What's the most valuable and versatile Undergraduate Degree nowadays and looking into the future?
As a Senior HS student looking ahead not just 5 years from now but 15 years down the road, it scares me. I've been always interested in studying finance/business for my undergrad. Seeing the stagnating finance industry and the increase in automation (or atleast intentions to do so), I am having doubts. Unlike most of you monkeys, I still have a chance to switch up my choices before its late!!
It seems to me that a CS degree will be the most valuable degree down the road. A CS undergrad could easily learn finance or get an MBA, but rarely do you see a Finance undergrad getting a Masters in CS. Moreover, from what I see, if I get a CS degree, I can work at goldman or google. But if I get a Business degree, Goldman's the only option. IMO, the only benefit of attending a target b-school undergrad is that it will propel me into consulting/finance right after undergrad. After that, I feel like the degree itself is useless.
Should I get a undergrad in business/finance at a semi-target/target school if my passion is in business? Or Should I look into the future and realize CS is best option (even though i'm not fan of coding)? How about other degrees like Bachelor's of Science (in physics, biology, psychology), Bachelor's of Arts (Economics, etc.)? Hell, what are you thoughts on Liberal Arts degrees going the future?
If you don't like coding, you will blow your brains out long before you ever get a job at Google. If you like finance go with that. It's not like all the finance jobs are drying up over night just because some mega banks are automating out positions. There are still plenty of opportunities, and there are still plenty of industry's that have no where near enough money to automate. Goldman is not the only option.
This. Computer Science really isn't for everyone. I got terrible grades in my first few programming classes (C's and B-'s) before it "clicked". For people who think in a more "intuitive" way vs an algorithmic way, you kinda have to completely rewire your brain to be a good programmer.
I was in your shoe few years ago, but It's more like you get versatile by going to Harvard, and nobody cares about your coding smarts (although at times useful) in the long-run.
Interesting! So you are saying it's not the degree that's valuable but the connections and credibility namesake!
life is all about your network and not making people think you are an idiot.
Mechanical Engineering at good school. You can pretty much do anything you want with it.
Edit: It's a bit harder to keep a 4.0 GPA, but you can go into banking (Engineering degrees look better than bullshit degrees IMO), go design planes at Boeing, go work for an Oil major as an engineer, go be a patent attorney, go into sales at a big corporation, hell even be a doctor. The options are limitless.
Anything else you are limited. MechE for some reason has an enormous base of options.
I wouldn't suggest Mech Egg. Versatile as it may seem to be, the field's completely saturated - unless you want to learn about gears, nuts and bolts (literally).
Banking - internships>>>>>degree Boeing/Big Oil - Masters>>>>Undergrad Patent Attorney - Big Law, Big Schmaw Sales - Any degree, literally. GPA doesn't count Doctor - Above, except GPA counts, and unless you enjoy studying for ten more years after your peers have graduated.
Mech Eng undegrad major here and completely agree. As a summer intern, I worked at a defense contractor doing project management over a summer intern (Mech Eng was not relevant to this role) and transitioned into mgmt consulting (Mech Eng was less relevant here).
Anecdotally, my closest Mech Eng college buddies got into Big Oil, actual Mech Eng position for a satellite company, and wealth mgmt role at a BB.
Math
You're setting this person up for unemployment.
Unless you're truly passionate about science, stay away from all STEM. In my experience, most of the people who tell others to get STEM degrees are non-STEM people. If you want to understand why you shouldn't get a STEM degree, then all you need to do is observe the majority of engineers: they all work in business and/or sales -- not engineering. In fact, most engineers never use what they learned in university; it ends up being a waste of time.
If you can pull a 3.5+ in Math and have an interest in it, then that. In my experience it is seen as a positive by pretty much all employers, and you can definitely build on top of that (e.g. finance, business, engineering).
Overall, I would recommend doing what interests you over what "positions you well."
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And add some financial math/quant econ if you're interested in a finance-related career.
^ This. Listen to this kids; I wish I had. Contrary to what other ignoramuses think, Maths is it.
