, rational behavior, game theory, etc. All of this is applicable in the business world, but does not necessarily deal directly with money.</p>
<p>At many schools, you can do an economics major either in the business school or in the college of arts & sciences. The major difference between these two econ majors is that in the business school, the core business requirements are required, e.g., a basic course in each of the subfields of business (accounting, management, finance, marketing, perhaps business law).</p>
<p>^True. It’s also assumed (though not necessarily the case) that a BSc in Econ will be more mathematically rigorous than an Econ major taken in the Faculty of Arts (BA).</p>