Business Undergraduate Degree Vs. Science Degree

Newbyreborn · 02-02-2007, 12:45 AM

I am currently in Science program, but i was wondering if an Undergraduate Business Program will be more useful.
I like sciences, but if i don't become a doctor, life will be stressful, making 18k/year on grad student salary, i can't imagine this. I am thinking about business undergrad, but does an undergrad business degree actually take you far in life? i see it as an enriching subject that'll help me improve as a person, allow me to take a variety of courses. And most of all, will probably take me out of a very stressful, high pressure environment.
If i go in to business, i am looking at Gtown, UVA(McIntire), Emory and maybe Cornell(CALS).
And if i stay in sciences, i am also thinking of moving to a smaller school. But yeah, please advise me my fellow CCers

*I understand how selective those schools are.
If nothing works out, i'll stay at my current school

nuveen · 02-02-2007, 02:28 AM

No matter what you do, stress and pressure will always exist as long as you strive to be successful.

I don't really think that an undergrad business degree alone will take you where you're trying to go, unless you're willing to settle for a medium salary job and hold it (which is fine if that's what you want).

My take is that a science education will teach you things that you basically can only learn in great detail within college. Business education you can obtain almost anywhere--books, experience, community colleges, etc. So by that logic, if enrichment is your goal, you should opt for more inaccessible subjects.

lostincode · 02-02-2007, 02:42 AM

...do you want to be a doctor?

Newbyreborn · 02-02-2007, 11:58 PM

lostincode, i don't think i have a choice of becoming a doctor, my gpa stands at about 3.6-3.7 right now.
and what nuveen said, i agree with half of it, undergrad business can't go far. But at my school, our science curriculum is intense! we get almost no chance to sample classes outside of our discipline, and so students who come out of our school are usually very very strong in science and can recite to you every single step in reactions, but when you ask them to write an essay for you.... heck the student can recite all that even when he can't even speak/write a sentence of proper sentence.
ANd by stress and pressure.... i mean, students at my school record and listen to lectures OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIn!
I really don't like competing with students who are 100% keen on school, b/c to obtain competitive marks, i need to live similar life styles like them and i rarely get to do anything else

My mind is so clouded that i can't really make a good decision right now.
I have never taken business courses, so i don't know what to expect, but i am intrigued by the variety of courses i can take in business programs and also in terms of employment, i think business is a lot better. B/c Science degree gets you 17k/year as a grad student and maybe 35k/year as a lab technician

ilovecalifornia · 02-03-2007, 12:03 AM

yo...you need to figure out what you want..

science and business are two dif paths

you're obviously not following your heart

UCLAri · 02-03-2007, 12:08 AM

Quote:

lostincode, i don't think i have a choice of becoming a doctor, my gpa stands at about 3.6-3.7 right now.

You realize, I hope, that 3.6-3.7 is well around or above the average for med school admits...right?

Quote:

B/c Science degree gets you 17k/year as a grad student and maybe 35k/year as a lab technician

You may only get 17K as a grad student, but that doesn't include cost of living adjustments, stipends, and all sorts of perks. Besides, you will get money afterwards. It's all about delayed gratification.

Oh, and $36K isn't really that low for entry level...

lostincode · 02-03-2007, 12:11 AM

BS in chem can probably get you 45k+ (sounds like you're a chem major)

Newbyreborn · 02-03-2007, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovecalifornia

yo...you need to figure out what you want..

science and business are two dif paths

you're obviously not following your heart

I don't know what i want =(.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UCLAri

You may only get 17K as a grad student, but that doesn't include cost of living adjustments, stipends, and all sorts of perks. Besides, you will get money afterwards. It's all about delayed gratification.

NO, 17k is all Grad students get, and they have to pay for their tuition (~8k) and living expenses.
I don't know what the delayed gratification is, i worked in a lab, and i saw everyone in the lab was miserable, everyday stressing for a proper result. Heck, even the professor who runs the lab is miserable, the atmosphere there was just depressing, and that's why i am having so much second thoughts about staying in science, even though i like learning it.

