Undergrad business schools vs Econ
Random question, but does it really matter if you go to an undergrad business school? I want to major in economics because I really like it. I have friends in AEM and Stern and I feel sorry that they have to take accounting and business law. I'm preparing to transfer, but would my IB chances be less if I studied Econ in the arts and science schools of semi targets like NYU and BC, instead of studying Econ in Stern or CSOM? Do recruiters only go to the business schools when they visit schools? Any insight would be helpful.
As someone who had no trouble recruiting with an Econ degree from one of those kinds of schools, you don't really miss out on the recruiting.
You might have to explain why you didn't major in business instead, and suffer through those liberal arts core classes though.
I'm majoring in a humanities subject and recruiting is fine
Econ is one of the most rewarding educational experiences I ever put myself through. I might go back to school for a MS instead of a MFE or MSCS. Go for it. You can pick up the business school skill set later.
That's largely how I've felt so far. The thing is I'm a transfer student and I'm probably not getting accepted to CSOM. Cornell is my top and I'll be applying for the policy analysis and management program and I have a pretty good shot at getting in, but if not, I'd be going to a semi target and just wanted to make sure that Econ MCAS won't hurt me instead of Econ CSOM
Two big differences.
1) At most universities econ is a "what you make of it" curriculum. Generally the "foundation" of most UG econ degrees are things like algebra, calc, statistics, and then introductory micro / macro. Thereafter the curriculum is largely up to the student. You could load the rest of your major with "Easy A" classes on labor / sports economics courses, but, come recruiting time there won't be much substance to that major (there are exceptions, of course, such as an individual truly being interested in labor economics, applying themselves, doing research, publishing, etc). On paper, courses like time series / cross sectional econometrics, game theory, etc are more impressive to recruiters, this may also make your coursework a bit more difficult.
2). Business (I'm going to use Finance for this example) tends to be a bit more structured. You'll have basic classes such as marketing / accounting / finance / management, etc. There onward you'll tend to build on Finance in a more concentrated manner. Likely taking courses that a variants of basic finance (portfolio theory, bond / valuation courses, etc). I'd say the biggest benefits of business majors are they TEND to get better OCR opportunities (depends if Econ is considered a liberal art or a business major at a given university) and they get the benefit of learning basic accounting, which is very useful for IB.
Having said that, I found econ more interesting which led me to do my own research / get better grades, and I loved game theory.
Source: Finance / Econ double major that loved and hated many aspects of them both.
Edit: As Kassad stated above, I'd like to mention as well that the business skill-set can be learned after the fact. Also, I think anyone that even THINKS they can cut it in IB should be confident enough to double major (I know a few Math / Econ / Fin or Econ / Fin / Acc tripple majors). If you come in with a few AP classes worth of credit, maybe take a bullshit online art course or 2 over the summer, and are pretty responsible during the school year, you can graduate with 2 degrees in 4 years while taking 19-23 credits / semester. (This also drives efficiencies as the Housing / Food / Tuition unit cost per degree reduced as well)
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