Not many people will care what type of undergrad degree you have after 15 years of working. If your passion is business do a Finance degree and back yourself. Being in high school as well it is very easy to get yourself worked up about the lack of finance related jobs in the future, but you've just got to have faith in your work ethic and determination
Communications
Liberal Arts degree.
Learn how to read history, write prose, and consider big-picture questions.
Appropriate username.
Backed.
Throw in a little cosmology, theology, and alchemy and you are all set. Study bloodletting or phrenology so you have a trade to fall back on.
You are high, the best degree for the future is gender studies with a minor in social justice.
I didn't know there were people like you WSO haha. You must have studies classics and medieval history at Dartmouth/Williams/Amherst.... I like history and I agree that it can be valuable indicator of critical thinking. Though from what I see, unless you went to a liberal arts school like the ones I mentioned above, a lib arts degree is pretty undesirable in business...
No it's not. I like my coffee brewed by history majors in the morning.
I'm pretty sure that was sarcastic...unless it went completely over my head
Engineering is the best foundation for industry. Ayn Rand said it was a mix of physics and philosophy which I came pretty close to in my liberal arts undergrad. But you've got to be entrepreneurial to make that work. Engineering is a highly respected foundation which can learn finance in 2nd gear and has a safety net of secure employment.
CS or applied physics is something I would go for. Finance is easy to learn but studying those two gives you great problem solving skills with good technical abilities. Anyone can read basics of corporate finance, valuation and investment management and then he/she has same knowledge as an undergraduate with finance concentration.
Mark Cuban just said that he believes liberal arts will be more valuable than finance and CS in the future. An interesting thought. http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cuban-liberal-arts-is-the-future-20…
A word of advice, don't read business insider.
A word of advice, don't listen to mark cuban
I did doubled in mechanical engineering and material science. I currently work in the automotive industry but will go to B-school this coming fall. If I could turn back the clock, I would have studied either physics or math and double in philosophy.
Engineering has helped me because it allowed me to analyze a problem with different variables. However, I think physics or math would have even been better (ie. Elon Musk). As for philosophy, I think this will come in handy because the future is changing with artificial intelligence and automation. Eventually robots will perform all the essential functions of a programmer or engineer. Knowing how to navigate human thoughts and morality and make logical decisions will be more beneficial in the next 20 years in my opinion.
If your goal is to end up going to B-school, pick a major that you will enjoy and do well in over the course of 4 years because your GPA matters a lot. I wish I were more like you when I graduated high school. Great way to start off your college journey. Good luck!
+1 for Physics & Philosophy, probably the most well rounded education. Oxford has a program that combines the two that I would have liked to complete.
Do anything with a quantitative focus. It could be engineering, math, statistics, econ (take a lot of econometrics courses), could also be bunch of other areas I won't bother to look up. Data science is going to blow up and this kind of background will set you up nicely to take advantage. Not only professionally, but academically as you will have a strong base for grad school.
Now: CS Future: Avoiding $200K in debt and letting machines just run everything
Seriously, I fear that even for college students today, many careers will be shortened by automation. If you live in California, Washington, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia, Georgia, or Maryland, you have the opportunity to pay $5K/semester for a better engineering degree than most Ivies can offer.
Obviously if you get a full ride to MIT or Stanford or Princeton, take it. But in the face of the future cashflow uncertainty, the safer and more conservative bet is to stay thrifty and spend $20K/year on school rather than $65K/year. UIUC and Berkeley create more successful tech startups than the average Ivy, place better at Google, Amazon, and Facebook, and simply have stronger programs. And they're cheaper, leaving you with more money and freedom to participate in the tech revolution. And if automation happens faster than people expect, you'll have paid off your loans sooner and be in better shape.
If it were me, the safe bet right now is in-state engineering. If you don't have a good state school where you live, ask your parents to move to California. :-)
The ivies, and similar prestige schools, give fantastic financial aid. The only people who are paying 65k per year to go to Princeton are those who's parents make in excess of 250k/year. I come from a middle class family and my cost per year came out to like ~16k/year. It's a complete myth that top target private schools are unaffordable. This is only the case if you have wealthy parents who won't pay for your undergrad education, which I would say is pretty rare. If your parents make under 100k per year, you will get a massive amount of grants from any ivy or similar university.
