Degree: Engineering vs Business
I will be entering college as a freshman next year and am lucky enough to be going to a university that offers degrees in engineering and business. Personally, both interest me very much and I am weighing which path to take. The way I see it:
Engineering would offer more flexibility down the road. It would be less fun and more work in college. I would have a lower GPA than in a business major. If I want to get an MBA, I would have a more unique story as an engineer than as a business major. I would be branded as an anti-social engineer during recruiting and would find it tough to convey anything other than academic skills on a resume. I can/already have learned a lot about modeling from books etc. and feel I need classes to learn it.
The business degree would make it much easier to break into ibd right out of undergrad. A business degree would limit me during a career switch down the road. MBA admissions are flooded as it is with undergrad business majors who work in finance. I would have more fun in college.
Advice would be helpful, but mostly I'm just looking to see if my assumptions about these options Are correct in your experience.
Thanks WSO
If you have to ask this
If you have to ask this question, you need to major in Business.
I wouldn't assume that
I wouldn't assume that engineering means lower gpa. I've found out the hard way you need to study what you enjoy as soon as you can. You can get into banking with whatever major you want, just do well.
What the hell?? You don't AIM
What the hell?? You don't AIM for a low GPA! How the hell can you just say you'll get a low GPA in engineering than you would in business? Yes, engineering is definitely a challenge, but surely, life will throw you a few challenges as well! But you don't go through life thinking "Oh, I'm just gonna barely get by.." Change your mentality. Be ambitious. If you want it bad enough, work hard & get it. If you get a low GPA, don't blame it on the major saying it's just hard...just don't play that victim card.
And you being branded as an anti-social engineer? Yes, it's stereotype, but your major doesn't define you! It's just shows you're interested about whatever you're (hopefully) learning. I've personally met two people who went into BB IB as engineering majors. Both of them were badass superstars! One of them double majored in Finance & Engineering & the other majored in Engineering & minored in something. Both had high GPAs & they were from two very different backgrounds but they were both unique in their own way and just completely badass! Take charge of your life! If you want to do something bad enough, go make time & just do it!
You sound like a guy who doesn't know what he wants. Don't go into engineering just so it looks better. If you don't enjoy it, you'll suffer. And judging from your mentality, you sound like a coward making excuses for not taking charge of your life so just don't go into engineering...cause for a person like you, it's probably too hard.
Just because you're in engineering doesn't mean you're an anti-social freak who has nothing but academics (assuming you at least have that in the first place..for a guy like you, you'll probably meet your expectations & get that low GPA). It also doesn't mean shit if you have a high GPA. I know plenty of people who ace their exams only because they had answers to past exams which were identical or they just memorized everything & didn't learn shit.
Do not let your major or GPA define you! Your work will always speak for you & shows whether you're as passionate and hard working as you'll probably say you are. So just take charge of your life and be confident in yourself that you'll make it. And do not think that there's only one way to get to where you want to go - go make your own damn path! You don't always have to follow the norm - in any industry, I would think you'd want to stand out.
I don't mean to be rude. If I was, you just caught me on one of those nights when I feel like being a bitch. Don't ever play that victim card & make excuses for yourself - no one will respect you for it. I also don't mean to sound arrogant or as if I'm preaching. I used to be like you...no, not really - I wasn't as pathetic as you but I learned some of the things I've said above the hard way.
So yeah, just sharing my 2 cents..take it or leave it - your choice, your life.
Are you going to be at a
Are you going to be at a target or non-target this fall? Also, what type of engineering are you thinking of doing? You also need to take into account how good you are at math/physics. How well have you done in ap calc, ap physics, etc? A lot of people in my engineering major freshman year kinda sucked at calc/chem/physics and later failed out.
If you like engineering &
If you like engineering & actually have a genuine interest in it, then do it. If not, just do business. Even if you do well in college & etc, you may be perfect on paper but idk..something about your mentality just ticks me off. Good luck to you..
Let me clarify a little bit
Let me clarify a little bit for you, engineering is much, much more rigorous than a basic business major. If you do not have a passion for creating, finding out how things work, and basically all things nerdy, you fail and end up in the business school anyway with a huge GPA hit.
Personally, I am an engineer, so I am probably biased, but I have never heard someone ask a question like yours that didn't fail out of engineering or transfer after one semester.
