Anonymous wrote:DC is a junior at Williams, and it is shocking to see how many peers are majoring in Economics. I understand the cost of college has soured, but how does economics, at all, give you any skills needed for jobs? And if anyone can enter business careers, what's the point of business majors? It just seems very confusing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these hoity-toity econ majors. The reality is that econ is the easy degree for mediocre/students without any passions to find jobs. That's it. It could've been stats or cs, but those require the scary word-MATH-so, instead, people major in Econ. Any liberal arts college grad has the social skills to get through a finance position. These are all students smart enough to get through the wacky college admissions process and land on top; that's hard to do without persuasive qualities.

Tell me more about these mediocre students getting into Williams

Anonymous wrote:All these hoity-toity econ majors. The reality is that econ is the easy degree for mediocre/students without any passions to find jobs. That's it. It could've been stats or cs, but those require the scary word-MATH-so, instead, people major in Econ. Any liberal arts college grad has the social skills to get through a finance position. These are all students smart enough to get through the wacky college admissions process and land on top; that's hard to do without persuasive qualities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams has a business major?

No. It’s liberal arts. I posted earlier that I was an Econ major at Williams, too. No real surprise that yes, I went to Wall Street and did investment banking for years. You get involved in recruiting, particularly from your Alma mater. We did hire a ton of Econ majors. The bank I was at tracked analyst hires and, not surprisingly, liberal arts grads did very well. I remember an hr person saying they have learned how to learn. The business or accounting majors from other schools usually did worse and were more rigid in their thinking and had poorer people and presentation skills and didn’t work well with team members. Analysts all take the same crash course training all summer and learn what they need, so we wanted to hire the kids who would be great on their feet in front of clients, able to work long hours and be flexible. You can’t teach that. Often that translated into an athlete from a liberal arts school. HR had all the data as far as which hires earned which bonus (bonuses for analysts were given at 3 different amounts), which were offered 3rd year analyst jobs after the initial 2 year analyst position, which were offered associate roles after that, which burnt out and didn’t even finish the first 2 years, etc. All of this dictated which schools they recruited at, particularly for the coveted summer jobs. There’s a reason they hire so many Econ majors from Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Econ minor and gained so much skills. If someone majored in Econ especially doing the BS instead of BA it is instrumental in the job market. Then to be a math, statistics, or computer science minor would be even better. Actuary, Data Analyst, Research Analyst, Investment Banker, Quant, and so much more

So then what's the reasoning for a liberal arts BA in econ? The most they're doing is intro stats...

Anonymous wrote:These posts are hilarious. Someone needs to run and start the businesses for which computer science and engineers work. It's the econ and business majors who do that. Also a much larger human element involved in those majors, a.k.a., networking. That will never be replaced by AI and is still how the world operates. Sitting in a lab for years does nothing for building a career outside of being a widget maker/order taker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams has a business major?

No. It’s liberal arts. I posted earlier that I was an Econ major at Williams, too. No real surprise that yes, I went to Wall Street and did investment banking for years. You get involved in recruiting, particularly from your Alma mater. We did hire a ton of Econ majors. The bank I was at tracked analyst hires and, not surprisingly, liberal arts grads did very well. I remember an hr person saying they have learned how to learn. The business or accounting majors from other schools usually did worse and were more rigid in their thinking and had poorer people and presentation skills and didn’t work well with team members. Analysts all take the same crash course training all summer and learn what they need, so we wanted to hire the kids who would be great on their feet in front of clients, able to work long hours and be flexible. You can’t teach that. Often that translated into an athlete from a liberal arts school. HR had all the data as far as which hires earned which bonus (bonuses for analysts were given at 3 different amounts), which were offered 3rd year analyst jobs after the initial 2 year analyst position, which were offered associate roles after that, which burnt out and didn’t even finish the first 2 years, etc. All of this dictated which schools they recruited at, particularly for the coveted summer jobs. There’s a reason they hire so many Econ majors from Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams has a business major?

No. It’s liberal arts. I posted earlier that I was an Econ major at Williams, too. No real surprise that yes, I went to Wall Street and did investment banking for years. You get involved in recruiting, particularly from your Alma mater. We did hire a ton of Econ majors. The bank I was at tracked analyst hires and, not surprisingly, liberal arts grads did very well. I remember an hr person saying they have learned how to learn. The business or accounting majors from other schools usually did worse and were more rigid in their thinking and had poorer people and presentation skills and didn’t work well with team members. Analysts all take the same crash course training all summer and learn what they need, so we wanted to hire the kids who would be great on their feet in front of clients, able to work long hours and be flexible. You can’t teach that. Often that translated into an athlete from a liberal arts school. HR had all the data as far as which hires earned which bonus (bonuses for analysts were given at 3 different amounts), which were offered 3rd year analyst jobs after the initial 2 year analyst position, which were offered associate roles after that, which burnt out and didn’t even finish the first 2 years, etc. All of this dictated which schools they recruited at, particularly for the coveted summer jobs. There’s a reason they hire so many Econ majors from Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an Econ minor and gained so much skills. If someone majored in Econ especially doing the BS instead of BA it is instrumental in the job market. Then to be a math, statistics, or computer science minor would be even better. Actuary, Data Analyst, Research Analyst, Investment Banker, Quant, and so much more

So then what's the reasoning for a liberal arts BA in econ? The most they're doing is intro stats...

Slightly "easier" major for someone who doesn't think they can hack the BS? Or someone who wants to take a few less Econ courses and instead have a broader background (like a foreign language requirement or strong minor).

Same as BA vs BS in CS---the BA will have less "technical courses" and more Foreign language reqs and more general LA course options

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the truth really is that being an Econ major is a social signal, just like going to Williams, or even going to any college at all.

Any major that feeds to the Street means a chance at some of the highest paid entry level jobs in America.

What else do you really want to know?

A chance at some of the most miserable soul-destroying jobs in America…

Any job can be. Unlikely to be the view for most at least from econ majors coming out of Williams.

Anonymous wrote:Williams has a business major?

Anonymous wrote:DC is a junior at Williams, and it is shocking to see how many peers are majoring in Economics. I understand the cost of college has soured, but how does economics, at all, give you any skills needed for jobs? And if anyone can enter business careers, what's the point of business majors? It just seems very confusing.