Yes, but if your family earns between $250K and $1mm, $250K over four years is still a huge burden for your family. Furthermore, most state schools offer scholarships to bring the cost down to in-state pricing for stronger candidates. (IE IU, UW Madison, UIUC)
I'd look at the actual cost for you. I'd also not go crazy with applications. Focus your efforts on five or six schools, make sure at least one of them is in-state, one or two of the others are Berkeley, UIUC, or UT Austin, and then if you have a lot of time left, throw your hat into the ring at Princeton, Harvard, or wherever. Just know that the application is more complicated and will often require SAT subject tests, and there's a byzantine financial aid formula specific to each school that you have to figure out-- there's no guarantee your final bill won't be $25K/year, $50K/year, whatever.
If you live in one of the states that have excellent CS and engineering programs (CA, WA, TX, IL, WI, IN, MI, GA, VA, MD, NJ, PA), which covers about 50% of the US population, your #1 most important application is in-state. Get that one perfect, get that one in first, (personal statement, SATs or ACTs), and then decide if you want to take the SAT IIs, write a bunch of essays, line up teacher recommendation, and get everything in by the December 1st or January 1st deadline to see if you can go to a weaker program that's at an Ivy. Then, once you get the admit from Berkeley or UT Austin or Illinois or UW Madison (and some of these schools can get back to you before Thanksgiving if you submit early), you can relax and enjoy senior year.
Me personally, for the same price, or even a slightly higher price, if I was fairly set on CS, I'd take Berkeley CS over any Ivy's CS program. Even Harvard or Princeton, (I went to Princeton and they have an excellent CS program, but Berkeley's is simply much stronger). I did not mention MIT or Stanford, however. Berkeley is just a much better education with more opportunities for graduates, and the best tech jobs outside of finance are on the west coast (the best tech jobs in finance are in Chicago, which is sort of the country's HFT capital).
If you want to do something very tech-focused, which is what I'm recommending for the economy over the next 15 years, the correct answer is Berkeley (or Caltech or Stanford if you qualify for enough financial aid grants to get the cost even).
Anything that puts you in a position to avoid this: http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Emplo….
Tbf you seem like you'd nail an undergrad in philosophy... some big questions here
SE / ECE/ SYDE (software/electrical&comp / systems design). I'm a Canadian STEM university and these guys are getting jobs almost anywhere, Quant finance/ CS / fin-tech / S&T / data-science / tech... It's a bit rare but there are definitely engineers in banking.
Re: Business degrees & Google
That's not true. Google hires plenty of business majors for the sales and operations side of the business.
Economics is actually is very versatile degree, provided it's of the "mathsy" variety and comes from a reputable institution.
But the best-- and also cheapest-- way into Google is a CS degree from a strong state school. Starting developer salaries have roughly doubled over the past decade, and they'll go up even faster if Zoe Lofgren's H1B reform bill passes.
This will come to an end eventually in about 15-20 years as everything gets automated. But right now, engineering is the field to be in, and a cheap, highly ranked $10k/semester state school is the place to study it at. As we say in banking, you can teach finance and economics to anyone just about anywhere, but algorithms and math are harder to teach.
I never said it wasn't. I simply said that a non-technical major does not preclude one from working at Google (I worked there on the sales side for a time).
If I could go back in time I would have tacked on a double major in either CS or statistics (probably CS and then done a masters in stats) o you're preaching to the choir, but I'm still making over $200k per year working from home in the tech space with a liberal arts degree.
I do not think an econ degree has to be math-sy. MS me or whatever, but linear algebra and econometrics are 100% useless when you consider the most complicated thing you'll do with an econ degree is index match and maybe nested if statements if you are a real amateur.
Why would I MS you?
