Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think most people believe that undergrad business degree is difficult.

+1

Sorry, but I think almost everyone thinks undergrad in business is very easy.

This.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the multiple stats classes that are required.

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.

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

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Wharton. The Wharton undergrads would stay up till 2 to 3 am in the middle night working on team case studies and problem sets. It was actually very rigorous and tough.

The MBAs were out partying at social hour and drinking. We never wanted a MBA in our team because they won't pull their weight. That's why undergrad is harder.

+1

I went to Notre Dame for undergraduate (accounting) and MBA (marketing). MBA was SO much easier... I had a 2.8 GPA undergrad - 3.9 grad. It was hard to believe I was in the same school/same building.

It's hard to believe you were accepted.

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 wrote:And the multiple stats classes that are required.

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.

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 wrote: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).

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Wharton. The Wharton undergrads would stay up till 2 to 3 am in the middle night working on team case studies and problem sets. It was actually very rigorous and tough.

The MBAs were out partying at social hour and drinking. We never wanted a MBA in our team because they won't pull their weight. That's why undergrad is harder.

+1

I went to Notre Dame for undergraduate (accounting) and MBA (marketing). MBA was SO much easier... I had a 2.8 GPA undergrad - 3.9 grad. It was hard to believe I was in the same school/same building.

It's hard to believe you were accepted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Undergrad is always harder than a masters, regardless of the field. Undergrad is at least 4 years of full-time coursework, including weed-out classes. A masters is only one year of full-time coursework. Also, I'm not in business but the people I know with an MBA rarely benefit from it.

That is field specific.

+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 wrote:Marketing is actually a pretty tough major, in spite of the stereotype. The English majors sneering at such a "non-intellectual" major would probably flunk calculus. And most upper level marketing courses have a lot of fairly difficult math in them.

And the multiple stats classes that are required.

Anonymous wrote:Undergrad is always harder than a masters, regardless of the field. Undergrad is at least 4 years of full-time coursework, including weed-out classes. A masters is only one year of full-time coursework. Also, I'm not in business but the people I know with an MBA rarely benefit from it.

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 wrote:Undergrad is always harder than a masters, regardless of the field. Undergrad is at least 4 years of full-time coursework, including weed-out classes. A masters is only one year of full-time coursework. Also, I'm not in business but the people I know with an MBA rarely benefit from it.

That is field specific.

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).

I thought business, econ, finance, etc. majors were easy. But I double majored in applied math and chemistry so I may be biased.