If you have to
If you have to ask....business.
Engineering Pros: -More
Engineering
Pros:
-More versatile degree: can do an engineering type job, math/physics/engineering grad school, finance, quant finance, consulting, patent law
-You will learn more and prob increase your overall intelligence with engineering compared to business.
-No one will ever question your quant skills.
-Your classmates in engineering will prob be smarter
-Not a huge deal but, if you do EE/ChemE you get almost instant respect from ppl, even from other engineers/science/premed majors
Cons:
-hard to get decent gpa > 3.5
-Can't speak for all engineering, but for chemE the workload is downright insane and it will put a strain on other relationships you have with non-engineering friends, girlfriends, etc.
-Hard to relate to the average college kid when you're literally just doing/worrying school work the whole time.
-ugly girls and a lot of ppl that are just really socially awkward.
-If you go to school that parties hard you will be miserable.
-If you're good looking you'll get laid once in a while. If not good looking you'll be whacking it (when time permits)
-Basically, your actual college exp will be pretty shitty compared to what it could have been as a business major.
Business
Pros:
-Easier
-Better social life
-Hotter girls
-Cooler classmates
Cons:
-Won't learn as much/develop analytical skills
-Not as impressive
-If you don't get a FO position, you could be stuck in BO/MO, which is prob not as good as an engineering job
My experience follows the
My experience follows the previous post. Got a decent GPA and had a severely stunted social life (during college) because of it.
You could always sack up and
You could always sack up and do both. Obviously it would be challenging but if you're up to the challenge then you'll get the best of both worlds and (if you can hack it) you could somewhat set yourself apart from the pack. I know a good number of people who have landed awesome FT positions while majoring in engineering and getting a minor in business (which is a joke, but sufficient on the application).
GL
I am an engineer minoring in
I am an engineer minoring in economics, and there are many people like me at my school. I feel that though as an engineer, even as an industrial engineer or management engineer, you still may get stereotyped by companies as a quant / risk type of person, even if you want to go into FO. I know that many of my friends who are engineers had more difficulty with SA recruiting than people who were Econ majors at my school, and the people who got jobs were mostly ones that were somewhat quant. It is difficult to break the stereotype of being an engineer = wanting to do quant stuff. That being said, I do know people who have broken that boundary and gotten IBD internships - most notably, a friend who is an electrical engineer.
And your GPA would most likely be more than 0.2 points lower as an engineer than as a business major. If you were to choose the engineering route, be prepared to be cut off from consideration by many companies that secretly really only consider if you were above a 3.7.
I'm a finance major who had
I'm a finance major who had strong mathematical inclinations when coming into college but chose against pursuing them in exchange for a higher GPA and easier college career (both of which I have enjoyed) figuring I wanted to go into "business" after college anyways. I'm going to be a junior in the fall, and if I could do it all over again, I'd be an engineering major (I refuse to graduate late). You still have the option of a finance career, can take a couple accounting courses (which is really all you need), and what you'll learn will actually be kinda interesting and infinitely more useful.
I'm also a finance major, and
I'm also a finance major, and I'm pretty satisfied with my decision - biology made me miserable. However, in retrospect, I personally wish that I had decided to major in computer science (although very difficult) and programming. I feel like it would have equipped me with not only more interesting job prospects, but vital technical skills as well. My finance/economics/accounting background will provide for a more service-oriented job prospect.
Either way, the decision is entirely up to you. If you go in (and actually stick with) an engineering major, chances are that by graduation time, you'll no longer be interested in working on Wall Street or in the business world.
Good luck with your decision.
Money may buy the husk of things but not the kernel. It brings you food but not appetite, medicine buy not health, acquaintances but not friends, servants but not faithfulness, days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
-Henrik Ibsen
You'll have to work very hard
You'll have to work very hard if you plan to be an engineer, and you must be mentally prepared for it. Business, on the other hand, is relatively easier. If you're prepared to slog go for engineering. If not, you'd be better off with a business major. Unless, you opt for engineering, and get your business degree through online education. It could eat into your personal and social life, but once you graduate, armed with both degrees, the number of job opportunities coming your way will be well, awesome! Which brings me to Stevens-Henager - they offer an MBA that can be pursued online, and can be completed in less than the normal completion time. Take a look at the college website, or read a few Stevens-Henager College reviews to know if it works for you.