It doesn't have to be mathsy, but the more mathsy the more versatile the degree is.
If you are less passionate about STEM than you wish you were, and are thinking about business but don't want to take intro business classes BC you plan to get a MBA maybe this.
I don't know about 15 years in the future, but a decade ago and maybe today an enjoyable education path was Sociology (undergrad) and Accounting (masters) at a state university. I know two folks who did that and they work in real estate development and consumer brand management. Both started in the Big 4 after college. Both are "weird" (good thing).
Sociology: study of people/groups, trends, lots of writing and research, can be super enjoyable
Accounting: masters degree, two years but part time, you can work. You get that technical skill, campus recruiting, beta alpha psi, and internships. No waste of time intro biz classes that you will later retake at a top MBA with a six figure price tag.
Why both? I feel like business majors at a lot of schools don't place a lot of emphasis on hard core research. What undergrad biz schools do have is connections for you to get your first job. Sociology (or the humanities; I also love history) helps you think about your world view and communicate it (but the career placement is much to be desired). Later that world view could be an investment thesis or new platform. I would take upper level classes from a variety of subjects (urban planning, history, organic chemistry maybe) and try to graduate in 3 years (but no more than 4 years).
Spend the summer between your UG and MAcc taking summer school classes at a more prestigious university. Often times, summer school instate and outofstate tuition are same. You might even get your MAcc at this school if you think about working in that city.
I don't know about the future of accounting / audit but if you are at no-name state U and have little interest or can't get great grades in STEM, this is what I'd do to at the baseline to have a middle class life with an interesting academic experience. Don't forget the social aspect. College is a good time to find out what you are good at.
From a corporate career standpoint, generally the most useful subjects to learn are programming, statistics, probability, accounting, and psychology. These can all be applied to a variety of fields. However that doesn't necessarily mean you should major in them...
Major in the most difficult subject that you can get good grades in and have interest in. Aside from that, take whatever classes you want
Any of the following:
Harvard Oxford Yale Princeton Stanford
Why are majors like art history or music not getting any loving on WSO? They are great for careers in BB IBD...
Robert Duval said you need to eat, sleep, and breathe LBOs. Music or Gender Studies will make you into a Crazy Bernie fan.
RDuval is starting to really get some traction on WSO. He's here to stay!
EE / Robotics.
First off, go to the best school you can, Ivy, Public Ivy, Semi Target, Top LAC, etc. I would argue that school brand matters more than what you major in. This is evidenced by the number of Harvard Liberal Arts majors doing big things in the corporate world
AFter achieving number 1, I'd advise basing your studies off of a combination of a few things, you're own personal interests, what will be "useful" and can help you get a job, and lastly, what you get can decent grades in.
For all the people telling you to do CS or EE or Math, even if you love those subjects, if you get a 2.3 GPA that's going to make it tough to standout. On the other end of things, if you love...let's say Sociology or English or something that is less directly related to industry, that's completely fine(given you're going to a good school), but make sure to supplement it with some STEM, CS, Econ etc so you can at least point to the fact that you're well rounded.
If grades are a issue, try and pass fail the tough classes, take easier classes, or just make sure to take a mix of easy and hard each semester.
Most importantly, have fun in college, don't stress too much about the future, trust me it'll come faster than you want it to.
I recently spoke about undergrad majors and masters degrees with a few directors at my company (aerospace / defense). Engineering degrees are extremely valuable in the market place, but they are not all equal. The response I received when I asked what major do they think is most valuable to our company was Electrical Engineering. The reason being that there are electrical components involved in every single product we make, and will continue to make for the next 30-40 years. Mechanical degrees are great and versatile across functions, but they are more common so supply and demand starts to kick in.
What some people may find interesting was the value these people placed on finance degrees. At the end of the day, engineering people can come up with the most technologically innovative idea of all time, but if there is no one there to budget, forecast costs, determine RoI, etc. then these engineers are useless. More so, many who had masters degrees in engineering (often with a quantitative / engineering undergrad), wished they did not do an engineering masters, but instead got an MBA (for the finance course load).
