Does Major Truly Not Matter? Could I break into MM IB (or B4 MC) with an English Lit. Degree?
Hello Fellow Apes, Common knowledge on the street is that your school name matters much more than your major. I’m currently a student at a community college looking to transfer to the UCLA/UCB as an economics major. The only issue is, economics is considered a “impacted” major. Most liberal arts majors have a 45-80% acceptance rate at targets like UCB or UCLA, econ/biz-econ only ranges from 5-17%. I genuinely have a passion for english lit. It would be much easier keeping a high GPA compared to cutting my teeth on an economics curriculum. If I were to go down this path, I would defenetly get a minor in something like accounting or business administration so I have some sort of academic finance experience on my resume. All things equal, if I joined clubs, did case studies, grinded my technicals, and networked hard, how much of a disadvantage would I have going into a Liberal Arts major? Is there anything that I should do differently compared to a more traditional major? Would it be better to go to a semi-target like UCB, UCLA, USC for a liberal arts degree or a complete non-target for an economics or biz-admin degree? Thanks for everyone who responds and gives thier two-cents! 3
blumpkin
As you correctly pointed out, school trumps major.
Major is important to asses you have interest in business and are quantitatively capable. If you have a major like English lit, you then just need to have evidence on your resume you aren’t some artsy person who can’t do math. It’s also going to depend who is hiring you and what they are looking for.
A fun example, I was not in any business clubs because I was a triple major in economics, business, and music. For music, I also performed at a very high level. After I was hired, I remember going through resumes as a group and one of the associates stated on a call “if they aren’t in a business club, toss the resume. It means they aren’t serious” People’s resumes were then tossed.
So had he been running recruiting the year I applied, I wouldn’t have gotten my first job. The process is way more random and inefficient than people think.
I always heard it could be random stuff like this but it’s rare to get concrete examples. Any more stories would be fun to hear
A fun/ not so fun one is just personnel differences and optimism vs pessimism.
I know certain employees who have never given anyone exceeding expectations reviews. They are negative people that can always find flaws in a work product of a junior. This same behavior is true for interviewing—so a perfect candidate is “too perfect, seemed rehearsed and not interested”
The reverse is also true—some managers are motivation powerhouses that can bring out the best in employees and make processes very positive.
I learned this harsh truth first as an analyst when my first project I was staffed had great people and I was top bucket across the board. Then my next deal, I did nothing different and was receiving needs improvement evals with vague comments like “need better attention to detail”.
As I have gotten more senior it’s just a fact of the working world that I didn’t get when I was younger that who you work with and who is managing you is overwhelmingly important. Barring some fields like hedge funds, office politics can overwhelmingly trump individual effort.
Major doesn't matter only if the school is top-tier aka Ivies. UCLA and Berkeley are obviously good schools but not good enough where we'd take a look at a resume with a non-relevant major, especially in this shitty of a hiring environment.
Does major matter at Cornell? Would I be at a disadvantage as a government major w/ business minor compared to an economics major (both in CAS not AEM)
No
Your main issue will be the fact that you will transfer in as a Junior and miss most of IB recruiting. There will be some spots open but if you're deadset on it you'll need to extend your grad date by at least a semester. As for major, just do TAP at your CC and it shouldn't be hard to get Econ for UCLA, UCB is diff since you'd apply directly to Haas if you want Biz which is super competitive.
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