Why is undergrad business considered "hard" but MBAs considered "easy"?
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Anonymous
| I thought business, econ, finance, etc. majors were easy. But I double majored in applied math and chemistry so I may be biased. |
Anonymous
| My MBA may be considered easy by DCUM (although I found it challenging) but it has served me well in my career and the return on investment is enormous. I went to a top 10 SLAC and then a top 10 B-school. I found undergrad to be easier although I was not a business major (not an option at my SLAC). |
Anonymous
That is field specific. |
Anonymous
Undergrad is 4 years but unless you are doing engineering or business or something that has very specific requirements, most majors do not require all 4 years to be in that subject. In fact many majors require something like 10-12 classes and prereqs, out of 32 potential classes if you are doing 4 a semester. So there is plenty of time to take a range of classes even if you are a double major. And many students go abroad for a semester or a year and those programs are often not that rigorous. An MBA is 2 years of coursework. |
Anonymous
And the multiple stats classes that are required. |
Anonymous
+1 In addition, masters programs have higher-level coursework. The kind of classes I was taking in my MA program were absolutely more difficult than the courses I took for my major in undergrad. (And "harder" is relative. What's difficult for one person might be a breeze for another.) |
Anonymous
It's hard to believe you were accepted. |
Anonymous
I also went to a highly-ranked SLAC, majored in history and went on to law school. Recently, at my class reunion, I went to the reception for alumnae/i with MBAs (because my old roommate has an MBA and because my son, who's studying engineering, is thinking about getting an MBA after working for a few years). I knew that many of my classmates had gone to business school, but I thought most of them were econ majors who worked in finance in between college and biz school. I was surprised by how many of them actually had majored in the humanities -- though I probably shouldn't have been because the mindset at SLACs is that you are there to learn how to think, how to question, how to research, how to analyze and synthesize data, and how to write or communicate your conclusions in other ways. Students at SLACs know that they can go on to do just about anything after getting a sound educational foundation. Cutting away from this PSA for liberal arts education and returning to the topic at hand . . . From chatting with folks at this reception (anecdotal evidence, I know, but evidence nonetheless), it seems that for at least some of the humanities majors who pursued MBAs, the most challenging (only challenging?) aspect of biz school was getting through the quant material. Beyond that, they didn't find the MBA curriculum that difficult or intellectually stimulating. Instead of academics, the focus was on networking. In fact, one classmate who has a JD (from the same top 5 school I went to) and an MBA (also top 5 school) told me that he thought the main difference culturally between law school and biz school is that in law school everyone wants to be the smartest person in the room so you're all competing with each other, while in biz school the objective is to have the most successful network so you're all trying to support each other. |
Anonymous
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I have a top 15ish MBA - think UVA/Michigan/NYU/Cornell. It's really a branding exercise - I went to school A and companies from industry B recruit there.
Was it difficult? Some of the quant courses are but others where really not that challenging. ROA? Tangible and intangible. How do you value a network or someone looking at your resume and giving you a call because of the school? |
Anonymous
Yup, and they're not just "jump through the hoop" math classes like in sociology and psych majors, where you just take one or two dreaded stats classes and then go back to your easy major. Upper-level marketing classes are VERY math-heavy. The "dumb sorority girl" stereotype is dead wrong, these "dumb sorority girls" are actually doing a pretty tough quantitative degree. |
Anonymous
A 2.8 as an undergrad at ND, where 50% of all valedictorians are rejected, is really very good. Don't kid yourself - the difference in the average student intellect/motivation/drive between many big state schools and a USNWR top 20 school is huge. |
Anonymous
| Wharton undergrad is considered difficult. Is that what you mean by undergrad business is considered difficult? I've never heard of another business undergrad that is widely regarded is difficult relative to most other majors available at the same school. |
Anonymous
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Look up the graduation requirements for a marketing major. Outside of the core degree requirements, the required classes for the major are NOT 'tough quantitative' by any stretch of the imagination. As an example, the following is from Notre Dame and while I'm not saying the classes are fluff, they are not hard-core math/science either. Requirements: Business Administration Core Courses + 21 credits in the following courses: BU 301 Consumer Behavior BU 375 Marketing Research BU 380 Sales Management BU 385 Marketing Management BU 390 Advertising BU 450 Global Marketing Including one of the following courses: AR 209 Black and White Photography I AR 223 Graphic Design I CA 220 Newswriting CA 323 Media Writing CA 403 Public Relations IS 243 Multimedia Development IS 245 Website Design and Development |
Anonymous
| I'd also point out the Wharton's MBA is considered the "hardest" (particularly in the finance track), so it's probably largely the school. (Booth & MIT are both considered harder than Harvard & Stanford, though the latter two are higher ranked; I actually had a friend decide against a MBA once she didn't get into Harvard & Stanford, because she didn't want to have to actually do work.) |
Anonymous
This. |