I would say the best combination was listed above and is rather general.... Something numbers based (statistics, engineering, finance / economics) with something along the liberal arts scheme (philosophy, poli sci, english, etc.).
Considering what you said, no you shouldn't do CS. For CS to be valuable, you need to be good at and have a passion for coding. Just because you graduated from CalTech or MIT with a CS degree, doesn't mean you'll make it through the technical portion of a Google interview. If you do end up getting a job as a programmer, how will you survive if you dislike what you do?
Overall, this discussion seems somewhat moot. If you get a business, economics, or liberal arts degree from a top institution, you will do just fine in an automated world. If you get an engineering, math, physics, statistics, or CS degree from a top school (note: the Ivies are not necessarily the best schools in these areas), you will also do fine. Just focus on something that you like and will be good at.
It's actually insane to me that you are so a) aware of the different options available to you at your age and b) so career oriented at your age. I am honestly impressed, I was trying to figure out which shirts make me look the coolest at your age.
I would go into a engineering field (electrical/mechanical or preferably something like biomedical engineering). Here are the reasons:
1) No one will question your analytical & quantitative skills. 2) You get exposure to programming. 3) You have field expertise other than just "finance", which could help you stand out in a line full of finance professionals. 4) If you decide you hate finance, medical schools love engineering backgrounds as well. 5) Top MBA programs love engineering backgrounds. 6) MBB and other consulting firms love engineers, and this trend is only increasing as the consulting industry becomes more and more specialized. 7) During school you will get opportunities to do things that most people NEVER get to do (i.e. build a fucking go-kart from scratch for your senior research project and race it against other teams in your university and other universities). Honestly, these opportunities are often overlooked, but they are some of the best memories & experiences you will have in your life cause they are so unique.
You should pursue something you are passionate about. I had scores of friends who went into STEM and failed out, ultimately to go to a Masters in Computer Science from ivy leagues after working for Google in a non-technical related position. They learned programming as a side benefit to help their jobs, and it provided a form of curiosity that made their work environment easier to work in. A good friend mine was a business major at a target, took a CS as an elective, switched, and worked directly under Bill Gates for 8 years before her startup.
I read an article online, in where Mike Rowe gave advice to my generation (millennials), in which he said that, look where people are going, and go the other direction.
Source - NPR News - http://www.npr.org/2016/05/20/478733784/mike-rowe-public-radio-shopping…
In point - do what you love, money will follow.
Physics and Philosophy. Just ask John Galt.
Who is John Galt?
you must be a commie
Engineering or computer science.
Naval Ravikant talks about this in one of his podcasts with Tim Ferriss. I believe he was an Econ, Comp Sci double major, or switched majors at some point in school. Anyways, his takeaway was that Micro Econ was super useful (how people make decisions, game theory, etc.) and Macro Econ was useless (top economists can't agree what is best for the larger economy). And actual coding languages etc. isn't super useful (since languages change, the tech is always changing, etc.) but understanding the logic and how computer science in general works was very useful. Go find the actual interview, but he's a super smart guy and his insight made a lot of sense. I was an Econ major and wholeheartedly agree, although can't comment on the comp sci side of things.
Comp Sci is all about understanding the logic behind algos. Who the fuck focuses on the languages in Comp Sci? The coursework is difficult enough that most programs focus on the former. Pretty obvious statement.
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Assuming you have equal interest/skill in finance/CS, I would go:
CS if you go to a non target school or Anything you want as long as you can get a high gpa from a target school for banking.
I was (am) CS/Math at a top target school and I'll say this: Give computer science a try first before taking a deep dive in. You are going to realize that it's either so mind-numbing you could never do it or you will feel those small gratifying events that the small successes bring and then maybe it is for you (my experience).
Also give Stats a try. Even taking just a probability class (with calculus) and mathematical statistics is worth it. Stuff like time series and machine learning are super useful and heavily tied to probabilistic/statistical thinking. Treat your freshman year as a chance to explore the different STEM subjects and see where you fit. I tried physics/math/stats/CS/EE before settling on CS/math with a decent amount of stats classes.
