Career prospects: business degree vs. economics degree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Same for me, although I was circa 2000

Where is your dc in college? I’m wondering because I think it makes a difference if the college only offers econ (vs quant econ or finance) but it is a well respected college, then a qualitative econ degree won’t hold you back for those sorts of internships and job interviews. But if the college offers finance or quant econ, then a qualitative econ candidate might not fare as well getting the initial interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Business can be like any 30/120 credit major (only 25% of total credits). As a Phi Beta Kappa MBA who loves the liberal arts, I think it's dumb to slam business degrees. At the better schools, the classes exercise many of the same skills as English classes (particularly business communications, marketing, and presentation coursework) and Math classes (Accounting, Finance). Organizational Behavior has a lot in common with Psychology and Sociology. There are also classes like Business Ethics, Business Law, etc. that are rather like Philosophy, Political Science, etc. With good professors at good schools, these are equivalently thought-provoking. That is why the Liberal Arts are suffering from intra-University competition. I think the best way for the Liberal Arts to gain back support is better college career office support AND lower tuition prices so students and parents can afford the income risk/lower starting salaries for many.

Let's keep in mind that a single person lecturing to a physically present crowd in a lecture hall is a medieval invention. How can society really justify $90K/year for this type of education? The Humanities have a risk-adjusted affordability issue.

There was a time decades ago when even Harvard MBAs were mainly for the lazy kids and heirs. It's totally different now. Anti-BBA thinking seems really old-school to me.

[Anonymous]

For econ, depends on the school. There are many mediocre undergraduate econ programs ... all with the same courses, not much math, no writing. A degree in econ from the better programs ... Williams, Yale, etc. can be very valuable. Look at whether calculus is required for the econ major and at whether students do an honors thesis or undergraduate research.

For business, depends on the major. Accounting and finance provide some technical skills that help get that first job. However, there are too many finance majors. In my opinion, management and marketing are not good undergraduate majors. However, marketing with a quantitative slant can be useful.

[Anonymous]

Management and marketing used to be fluff concentrations in business, but marketing is now a STEM qualified major at many schools due to CS, statistics, & data analysis requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Business can be like any 30/120 credit major (only 25% of total credits). As a Phi Beta Kappa MBA who loves the liberal arts, I think it's dumb to slam business degrees. At the better schools, the classes exercise many of the same skills as English classes (particularly business communications, marketing, and presentation coursework) and Math classes (Accounting, Finance). Organizational Behavior has a lot in common with Psychology and Sociology. There are also classes like Business Ethics, Business Law, etc. that are rather like Philosophy, Political Science, etc. With good professors at good schools, these are equivalently thought-provoking. That is why the Liberal Arts are suffering from intra-University competition. I think the best way for the Liberal Arts to gain back support is better college career office support AND lower tuition prices so students and parents can afford the income risk/lower starting salaries for many.

Let's keep in mind that a single person lecturing to a physically present crowd in a lecture hall is a medieval invention. How can society really justify $90K/year for this type of education? The Humanities have a risk-adjusted affordability issue.

There was a time decades ago when even Harvard MBAs were mainly for the lazy kids and heirs. It's totally different now. Anti-BBA thinking seems really old-school to me.

At the better schools...at good schools...yah
What about middling schools?
Business and communications are fave majors for athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

Same for me, although I was circa 2000

Where is your dc in college? I’m wondering because I think it makes a difference if the college only offers econ (vs quant econ or finance) but it is a well respected college, then a qualitative econ degree won’t hold you back for those sorts of internships and job interviews. But if the college offers finance or quant econ, then a qualitative econ candidate might not fare as well getting the initial interviews.

DC went to my Alma mater, a top LAC, which definitely helped her, but no more than alum networks always do.

There’s definitely a notable split in who fills their Econ paths with quant Econ and others. My intro Econ TA from way back could talk to you all day about econometrics and is now an economist at the Fed. Meanwhile DC used her background to get into a financial position at a prominent NPO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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).

Seconding this post: for top quant spots at all the desirable places in major markets as well as the jobs one notch down, the student needs to do Econ at one of the 14 schools(or math heavy business for the subset that have undergrad business, eg Wharton). It is also possible to get top spots at the schools outside that 14, ie the list of schools that follow the 14.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Business can be like any 30/120 credit major (only 25% of total credits). As a Phi Beta Kappa MBA who loves the liberal arts, I think it's dumb to slam business degrees. At the better schools, the classes exercise many of the same skills as English classes (particularly business communications, marketing, and presentation coursework) and Math classes (Accounting, Finance). Organizational Behavior has a lot in common with Psychology and Sociology. There are also classes like Business Ethics, Business Law, etc. that are rather like Philosophy, Political Science, etc. With good professors at good schools, these are equivalently thought-provoking. That is why the Liberal Arts are suffering from intra-University competition. I think the best way for the Liberal Arts to gain back support is better college career office support AND lower tuition prices so students and parents can afford the income risk/lower starting salaries for many.

