Deciding on a Major

[jng]

I don't know where you heard that; behind Engineering and Computer Science majors economics and business majors are generally next in line for highest starting salaries (depending on your emphasis - Accounting, Finance, IT, Marketing, etc). Also, having an undergrad business degree can cut down the amount of units you have to take to get your MBA and in some cases allow you to obtain it in as little time as one year.

I read it in some article interviewing admissions folks from MBA programs. The logic behind the argument is that undergraduate educations are expensive, esp. at private institutions and you get more bang for your buck studying something like a language or literature. Therefore, people who apply to MBA programs having majored in "business" appear - well, to have made a not so wise investment decision. Many undergraduate business programs don't cut it because in the end, most of them graduate without experience. And what they learned in class? They could have learned much of that on the job - according to the article.

It doesn't have anything to do with salaries, but rather "investments."

For the life of me I can't remember where I saw/read this.

 

[R34]

Hi, im a college student myself and went through a phase like this. im still kind of in the middle of one, but your situation isn't a whole lot different than mine other than the fact that i can't wait to get into more upper division investing classes. I was up in the air for a while between electrical or civil engineering, music, Bus. Econ and Bus Admin.

First things first you should know that these days a bachelors degree is a dime a dozen, especially with a business major. but its all the more reason why you need an undergraduate degree to compete with the rest of the world. If you are planning to return for an MBA i would recommend a major from the college of letters and science. It will set you apart from other applicants of a job you may apply for. It will also make you more well rounded and you also may enjoy it more.

You do not learn nearly as much specialized material in an undergrad program as you do in a graduate program. Also, the courses are fairly vague in comparison to what you will learn from experience and/or a graduate program. this meaning, the variety of job options available to you is still fairly broad regardless of your major. There are exceptions, but for the majors your are debating, there are not many. Young adults fresh out of college usually switch jobs many times, usually between different fields, before finding what they want to pursue as a life long career. That's why it's usually recommended that you get some work experience before getting a master's degree. Then you can go back and specialize in that field.

Another thing that you should keep in mind goes back to what my father always told me as i was growing up. "Find the thing that you enjoy/love doing the most, and find a way to get paid for it".

For me, my favorite thing to do is play and study music. I play guitar and i decided recently that i would pursue my music as a career. Day in and day out i play guitar, songwrite and actually STUDY music technique, style, theory, etc (17+ hours a day). Nothing makes me happier and the ultimate goal is to get signed to a record label (get paid for what i love to do). In the long run i feel that my life will be much more enjoyable. So what i am doing right now is taking music classes along with my business study and planning on some time off after i graduate to go to music school and pursue music as a career. Worst comes to worst i have an undergraduate degree to fall back on if i need to get a 'business' job.

One thing that might set our situations apart is that i enjoy studying real estate and stock investing too, so i have another source of income as a back up. its always good to have a plan B (or C and D).

Sorry if i rambled on about my life too long, but i was just explaining what i ended up doing when i ran into this dilemma. so far i couldn't be happier and, like i had said before, have a backup just in case. Maybe i'm too much of an optimist and might be sounding too cliche by saying this, but follow your dreams and never let anyone tell you that you can't succeed.

 

[munson]

It's all about the Music Industry program, if you have it at your school.

Other than that, I would try to dual major in Comm. Studies and Marketing.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Where's your evidence? The fact that Chemical Engineers seem to do quite well compared to all the other engineers would seem to count against this supposition (perhaps it attracts particularly smart people). IIRC the engineers do quite well compared to the computer scientists.

Note that we aren't talking about all students, but those who were at least thinking of grad school. That's not going to be the C students.

o.

I should repeat my statement. Engineers going to grad school the GRE is nothing more than a formatily.

The GRE is a test you can prepare for no if and or buts about it. It nothing more than the SAT which is proven that reviewing for it can make a huge difference in the scores. The GRE is no different.