Wow! Thanks for all the responses! Definitely a lot diff. perspectives and opinions to consider. Taking a closer look at engineering & CS, it doesn't seem like something i would enjoy doing for 4 years (even though I'm recognized as a top Physics student in my school region). I'm considering a few Ivy school and some Canadian universities atm (i'm Canadian).
Your undergraduate major is irrelevant 10 years post graduation. Tailor your major for the field you want to work in and go to the best school you can (for the network).
Study classics. Only the man with Latin and Greek is truly educated. When the Goldman interviewer asks what the heck you were thinking, majoring in classics for a finance career, you can reply Homo doctus is se semper divitias habet (A learned man always has wealth within himself).
Industrial Economics, or some degree with about 50% Engineering / 50% Economics. Where I went to, they called it Industrial Economics. It was mainly a Engineering program, but with around half or one third with typical economics and business classes.
Businesses today LOVE people with solid quantitative skills, good knowledge of how a business works, and technical expertise. If you plan on grad school: Engineering + MBA.
As for what Engineering? Software, Electrical, Computer, Data Science, or something like that. Something that gives you a really good understanding of computing. Specialize in something AI related. I have school buddies that went to study Machine Learning, got tons of job offers, then got their MBA, and are still swimming in job offers and headhunters. You can use your MBA to springboard into management of relatively young tech firms that work heavily around data.
Intersectional Queer and Gender Studies
I would like to second that. And, if it doesn't work out, at least you learned who's at fault.
If you're interested in business/finance, you should study business/finance (or econ if your school doesn't offer business). I came really close to majoring in pharmacy instead of business because everyone kept talking about how lucrative the field is, but I realized I would never be happy if I didn't at least give finance a shot. Ultimately having a sought-after major will never compare to truly having a passion for it, because the kids who are the best all have an intellectual curiosity that's driven by passion.
Depending on what you're interested in, I'd choose from some combination of CS, Engineering, Statistics, and Finance
Personally, I'd recommend exactly what I did - Economics major with a double minor in CS and Philosophy.
Anyone who doesn't take at least 1 CS course in college today is wasting their money IMO. Even if you never program anything in your life, learning how to think systematically and care about every minute detail are important skills - not to mention that it is now expected to have at least 1 CS course on your transcript for B-school, and knowing how to read/understand code/technical specifications is becoming increasingly valuable in today's world.
I don't think majoring in CS is a particularly horrible idea, but I also think that it is a highly overrated concept. CS classes are some of the most time-consuming classes you can take in college. Time spent staring at your code is time not spent having fun with your friends/developing yourself outside of class/working on your other classes. The reality is that unless you go to a top CS school like Stanford/Harvard/CMU, being a CS major won't lead to the big tech companies knocking on your door. Most of the people who end up working in tech - CS majors or not - are in large part either self-taught or took part in programs for CS outside of school - which a CS minor (or even a few classes) will open doors to anyways. It does teach you how to think a certain way, which has a lot of value, but in my experience, it is not the best bang for your buck/time/GPA.
To be educated is to know at least a little bit of Locke/Hobbes/Kant/Machiavelli/etc. The modern concept of university was born out of teaching philosophy, and it would be a waste not to have at least some of the classic university experience if you're about to spend a ton of time and money in college. More importantly though, like CS, philosophy is a subject which really teaches skills - different skills, but equally if not more important than CS. Philosophy teaches you how to write, how to argue, and how to analyze - all things that will continue to be important no matter what year it is or what profession you are in. For example, Philosophy is the highest scoring major on both the GRE and the LSAT, and is top 5 on the GMAT. My university also claims that philosophy majors earn the 4th most overall, after economics, engineering, and math.