Let's keep in mind that a single person lecturing to a physically present crowd in a lecture hall is a medieval invention. How can society really justify $90K/year for this type of education? The Humanities have a risk-adjusted affordability issue.

There was a time decades ago when even Harvard MBAs were mainly for the lazy kids and heirs. It's totally different now. Anti-BBA thinking seems really old-school to me.

At the better schools...at good schools...yah
What about middling schools?
Business and communications are fave majors for athletes.

At middling schools, Business and marketing and communications are still easy, less-rigorous majors that do not yield top or even middle tier jobs unless one has a personal connection. Only 10-15 schools in the country have what are considered to be rigorous undergraduate business programs, and they overlap a lot with the 25-30 schools with most rigorous Econ programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is such a misinformed and antiquated boomer take. Penn, USC, UVA, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU and countless more offer excellent career opportunities post-grad AND are extremely prestigious. Even a notch down schools like UF, UVA, UT Austin, IU, are getting internships and jobs even in this challenging landscape. For crying out loud, please let this go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is such a misinformed and antiquated boomer take. Penn, USC, UVA, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU and countless more offer excellent career opportunities post-grad AND are extremely prestigious. Even a notch down schools like UF, UVA, UT Austin, IU, are getting internships and jobs even in this challenging landscape. For crying out loud, please let this go.

Even the schools you say are a notch down are beyond good-they're excellent for setting you up to a good carer. I'd say UT is better than half the "better schools" since they are number 1 in a range of business programs and have been ranked alongside Wharton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Even the schools you say are a notch down are beyond good-they're excellent for setting you up to a good carer. I'd say UT is better than half the "better schools" since they are number 1 in a range of business programs and have been ranked alongside Wharton.

100%! I hated to even say they are a notch down because my T15 private school Econ major senior is in the same internships as students from many of those schools I listed. It's very evident she will be working with many of the "notch down" business undergrad students post-grad. I just pulled those random schools off the top of my head, there are SO MANY MORE that offer excellent opportunities at the most prestigious companies in high paying fields such as finance and consulting.

[Anonymous]

DCUM hates business degrees.

I got a business degree and it served me well. I've used what I learned in my finance classes and accounting classes for decades. These classes helped me in my real world jobs and also in my personal investing.

I was in econ classes with the econ majors. Honestly I thought the econ classes were kind of theoretical b.s.

[Anonymous]

13:39 poster, I forgot to mention that I got my business degree at UD. It served me well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM hates business degrees.

I got a business degree and it served me well. I've used what I learned in my finance classes and accounting classes for decades. These classes helped me in my real world jobs and also in my personal investing.

I was in econ classes with the econ majors. Honestly I thought the econ classes were kind of theoretical b.s.

PP with Econ major daughter - she agrees 100%. I cannot fathom how anyone could argue that financial management classes, accounting, marketing, strategy, sales etc. are not valuable in any business or line of work. I would also argue that interpersonal skills are becoming rarer and rarer as the years pass. Business students get a lot of practice in developing relationships, also key in life and work.

We have CS / engineering majors coming out of our eyeballs who simply cannot have an effective in-person conversation, advocate for themselves, or make a simple phone call. Soft skills are highly undervalued on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM hates business degrees.

I got a business degree and it served me well. I've used what I learned in my finance classes and accounting classes for decades. These classes helped me in my real world jobs and also in my personal investing.

I was in econ classes with the econ majors. Honestly I thought the econ classes were kind of theoretical b.s.

PP with Econ major daughter - she agrees 100%. I cannot fathom how anyone could argue that financial management classes, accounting, marketing, strategy, sales etc. are not valuable in any business or line of work. I would also argue that interpersonal skills are becoming rarer and rarer as the years pass. Business students get a lot of practice in developing relationships, also key in life and work.

We have CS / engineering majors coming out of our eyeballs who simply cannot have an effective in-person conversation, advocate for themselves, or make a simple phone call. Soft skills are highly undervalued on this board.

I disagree on the last parts. Soft skills are highly overrated on this board and it leads parents to encouraging degrees with less utility. I'm also not convinced a 4 year degree is what sets these soft skill abilities.

Specialized business degrees give you advantageous hard skills that econ graduates will not have. It's "practical," because you will actually use your education, not just learn a bunch of models that you won't touch unless you go to grad school like in Econ.