@phoenix1616: (@marlowe fyi on a couple of ideas for business and lib. ed)
“Even for the MPPs, Harris is a bit of an outlier among policy schools for its research focus and math reqs, and there’s at least one variant of the MPP explicitly designed to be a terminal MA to prep for economics PhD admissions.”
That’s actually interesting, esp. as these tend to be run from the dept. of economics at other schools. Unusual that it’s at Harris.
Now here is something even more interesting and also something I didn’t realize existed before checking out the Harris website: There’s also the five year BA/MPP. Does anything like this currently exist w/r/t Booth - say, five year BA/MBA? The way it works, in part, for Public Policy is: “During their final year in the College, undergraduates register for the first year of the master’s curriculum. Upon fulfilling the College requirements and satisfactorily completing the nine Harris courses, students are awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Option: Public Policy Studies.” So how does that work exactly? If you are taking 9 Harris courses that’s already a full load, correct? When do you find time to complete your College requirements? Also, you do have to apply independently to Harris, I think in your junior year.
Regardless of the logistics, and because apparently you wouldn’t be restricted in what you can take for your undergrad major and would need to complete all of that, what’s wrong with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Option: Business Studies?
“Eero et al realize that - there’s no such thing as a program as opposed to a major at UChicago. For better or for worse, their position is that not only are programs bad, business majors are bad as well - the Core isn’t enough exposure to liberal arts for them. Just to get that straight.”
- well, a "program" does exist in that it's a liberal arts as opposed to professional program. To be very accurate (and I think I have this correct), a program culminating in a professional degree - be it undergrad: B.Eng, B.Nurs, B.Bus, BFA, B.Arch, etc. or grad: MBA, JD, MD, Master's of Policy or Health or Gov etc. - is a professional program. A program that does NOT so culminate may have a pre-professional track or major but is not considered in and of itself a professional degree program. This sounds very esoteric and most don't distinguish between a degree program and major but they ARE distinct one from another. The professional program is going to be a lot more concentrated in that subject. Architectural studies is a great example: some colleges offer a BA or BS in Architectural Studies (ah - yet another preprofessional "studies" major!) but it's definitely not the same thing as a B.Arch which is a five year studio program and very intense.
Be that as it may, Eero has made a detailed case for not liking business as an undergraduate pursuit. To be fair to the College requirements, a “business” major is still one third of the total. Eero might not think that the Core is enough - but what about the other 12 or so electives? What if someone double majored in Business Economics and Philosophy or Business Econ. and Poly Sci? OK might not happen. But it could - the students might come up with all sorts of interesting combinations.