Problem is Engineers the compition to get into grad school is pretty weak and like I said the GRE is a formatily. The scores are just recored and never looked at again.

Compare that to other majors and all of a sudden the GRE is another issue. The test is bias and hurts engineers.
intellectual aptitude seems to be more along the lines of how you are trained to think in school. Engineering is a way of thinking that is far from the norm. The test is set up to hurt them. Something is wrong when the scores for engineers are clearly lower across the boards and not just a little lower but a lot lower. To me that screams there is a clear bias in the test.

That and add in the fact that for engineers the GRE is a formatively. Engineers have by far more important and predigest test they are after. Namely the FE and PE.

 

[byocrysis]

Major in Microbiology, thats what I am doing and it is way frickin' cool.

 

[themadchemist]

It's the same within the sciences. Abstract fields like physics require a much greater degree of talent than applied fields.

You can see this if you look at standardized test results. The students with the highest scores overall are those who take subjects like Physics, Philosophy and Economics. Lawyers, engineers and computer scientists score much lower on average (although Chemical Engineers do quite well). The reason is that Physics, Philosophy and Economics are much harder subjects and require a greater degree of intelligence to succeed in.

This is something of a baseless generality. I mean, I personally do find physics harder than biology or chemistry, but maybe a physicist would see things differently and find bio and chem harder? These sorts of sweeping statements aren't really useful to anyone.

For what it's worth, you can explain half of macroeconomics by talking about ion channels in a lipid bilayer. Once you get beyond a backbone of probability and fundamental mathematical concepts in the sciences (social sciences included), what's challenging about them has to do with how you can wrap your mind around the specifics of a given field's set of questions and particular systems.

Then why do philosophers, economists and physicists smoke them on standardized tests like the GRE? If you wanted some independent test of academic aptitude, it would have to be something like that.

Want to cite that claim? Particularly since law students don't even take the GRE...

I think it's a pretty well-accepted fact in graduate school that the GRE is more or less a formality. Scores are clustered high near the top--the test is really pretty easy and a big chunk of testing cohort does extraordinarily well. Also, trying to correlate scholarly accomplishment to a standardized test, particularly one as general and straightforward as the GRE, is a tall order. Going to graduate school is about doing research--thinking and creating/discovering new knowledge. That has nothing to do with answering some sentence completions and middle school algebra problems.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Man I miss that part about Philosophy being a harder major. That is such a load of BS. It is more one of those easy majors. Engineers general seem to do fairly well in those classes because it is very logical. It seems to be a major people use for law and other things like that.

It is one of the easiest majors out there.

Engineering on the other hand is one of the hardest. Unless you can explain why fewer than 40% of the people who start engineering finish it. It has one of the HIGHEST attention rates in colleges.

 

[jaw04005]

It all depends on the industry you plan on working in when you graduate. Many employers don't necessarily care what your undergraduate major is in. In fact, having an out of the ordinary degree may set you a part and/or help you strike up a conversation in your future job interviews.

For example, I have many friends who are education majors that work as sales and marketing representatives, and friends who where communication majors that are now teachers.

In some ways college prepares you for the real world, and in others it doesn't. Don't just assume that marketing/advertising majors all create ads for new products or that all communication majors work in PR, Journalism, etc—which is likely the main jobs you will hear talked about within those majors. There are a wide variety of jobs out there in each field.

Also, there's a big difference between the type of degree you receive and your undergraduate major. For example, most 4-year colleges have a limited number of degrees—Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Art, Bachelor of Science in Education, Bachelor of Business Administration, etc. Yet have endless amounts of majors.

You might have be a Communication Major and your friend a Biology Major, yet you may share the same college degree —*Bachelor of Science.

 

[itcheroni]

Then why do philosophers, economists and physicists smoke them on standardized tests like the GRE? If you wanted some independent test of academic aptitude, it would have to be something like that.

Can you cite to an article or study? I've never heard that before and have a hard time believing it.