Career prospects: business degree vs. economics degree
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Anonymous
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I am looking to advise my daughter regarding which undergraduate degree would be better in terms of career prospects. She is interested in both subjects but definitely prefers Econ.
Thoughts from others who may have more knowledge would be great! |
Anonymous
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You can’t go wrong with either degree. I’d say it depends what kind of job she wants.
If she is drawn to econ, she will do best in that field and she could always later get an MBA if she desires. Imho, employers in these fields want to see quant backgrounds, they don’t care if the major was econ or business or engineering or physics or math - so if she can focus on or at least not shy from the math heavy classes in econ that will open more doors. |
Anonymous
| Depends upon the particular college or university as to which major might yield better results in the job market. |
Anonymous
| If she majors in econ, she should try to take a few of the foundational business courses as well (intro to accounting, intro to finance, etc). These courses will help provide some useful basic context for when she has an internship or first job. |
Anonymous
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If business major is not focused on finance or data analytics then Econ is fine, much better than a concentration in marketing.
As others have said, firms are looking for people with strong analytic and problem solving skills. Econ helps hone those skills. |
Anonymous
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I did Econ but I knew I wanted to get an MBA later. My undergrad's business program did not have more job market pull than Econ. I also decided to stop taking classes in Business because the BBA core and MBA core are very similar. I don't regret sticking with an Econ degree for undergrad.
I was very liberal artsy so I'm happy with my decision. Business at a strong undergrad program with good on-campus recruiting is lower-risk and more likely to be very lucrative out of the gate. That's why there are more capacity controls on undergraduate business. It's a more safe decision. However, I view college as a precious time for personal growth, learning, and taking risks. So I took the career risk in stride... Business at a high-powered school does not come across as vocational. A lot of the core involves developing the same skills as liberal arts English and Math classes. I understand where the "pre-professional vibe" slam originates but think there are many business students who can be deeply engaged in learning. Read up on the specific schools and majors as the above PP suggested. |
Anonymous
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PP with Econ degree. As others have stated, to make an Econ degree more credible, you have to master the quant coursework. I'll admit that I shied away from it a bit because I wasn't the most typical econ major. As a result, when I surprisingly got a job in real economics, I decided to take night school classes in econometrics to make sure I had a complete background.
I would recommend that your child look at the career information on the NERA consulting firm website to see how that vibes with them. A well-trained Econ grad who wants to work in business economics after undergrad should be prepared with the kind of skills NERA looks for. If planning to go into a general business career, there is more leeway. https://www.nera.com/career-path.html#junior |
Anonymous
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OP: Does your daughter have strong quantitative skills ?
If yes, then these are the highest ranked schools for Econometrics & Quantitative Economics: 1) U Chicago 2) Northwestern University 3) U Penn 4) Vanderbilt 5) Yale 6) Harvard 7) Duke 8) Columbia 9) Rice 10) Johns Hopkins U. 11) Stanford 12) UC-Berkeley 13) Brown 14) Princeton Other top programs are at: Cornell, Dartmouth, Claremont McKenna College, UCLA, USC, WashUStL, Carnegie Mellon U., Emory, U Wisconsin, UNC, Boston College, NYU, U Virginia (econ/stats/data analytics), Georgetown (economics). Good programs at: U Illinois, Williams College, UC-San Diego, Tufts, U Maryland, U Michigan, U Minnesota, Colorado School of Mines, Swarthmore (econ), Barnard (econ). |
Anonymous
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The rankings above are for Bachelor degrees level.
Econometrics & Quantitative Economics involves study in math, economics, statistics, and computer science. |
Anonymous
And even if you don’t take the quant classes, I’ve seen many use the degree as a liberal arts degree to go into policy work |
Anonymous
| What were her SAT scores and what level math is she in? |
Anonymous
| An undergrad business degree is the GED of college degrees. The types of courses range so widely from school to school it's not impressive or prestigious at all. |
Anonymous
| Unlike others on the thread, DC did a very qualitative Econ degree and got a job very easily this summer. Math matters a ton if you’re going into Quantitative finance or actual economics, but most do not need those skills going into a business career |
Anonymous
This is good advice--especially for those who plan to earn an MBA after a few years of post-undergraduate work experience. |
Anonymous
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Having done a lot of on-campus recruiting for companies, be sure to see which majors have access to on-campus interviews and any restrictions by major/school. This is especially important for any university that has a separate undergraduate business school while the economics department is in the liberal arts school.
I know that there seems to be often an anti-business major strain in these types of threads, but they seem to be stuck in the 1970s. A lot of companies will only interview students from the business school specifically, so if there are certain types of firms that your kid thinks they want to work at, then that needs to be a heavy consideration. Maybe getting certain types of jobs will or won’t matter to an individual, but at least go in with your eyes wide open as to which opportunities are open to whom so that there aren’t surprises when it comes to interviewing junior year. |