Is a business undergrad degree worth it or just major in any area and than get an MBA later?

[Anonymous]

My son is starting college in the fall , majoring in business. Large in state flagship. He’s unsure of specialization yet but has no desire for accounting. I’m concerned about future job prospects!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business undergrad is lower end trade skills. Good for working in G&A (HR, Accounting), not for career growth.

For becoming a leader in a business, business degrees pair much better with skill in the company's subject matter , so double major or ugrad in a "product" subject and then MBA.

+1

Unless u do a undergrad from a top 10 business school ( nyu, ucla, etc) Undergrad business degree is pretty weak.

will Land up with a job at a local insurance company etc. Do CS + Business etc

If u do accounting - that gold. Big demand.

Prestige matters a little more for business degrees than for CS or engineering.
A business degree from a top 25iwh school is top-notch.
Second-tier business programs from schools like Villanova, Northeastern, and Boston University are still much better than humanities programs.

Kids who choose business over CS are usually not really interested in CS.
Business programs these days have a lot of CS/IT flavor.
If you major in MIS, analytics, etc., you will cover a lot of IT and data science aspects.
You can add these to any type of business degree.

My kid is in a business program at a top 20 school majoring in business analytics.
DC has a lot of courses in Python programming, SQL, data science/visualization, etc..

Prestige matters a little more for business degrees than for CS or engineering. A business degree from a top 25 school is top-notch. Second-tier business programs from schools like Villanova, Northeastern, and Boston University are still much better than humanities programs.

Kids who choose business over CS are usually not really interested in CS. Business programs these days have a lot of CS/IT flavor. If you major in MIS, analytics, etc., you will cover a lot of IT and data science aspects. You can add these to any type of business degree.

My kid is in a top 20 business program majoring in business analytics. He has taken a lot of courses in Python programming, SQL, and data science/visualization.

If you get a generic business degree from a mediocre school with no good hard skills, then that could be a concern.
It all depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Business undergrad is lower end trade skills. Good for working in G&A (HR, Accounting), not for career growth.

For becoming a leader in a business, business degrees pair much better with skill in the company's subject matter , so double major or ugrad in a "product" subject and then MBA.

+1

Unless u do a undergrad from a top 10 business school ( nyu, ucla, etc) Undergrad business degree is pretty weak.

will Land up with a job at a local insurance company etc. Do CS + Business etc

If u do accounting - that gold. Big demand.

Prestige matters a little more for business degrees than for CS or engineering.
A business degree from a top 25iwh school is top-notch.
Second-tier business programs from schools like Villanova, Northeastern, and Boston University are still much better than humanities programs.

Kids who choose business over CS are usually not really interested in CS.
Business programs these days have a lot of CS/IT flavor.
If you major in MIS, analytics, etc., you will cover a lot of IT and data science aspects.
You can add these to any type of business degree.

My kid is in a business program at a top 20 school majoring in business analytics.
DC has a lot of courses in Python programming, SQL, data science/visualization, etc..

Prestige matters a little more for business degrees than for CS or engineering. A business degree from a top 25 school is top-notch. Second-tier business programs from schools like Villanova, Northeastern, and Boston University are still much better than humanities programs.

Kids who choose business over CS are usually not really interested in CS. Business programs these days have a lot of CS/IT flavor. If you major in MIS, analytics, etc., you will cover a lot of IT and data science aspects. You can add these to any type of business degree.

My kid is in a top 20 business program majoring in business analytics. He has taken a lot of courses in Python programming, SQL, and data science/visualization.

If you get a generic business degree from a mediocre school with no good hard skills, then that could be a concern.
It all depends.

To quote Yogi Berra: It seems like deja vu all over again.

[Anonymous]

My kid is business with a supply chain management specialization. I hear good things, fingers crossed for job market

[Anonymous]

I feel like there’s such outdated information whenever this type of question is posted.

For top 20 schools that don’t offer an undergrad business major, sure, it doesn’t matter if you major in business.

However, once you get out of that group (and even for the top 20 schools that have business majors within that group) - say, when you get to the Michigan/USC-level - it generally makes a HUGE difference if you’re a business major or not for opportunities.

Why? Because most business programs have a dedicated career services offices that only business majors can use and many on-campus interviews are restricted to those majors. If you’re on one of those campuses, the job-seeking experience for a business major vs. non-business major can be night and day. Michigan is a great example - talk to anyone that has been in the Ross undergrad program vs. non-Ross.

I went to a top 50 undergrad school and double-majored in finance and economics. Many people here probably think or even have argued that those ought to be interchangeable in terms of job opportunities. However, at my college, finance was in the undergrad business school while econ was in the liberal arts school. Even though my econ major was frankly more difficult academically, it was the finance major that provided me access to all of the business career services support because it was part of the business school and set up on-campus interviews directly with companies and firms. The econ major job support basically consisted of public job listings and no on-campus interview connections.

Now, once again, if you’re at Harvard majoring in economics, then you’re golden. However, if you’re not at one of those top 20 schools, it’s imperative to check out *who* can actually use the business career services office at that school. If it’s restricted to business majors, then it absolutely makes a massive difference in opportunities.

[Anonymous]

To the poster immediately above this post: Please share the name of your top 50 university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the poster immediately above this post: Please share the name of your top 50 university.

NP, but we visited Lehigh the other day and were told that only business majors can use many of those resources (recruiting, etc.) It's ranked #49.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster immediately above this post: Please share the name of your top 50 university.

NP, but we visited Lehigh the other day and were told that only business majors can use many of those resources (recruiting, etc.) It's ranked #49.

Lehigh is a solid school with great outcomes for engineering and business, however it's currently ranked #51 together with Villanova by USN&WR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For top 20 schools that don’t offer an undergrad business major, sure, it doesn’t matter if you major in business.

For the T20 schools that don't have undergrad business, Econ is an equivalent major.

For the T20 schools that have undergrad business, it's usually a better program.
MIT, UPenn, Cornell, WashU, Notre Dame, Rice, Berkeley.
Brown has started hybrid sort of business concentration program.

So it still matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster immediately above this post: Please share the name of your top 50 university.

NP, but we visited Lehigh the other day and were told that only business majors can use many of those resources (recruiting, etc.) It's ranked #49.

Lehigh is a solid school with great outcomes for engineering and business, however it's currently ranked #51 together with Villanova by USN&WR.

I see that you're right, but our tour guide definitely said #49! My son loved it and it's close to the top of his list, possible ED1 pick.