UCLAri · 02-03-2007, 06:42 PM

Quote:

NO, 17k is all Grad students get, and they have to pay for their tuition (~8k) and living expenses

It really depends on the school. Top programs are going to cover tuition with TAship or similar methods of earning income. Most people I know in grad school are getting everything covered and just have to do a TAship or other sort of legwork to get that funding.

foxdie! · 02-03-2007, 08:48 PM

Quote:

lostincode, i don't think i have a choice of becoming a doctor, my gpa stands at about 3.6-3.7 right now.
and what nuveen said, i agree with half of it, undergrad business can't go far. But at my school, our science curriculum is intense! we get almost no chance to sample classes outside of our discipline, and so students who come out of our school are usually very very strong in science and can recite to you every single step in reactions, but when you ask them to write an essay for you.... heck the student can recite all that even when he can't even speak/write a sentence of proper sentence.
ANd by stress and pressure.... i mean, students at my school record and listen to lectures OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIn!
I really don't like competing with students who are 100% keen on school, b/c to obtain competitive marks, i need to live similar life styles like them and i rarely get to do anything else

So you're a student with a 3.6-3.7 at a competitive school? I can't believe you would have any trouble getting into med school. Think of the statistics- 80% of colleges in the us are open admission or near open admission. From the population of US med school applicants, about 50% get into a med school. If you're from a competitive school with a freakin' A average- you should have no problem.

So you should only switch if you no longer like the physical sciences- not because you're afraid you can't get into med school.

Newbyreborn · 02-03-2007, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxdie!

So you're a student with a 3.6-3.7 at a competitive school? I can't believe you would have any trouble getting into med school. Think of the statistics- 80% of colleges in the us are open admission or near open admission. From the population of US med school applicants, about 50% get into a med school. If you're from a competitive school with a freakin' A average- you should have no problem.

So you should only switch if you no longer like the physical sciences- not because you're afraid you can't get into med school.

I don't know about competitive, i am at the University of Toronto in Canada, and in our province, med schools are very competitive, the minimum req. at my school is 3.85.
also, i love the sciences, but science jobs (i.e. working in the labs) are horrible, i had the experience, and I really don't want to end up doing that, so i really want to either go in to medicine/pharmacy and since i don't really have that competitive of gpa, i was thinking i should just go in to business. I only want to switch because of future employment opportunities and also because i think business curriculums will better prepare me as a functioning individual in society.

UCLAri · 02-03-2007, 10:13 PM

Newbyreborn,

I don't know how willing you are to be educated in the US, but 3.7-3.7 from UofToronto would definitely get you into A medical school in the US providing you manage a decent MCAT score.

BedHead · 02-03-2007, 10:28 PM

Newbyreborn: Stick with science, and if you want to diversify your options, spend a summer going to one of the summer business boot camps. I know of one at Berkeley, but I am sure there are others across the country, or maybe your [Canada's] equivalent of Harvard Business School, Western Ontario, has one.

Overall, though, I agree with UCLAri, don't give up on medicine yet, if you're heart is still in it. What about coming to the states?

lostincode · 02-03-2007, 11:35 PM

3.7 from UToronto sounds pretty badass to me

Newbyreborn · 02-04-2007, 12:33 AM

Thanks everyone, but there are many problems at my school, despite my best efforts to cope with them, i think that they will be/have already been very damaging toward my experience.
the educational quality at UToronto IMO is mediocre at best, we just study and cram on our own in preparation for the test, class sizes are just too big to actually LEARN!
I have given transfering and changing major a lot of thought. I think i will probably be applying to small private schools in the states (or the big ones with small class sizes i.e. Cornell CALS)

I am looking at hopefully schools that are needblind and small class sizes (this is most important for me):
Georgetown (business)
Cornell (business/science)
Emory(business)
UVA (business)
Dartmouth (science-still chasing my dream)
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated (they don't have to be need blind ones, i'll just apply and see if my parents will back me up)