Overall though, I would say that economics wins the title for the best possible major. It is generally not time intensive (relative to anything STEM). Outside of the upper-level econometrics classes (which some people find ways to avoid taking, but are also very interesting/quite practical), it is a generally easy/intuitive/less time-consuming subject. It also gets you a fair amount of respect - much more than is probably deserved - in the professional world. Personally, I enjoyed learning about economics on my own outside of class far more than in class, but being an econ major freed up my time for other, more valuable things in college, while maintaining respectability on my resume. In the end, that is the real value of an econ degree - learning just enough from the books to rightly call yourself educated, while being able to network and enjoy yourself.
I would advise against business/finance. Much moreso than CS (where having a good instructor and tons of time matters) or Philosophy (where being around similarly minded people to discuss matters) or really most other majors, you can learn most of what you will eventually use in those majors in the real world, and the rest of it can be easily self-taught on your own time. Other than Wharton, undergrad business/finance degrees are not especially respectable, and are much less intellectually stimulating than most of your other options in college - you can do better with your time. Not to mention that these sorts of systematic, easy to learn professions will be amongst the first to be automated away.
STEM degrees are respectable, interesting, and valuable. But unless you really love the subject you're studying, it will not be worth the time investment / likely GPA hit.
Also, your major WILL NOT limit where you will be able to work at the high end. So long as you go to a respectable school and have the grades, the world is (+/-) your oyster. I know CS majors at GS/JPM, Art History majors at MBB, and at least one religious studies major at Google. Certain majors WILL make your life easier - STEM/Econ/CS majors get (in my opinion undue) respect in today's world, but it is far more important to develop skills and yourself, while maintaining some semblance of respectability - ie don't be a dance/studio art/film major (not because those are not respectable professions, but because college is not the best place to learn them, they limit your options, and you will be wasting your time and money).
Agree completely with the last point. You can pivot most anything into something useful. Just don't be an ass, and make sure you can speak intelligently about why you made the choices you did. Likeability and aptitude go a long way.
"Other than Wharton, undergrad business/finance degrees are not especially respectable" You have to be kidding me. So UVA Mcintire, UMich Ross, and Georgetown McDonough graduates aren't respectable? Be it so, they are making a hell lot more $$ than you.
You're right. UVA, UMich, and Gtown have respectable Bschool programs - I'll take that back. My point was that majoring in business administration at, say, the University of Georgia is probably going to do you less good than majoring in a STEM field at the same school.
I think a major distinction we have to make is the difference between the major and the skills developed. We see examples of liberal arts (art history, history, philosophy) and also STEM majors in IB, trading, etc. and likewise non-CS-related majors like mechanical engineering in software development.
It's not so much the major as the skills you develop over those four years. The major is just a vehicle that tends to provide those skills you associate with it, and also serves as a signal to employers of your aptitude. Banking isn't looking for finance majors specifically, and quantitative positions like those at tech firms or algorithmic trading shops aren't solely looking for CS students. They want the skills those majors tend to provide (analysis and detail for the former, numeracy and logical creativity for the latter).
The major just happens to provide a lot of direct exposure to the skills you associate with it. Computer science majors write a lot of code, but so do electrical engineers and applied mathematics majors. Being a certain major doesn't prevent you from taking courses that can help you develop those skills, and it's the repeated practice and development that allow you to become stronger at it.
I'd focus more on the skills you want to build over the major itself. While the two usually go hand in hand, don't stress yourself because you have the flexibility to take what you want in school. You'll have to persuade Google you know what you're doing if you're a liberal arts major, but they won't look down on you if you can prove you know the data structures and algorithms and have a passion for development just like the other candidates.
Thanks for furnishing such well put together articles
A computer science degree is pretty valuable - if you are good with computers and like to code
Don't do it for the money though, do something that you enjoy.
I've taught computer science at a number of places from entry level commuter schools to Stanford. People who get into the field because it is high paying but who lack aptitude or desire will totally suck at it and will not turn it into a lucrative (or enjoyable) career.
I had one student who switched from Bio to CS during the 90's dot-com boom because he wanted to be rich. He was a terrible coder. I failed him (deservedly).
However, even if you take a business degree, or physics degree, or applied math degree, or history degree, or whatever, you should take a coding class or two -- it will help you down the road.
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