Are undergrad business majors/schools useless?

I have heard from many that students who majored in the liberal arts learn in a few months what undergrad business majors spent their entire 4 years studying. Is it then true undergrad bschools are useless in terms of actual knowledge? Don't get me wrong, I go to a top 20 semi-target and would gladly switch places with a Wharton student but in terms of actual learning isn't it more worthwhile to major in something else?

 
Best Response
ltohang:
I have heard from many that students who majored in the liberal arts learn in a few months what undergrad business majors spent their entire 4 years studying. Is it then true undergrad bschools are useless in terms of actual knowledge? Don't get me wrong, I go to a top 20 semi-target and would gladly switch places with a Wharton student but in terms of actual learning isn't it more worthwhile to major in something else?

I'm sorry but if you at least said engineering/comp sci students told you that, it'd be more understandable. But liberal arts? Honestly you should have learned what liberal arts students learn in 4 years from high school. English/poli sci/history/etc. were all Iphone classes to me. And by that I mean all I did when I took one was for an easy A and all I did all class was use my Iphone.

Also, it depends on your courses. MIT Sloan kids can take the same tech based courses as anyone else. CMU has a computational finance major that is pretty much unmatched in terms of rigor. And in general from what I've seen, NYU Stern kids are on average a much higher quality than their NYU CAS counterparts.

Short answer to your question is no, and stop talking to idiots.

 

SanityCheck has it about right. I've talked to a few kids in the CMU compfin program and they know their shit. Sloan undergrads, past the intro classes, take the same electives as the MBA students (and the same overall core as the engineering/science majors, for that matter). Is the major considerably easier than engineering/science? Duh. Is it a cakewalk? No. Especially if you choose to take legit classes (Financial Economics vs. "People and Change" or something).

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

You can learn more in 1 day on Kahn Academy than you would in 12 years in school. By now I've learned that school/college/grad isn't meant for learning. It's meant for socializing/networking.

My FINANCE professor is broke, liberal, and doesn't know what a DCF is. You're on your own when it comes to financial knowledge kid, regardless of your major.

 
BTbanker:
My FINANCE professor is broke, liberal, and doesn't know what a DCF is. You're on your own when it comes to financial knowledge kid, regardless of your major.
hurr anecdotes? I had finance professors who were retired ex-CFOs, maybe you go to a school that doesn't know how to hire decent professors.
 
meekrab:
BTbanker:
My FINANCE professor is broke, liberal, and doesn't know what a DCF is. You're on your own when it comes to financial knowledge kid, regardless of your major.
hurr anecdotes? I had finance professors who were retired ex-CFOs, maybe you go to a school that doesn't know how to hire decent professors.
at a target, but they definitely don't know how to hire profs.
 

If you go to an Ivy League school study whatever you want. If not, you better study something practical. I think the guy at SBUX who made my coffee today had an art history degree from U Arkansas.

 
eldiablo4857:
Undergraduate Business is a joke IMHO besides Wharton. I guaratee you the Philosophy courses at Princeton, UChicago, Duke, etc. are harder than the courses in the BBA programs at Ross and McCombs.

Who cares how hard it is though... are they more useful?

I hate victims who respect their executioners
 
BlackHat:
eldiablo4857:
Undergraduate Business is a joke IMHO besides Wharton. I guaratee you the Philosophy courses at Princeton, UChicago, Duke, etc. are harder than the courses in the BBA programs at Ross and McCombs.

Who cares how hard it is though... are they more useful?

This ^^. Same thing I experienced in my pure math courses. Sure it can be difficult to comprehend but are you learning to apply what you are doing to the real world? I don't judge programs by academic prestige for this reason. If you are only a master of theory then academia is the only place for you.

 
BlackHat:
eldiablo4857:
Undergraduate Business is a joke IMHO besides Wharton. I guaratee you the Philosophy courses at Princeton, UChicago, Duke, etc. are harder than the courses in the BBA programs at Ross and McCombs.

Who cares how hard it is though... are they more useful?

First, let's define 'useful' and then let's talk about if it's important to be useful, then we can segue into whether we should care or not about both the usefulness and difficulty of said programs.

This is what the philosophy guy would talk about.

 

I don't think it matters so much what you major in as what you do with your time at school. There are undergrad business majors who are going AWOL over an unpaid social media internship senior year at a random startup no one has ever heard of. There are liberal arts major interning at BBs and doing real work. The latter did more interesting things outside of the classroom than the former, in my experience. The former just shoved their resumes in important people's hands and begged for a photo op.

 

I know mccombs kids who don't know preferred stock from livestock...

Disclaimer for the Kids: Any forward-looking statements are solely for informational purposes and cannot be taken as investment advice. Consult your moms before deciding where to invest.
 
BlackHat:
captainkoolaid:
I know mccombs kids who don't know preferred stock from livestock...

I know mccombs kids that run 5k marathons

Ha. I lol'ed.

 
ltohang:
I have heard from many that students who majored in the liberal arts

Okay, rather surprised nobody has brought this up yet, but "liberal arts" isn't typically a major, it's a collection of academic studies that can be majors under both the BA or BS degree. So, if you're being told this by a group of physicists, mathematicians, and chemists, then perhaps their perspective is understandable.

Theater and gender studies BAs on the other hand, they're simply lying to you to justify their awful life choices.

"My caddie's chauffeur informs me that a bank is a place where people put money that isn't properly invested."
 

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