Why are DCUM parents less inclined to have their child major in business?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Many good schools don’t even have undergrad business degrees.


That is true, although I would say some. However, if anything, the trend is for those schools to add business specialties. MIT added undergraduate business specialties in only 2016, and Cornell I think it was maybe around 2010. Heck, even Brown now offers a finance major.

Just looking at USNews Top 20, there are now 10 with either an undergraduate business school (Wharton, Haas, Notre Dame, etc.) or allow you to major in something like Finance.
Anonymous
Snobbery?

STEM is hot. Law is prestigious. DCUM seems to not like many majors outside those fields.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s not a major for academically smart kids.


+1 unless it's from a really highly regarded program, it's viewed as less rigorous than other majors (econ, writing-heavy liberal arts degrees, stem degrees like math, etc.)


Yes, and the same applies even to top ranked MBA programs. Their reputation is for networking, not academic rigor.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Snobbery?

STEM is hot. Law is prestigious. DCUM seems to not like many majors outside those fields.

Even law catches the DCUM smoke. Parents here have a respect for liberal arts majors which I like. A lot of DCUM seem to have gone to colleges where econ was the only option.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Snobbery?

STEM is hot. Law is prestigious. DCUM seems to not like many majors outside those fields.


I think degrees in nursing, early childhood education, soil science, construction management, etc. are all better than a business degree, and I imagine that most DCUMers would agree with me. It's not about snobbery at all.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Snobbery?

STEM is hot. Law is prestigious. DCUM seems to not like many majors outside those fields.


I think degrees in nursing, early childhood education, soil science, construction management, etc. are all better than a business degree, and I imagine that most DCUMers would agree with me. It's not about snobbery at all.

I wonder why you list early childhood education? It pays pretty poorly compared to the others.
Anonymous
Where are these liberal arts majors finding jobs?

My husband and I were liberal arts majors and we are suffering in the job market in our thirties. We will advise our children to study business!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Snobbery?

STEM is hot. Law is prestigious. DCUM seems to not like many majors outside those fields.


I think degrees in nursing, early childhood education, soil science, construction management, etc. are all better than a business degree, and I imagine that most DCUMers would agree with me. It's not about snobbery at all.

I wonder why you list early childhood education? It pays pretty poorly compared to the others.


Because it's not about money, it's about all the factors I use to judge majors. Somebody who picks early childhood education is doing so because they want to, well, educate children, and I'm all about that. They have consciously chosen less money and prestige for the sake of helping others.

But actually teachers don't make that much less than business majors! I'm a teacher myself and only a few years in, and I make more than the median business major, according to this article. And I only work 10 months out of the year.

https://www.zippia.com/business-major/salary/

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I was a business major and wouldn't recommend it for my kids unless they clearly were interested in a specific career path like accounting. I think "business" is essentially an "undecided" major. I did eventually find my path in a concentration w/in the business major and added a statistics minor. But, I really should have just been a math or statistics major. I was really, really good at math in high school but, as a 1st gen student, I didn't really understand how a major leads to a job and in my world could only see math = math teacher.

My siblings also majored in career-path fields -- nursing and computer science. My family didn't understand liberal arts degrees.

One of my kids now majors in Applied Math and the other in Environmental Biology.


I was a math major and business minor and had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. I eventually became a math teacher. I feel like a business major might have given me more of an "in" in the corporate world (if I had been seeking that life path.)
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Where are these liberal arts majors finding jobs?

My husband and I were liberal arts majors and we are suffering in the job market in our thirties. We will advise our children to study business!


No. This is going to land them in the same mess you're in. A general "business" degree doesn't pay better than a liberal arts degree.

Advise your kids to be savvy about the job market. Advise them to look at what the job prospects for a field are, what candidates need to do to set themselves apart, and what connections they should make and maintain in order to stay on top of things.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Many good schools don’t even have undergrad business degrees.


Many good schools have undergrad business programs.
Anonymous
?? Business program is fine and it's even harder to get in generally.

They are less inclined to have their child major in humanities.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Where are these liberal arts majors finding jobs?

My husband and I were liberal arts majors and we are suffering in the job market in our thirties. We will advise our children to study business!

They get internships.
Math and Physics Majors nab internships in finance and tech.
Anthropology/Sociology people place well into "People" teams aka HR, and they do very well when it comes to program development/non profit structure teams.
English/History majors are all over the map and can write which is always a plus.
A lot of Ethnic/Women studies in HR too along with Policy.
Econ/Government/IR end up in many similar spots.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Many good schools don’t even have undergrad business degrees.


Because they have been around since the time when college was mainly for affluent men and post-college employment was a sure thing for any male college grad.
Anonymous
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/college-major-highest-lowest-incomes/

Business majors produce some of the top incomes.

Business analytics, Finance, MIS, Accounting, etc.

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