Business Major at The College at U of C?

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
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“That makes no sense. First, even if that were a general trend, PBPL breaks it. As you would expect from a department whose members all have PhDs in economics or political science, it’s just a mix of economics and political science, two fields which are not generally considered to be preprofessional.”

  1. Out of the 1200 credits for the PubPol major, up to 800 are classes with the designation of PBPL. While the area of specialization (300) need not be PUBLIC policy, it must still have a strong POLICY component. And, of course, if you DO take PBPL courses for your specialization, that’s 1100 of the 1200. So where are these PBPL courses taught?

  2. There are PhD economists and psychologists teaching at Booth. Professional schools and Pre-professional majors rely on experts from other fields all the time.

“Second, the trend you posit does not exist, at least at Chicago. Cinema and Media Studies at Chicago is nothing like actual preprofessional film departments like USC SCA, for example, but a mix of art history and English with a focus on film.”

  1. That may be so. For instance, there is no Media Studies or, I guess, Legal Studies (since @JHS insists that LLS is anything but) at UChicago. So one can maybe make an argument that THOSE specific pre-professional majors don’t conform.

  2. Don’t know much about the Film Studies major but pretty sure it includes a creative senior project, right? Do Film Studies majors at UChicago go on to work in the entertainment industry or attend Film School? I have two older kids in the arts and this path is one that some aspiring film makers do pursue: they don’t want to specialize in production till grad school so spend their undergrad in a more liberal artsy major like Film Studies. Not sure how UChicago’s specific curriculum compares to others but yes you are spot on, some of the CA schools undergrad film/animation programs don’t offer the BFA but do track right to places like Cal Arts, UCLA etc. not to mention connections to industry. Film tends to be a location-specific discipline - most film studies majors throughout the US are not going on to film school or working in the industry.

@phoenix1616