Marketing Major

[Anonymous]

DC, current HS junior, is interested in potentially majoring in marketing.

1) What colleges would be good to add to their application list? Anyone's DC have first-hand experience as a marketing major?
2) Should I try to steer them away from majoring in marketing? I wouldn't say this to them, but it kind of feels like a throwaway degree to me. Maybe just do a general business major and take lots of stats and behavioral science?

[Anonymous]

https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/news/best-undergraduate-business-schools-of-2024/6/

Combine this with overall ranking by USN&WR, etc. You can get some ideas.

Like you said, avoid marketing major.
Get into (data / business) analytics type majors under business schools.
You can add some marketing classes as electives.

[Anonymous]

I'm in marketing. A degree in marketing is a waste; study an area of interest like English, art, psychology, anthropology and build knowledge/skills that can be used in marketing. Then get an entry level job in marketing. I can't remember the last time I hired someone with a marketing degree; the best candidates come from liberal arts fields where they have built strong foundations in writing, design, research, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in marketing. A degree in marketing is a waste; study an area of interest like English, art, psychology, anthropology and build knowledge/skills that can be used in marketing. Then get an entry level job in marketing. I can't remember the last time I hired someone with a marketing degree; the best candidates come from liberal arts fields where they have built strong foundations in writing, design, research, etc.

Agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/news/best-undergraduate-business-schools-of-2024/6/

Combine this with overall ranking by USN&WR, etc. You can get some ideas.

Like you said, avoid marketing major.
Get into (data / business) analytics type majors under business schools.
You can add some marketing classes as electives.

I mean there are thousands of students in marketing majors, it's not a deathknoll if OP's kid wants to major in it. I'm pretty sure she will be fine.
I would suggest going to a large school (not a small liberal arts) where she can get exposed to various things: yes writing, but also graphic design, business, cinema, digital, data, communications, etc...

[Anonymous]

Career marketer here who owns an agency, I unofficially forbid my own kids to major in marketing. In interviewing marketing majors they are often lacking the skills / software / tools that we actually use day to day, so I think there is a disconnect between what is being taught in the schools vs. what we as employers actually need.

We always need: analytics people (huge growth here), content creators - people to create cross-channel content (writing, graphics, video production, video editing), and people who can actually write code from scratch. Not necessarily CS, but coding skills in relevant languages are important in marketing.

[Anonymous]

Any good business schools will have good a good marketing curriculum that includes substantial data analysis, programming, and market research . My dd is accounting & finance major, but the marketing program at her school is very good. What tier of schools is she targeting?

[Anonymous]

How about undergrad in business with marketing concentration? That way you still get the finance, accounting, ops management credits in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Career marketer here who owns an agency, I unofficially forbid my own kids to major in marketing. In interviewing marketing majors they are often lacking the skills / software / tools that we actually use day to day, so I think there is a disconnect between what is being taught in the schools vs. what we as employers actually need.

We always need: analytics people (huge growth here), content creators - people to create cross-channel content (writing, graphics, video production, video editing), and people who can actually write code from scratch. Not necessarily CS, but coding skills in relevant languages are important in marketing.

Will an Art major with graphic design focus work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about undergrad in business with marketing concentration? That way you still get the finance, accounting, ops management credits in.

Agree with this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in marketing. A degree in marketing is a waste; study an area of interest like English, art, psychology, anthropology and build knowledge/skills that can be used in marketing. Then get an entry level job in marketing. I can't remember the last time I hired someone with a marketing degree; the best candidates come from liberal arts fields where they have built strong foundations in writing, design, research, etc.

This. Major in something else and take a few classes in business, marketing. If your DC doesn't like marketing, then they have someone to fall back on.

[Anonymous]

I was a marketing major and agree if would be better to major in something like psychology w/ a business minor. Definitely add quant skills. I did a minor in statistics, completed a large audience research project for my senior capstone and have worked in marketing research for my whole career. I thought I was going to be an accounting major when I started then found it boring but loved my consumer behavior and statistics classes. If I'd been advising someone like me I'd tell me to go major in statistics and add a psychology and/or business minor

[Anonymous]

Appreciate all the good advice and will pass this on to DC.

Right now they are considering medium-sized private schools with not uber-competitive acceptance rates.
Likely: Loyola Maryland, Seattle University
Targets: University of San Diego, Holy Cross
Reaches: Skidmore, University of Richmond
Publics:UMBC and/or Towson, Pitt, U Del.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t think Holy Cross had much in the business/marketing realm of studies

[Anonymous]

I completely disagree with everyone saying don’t be a marketing major. I majored in International Studies and the recruiters and hiring majors would not look at me for entry level marketing jobs. They wanted marketing majors, comm or business majors. I ended up getting an MBA with a concentration in marketing. It will be tough to get through job applications algorithms with anything other than majoring in business.

I agree with the idea of getting a strong background in business. Marketing touches all areas of the business and having a decent understand of analytics is in demand especially with digital marketing.
Minors in English could be a selling point but most business writing is very different from English (I had a minor in English)