Wharton’s undergrad degree is a BS in Econ. |
What about business + computer science major? |
Yes, nobody who majors in business at a non top 5 ever gets a decent job. All those stories you hear about people doing well with business degrees from Texas, Boston College, Villanova, North Carolina, SMU, Indiana, Penn State, Pitt, Baruch, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Florida, Fordham, Georgetown, Ohio State, BYU, Notre Dame, Denver, Babson, Illinois, DePaul, & Texas A&M are pure fantasy. ![]() |
+1. I see this thread is filled with the usual level of crappy DCUM advice. No, going to a top undergrad business program doesn’t get you out of getting an MBA by default. Plenty of jobs and industries will still list having an MBA as required or preferred, or it will give the MBA holder a leg up or access to certain roles. Now, the MBA itself seems to be in a bit of a decline, and undoubtedly in some cases the MBA requirement was just gate keeping and people realized it. But it’s not just a degree for people whose careers are stalled nor does going to a good school give you a Get Out of MBA Free card. No, undergrad business outside of the top 5 is not a waste. It is a path for many kids to great jobs and a shortcut for many companies in their recruiting efforts, even if there are plenty of fair critiques about the professionalization of higher ed and the quality of the education. No, P&Q is not some gold standard of ranking. We’ve discussed at length about their problems with methodology and response rates. Use it but with the same caveats and skepticism you would use for any ranking. |
No it’s not. It never has been and it’s even less required nowadays. Most investment banks promote like 25% of their analysts to associates (understanding there is a bunch of churn with analysts that can’t handle or hate the lifestyle) and once you are at that level your career progression has zero to do with having an MBA or not…and the big issue right now is that PE firms are giving these kids associate offers to start in 2 years, even before they start their analyst jobs which is irking the investment banks for stealing their pipeline. Also, I believe the stat is that 60% of all CEOs have nothing more than a BA, BBA or BS (with 8% having no college degree at all…of course those are primarily founder CEOs). |
Poets and Quants is good but they need to figure out a process to rank all the schools…even the ones that don’t return enough survey data. They leave out schools like UCB, UT and others because of this. |
Any suggestions of good mid-size schools with strong business programs? Kid seems to be drawn to schools like Wake Forest and Georgetown. |
I teach college. The highest performers I meet in the business school are the accountants or the ones doing international, along with the honors econ kids. |
Business degree is great. After graduation, Get an entry level job in sales or finance and work your way up. It’s all about performance and networking (which is really about being trustworthy). Mbas can be handy later on in your career when you’re up directors level jobs, but it’s really secondary to performance. |
Emory and WashU are top 10 from poets and quants. CMU is also a top ranked business program. Georgetown is very strong. |
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Best schools for business are those that combine business with top engineering. |
SMU, Denver, Boston College, Villanova. |
+1 there's a reason why Business undergrad degrees are so popular. You don't have to go to a T20 b school to find a good paying job. -signed a BBA undergrad at a B rated U who ended making six figures 25 years ago. |
+1 Towson is ranked but not UMD. No one in their right mind would say Towson b school is better than UMD's. UMD is not ranked there because they don't respond. |