<p>Honestly, I feel embarrassed any time someone asks me what I’m majoring in. </p>
<p>I say, “business,” and just sort of cringe and look at the ground. I majored in IS and OM but no one knows what the hell that means, so I have to just say business. Even so though, IS is perceived as the ■■■■■■ cousin of computer science, so it wouldn’t make much difference anyway. And the dopey fools in OM don’t help my cause either. </p>
<p>I feel like I’m perceived as someone who was too stupid for the sciences. And in a lot of ways I can’t blame people–in my experience half of what I learned in the business school was how to be a big old phony. If I could do it all again, I would’ve majored in something technical. Business schools don’t seem to exist for the sake of educating people, but simply for the fact that they are a major cash cow for universities. Just look at how they’ll let anyone into these programs and only require a 2.0 gpa to grad. People flock to it. Universities are laughing their asses off all the way to the bank imo. I almost feel duped. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I feel grateful to have a degree, but I question the “academic” rigor of my experience. I was plenty busy, but the work was never that challenging, just piled in high quantities. </p>
<p>sucks, wish I wouldve had someone to tell me when I was a freshman what an unfulfilling program business is. i honestly feel like i didnt learn anything. but the life lessons of attending college away from home were definitely worth it at least.</p>
<p>Wow. I learned a hell of a lot from my MIS courses. Sure, I guess I could have majored in math also. The only problem I have with that is the fact that I would have NEVER needed that math.</p>
<p>even so vector, how much street cred did a degree in MIS really get you? I hear the comp sci grads talk about their stuff, and all I’m thinking is, “you know what, they probably deserve more respect than I do, that work sounds significantly harder than the stuff I have.” and from people I’ve talked to, most employers seem to prefer CS over MIS every time, even if its for a business position. </p>
<p>In my experience it just wasn’t all that technical, other than programming and DBMS. The rest was just a few fancy terms and a lot of bureaucratic rubbish about documentation and “gathering requirements.”</p>
<p>An undergraduate shouldn’t give anyone much credibility. It’s a good basis to get your foot in the door, but your job production is what will really count. I didn’t know the educational background of many of the people I worked with, and frankly it didn’t matter that much.</p>
<p>BTW, gathering requirements are pretty damn important.</p>
<p>Honestly, it depends on your major in business. If you are talking about accounting, operations management, IT, etc., I don’t see why you would be ashamed. These can be very tough majors.</p>
<p>vector, thats a perfect example of what im talking about</p>
<p>whether or not gathering requirements is important, its taught in the business school with this inflated academic value, when really all it is, from my experience, is sitting down with a client and trying to ask the right questions to get the info you need…nothing technical about it…just people skills really, which the class didn’t help me develop anyway. </p>
<p>felt like something you could easily go over on the job, much like how a telemarketer quickly gets trained in how to butter people up before asking them to buy detergent, lol</p>
<p>Not sure why you’d be embarrassed, business is harder than many other majors. Not saying it is as difficult as some, but at least it’s fairly useful depending on what you do with it. It’s not like you majored in something ridiculously easy (not going to list examples here because I don’t want to offend anyone haha). I think business is a decent major, especially if you’re not sure exactly what you want to do while you’re in school.</p>
<p>Well I didn’t receive any instructions on how to be a “big old phony” (while I wouldn’t use that term, such instruction could be highly valuable if you want to be successful in business and climb the corporate ladder). If requirements gathering was so easy, projects wouldn’t have that many time/budget overruns and wouldn’t fail as often as they do.</p>
<p>What you should find in the real world is that many positions aren’t “technical” and you will find some untechnical people in IT that are highly marketable because they become a subject matter expert, product expert, or simply because they were put into a role where they had to use a tool/technology that very few people know how to use. The most successful people are generally those that “network” with all of the different IT groups/directors (as well as internal customer groups) because that will afford them the most opportunities. These people could be technical or non-technical.</p>
<p>If you simply want to be technical, then yes CS is a better route. That being said, there is a lot more money in being able to deal with people than there is in just being technical. Not only that, but someone that is technical can easily be replaced by a worker in/from India that is willing to take a lower salary and is on average far more skilled and dedicated than the avg american counterpart.</p>
<p>I don’t know where the poster on this thread went to b school, but let me clear some things up. Accounting is very difficult, try taking tax, a weed out class. Intro to Financial and Managerial Accounting are two required courses. Finance is another difficult, numerical subject. Intro to Finance is another required course and a weed out course for the major that is not made to be easy. Information Systems is similar to computer science. All business majors are required to take Calculus and Statistics. Economics is another good concentration which focuses on logical thought, as is Business Law/Legal Studies. In addition, most b schools require 60 credits from the Arts and Sciences. The time I spent in undergraduate business, I found myself working alot. Business plans 20 to 40 pages long per class and working in teams for upper level Marketing, Management, and Entrepreneurship classes. Also, Marketing Research and the required Operations Management are other names for statistics. The work was challenging and required alot of research which makes for a practical learning experience. Also, minoring in Business Law was an academic and practical choice. I do not plan on going to law school so I wanted some legal background to know what is going on beyond the Contracts class, which is also required. More challenging than engineering, no. More challenging than Sociology, yes. The BBA degree falls somewhere in the middle of verbal/communication skills and quantitative skills.</p>
<p>I don’t feel dumb, mostly because I get good grades and have a good idea of what I want to do (accounting). However, if they asked what I wanted to concentrate in, and I didn’t know, I’d feel strange (not dumb). It seems like people look down on business majors, but as long as you get your **** together and have a good job lined up when you graduate, you’re going to be the one who gets the last laugh.</p>
<p>I think the main issue is not the quality of business courses (which are nothing to sneeze at), but the quantity. My undergrad biz school only requires four core classes for a finance concentration. Granted, the other requirements can be substantial (and annoying), but there is not too much, academically, needed to learn about business. Practical experiences - like internships - however, are invaluable.</p>
<p>Some business schools have majors/concentrations that require 15, 18, or 24 credits in the major at 3 credits per course. Accounting is 24 credits at Miami beyond the core curriculum. Other concentrations require 15 to 18 credits to complete. Less than that constitutes most minors in the business school and most minors taken in CAS, in addition to a business major, require 15 credits. So it depends on the school. Looking at the curriculum before enrolling and asking questions related to course requirements on a campus tour (led by the best students on campus) are two good ways to make sure you have enough depth in your area(s) of study.</p>