<p>to hell with the money, if I majored in CS I’d wanna work for the NSA. Being a secret agent man > *</p>
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</p>
<p>No, I’m just saying don’t treat BLS as gold. Go out and talk to professionals in the field. Get more opinions than just what BLS has to say.</p>
<p>take a look at these two links</p>
<p>[How</a> Accurate Are Recent BLS Occupational Projections - Research and Read Books, Journals, Articles at Questia Online Library](<a href=“http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LyQfy0HSZyrjWPx2vMvqW1f13Kmr1wBTQKrTC0TQHwgXZhxnSjLC!783601474!-129296667?docId=5000139663]How”>http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LyQfy0HSZyrjWPx2vMvqW1f13Kmr1wBTQKrTC0TQHwgXZhxnSjLC!783601474!-129296667?docId=5000139663)</p>
<p>[Labor</a> Market Trends: A Loss of Middle-Class Jobs? – Research on Future Skill Demands – NCBI Bookshelf](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=nap12066&part=a20013e48ddd00012]Labor”>Labor Market Trends: A Loss of Middle-Class Jobs? - Research on Future Skill Demands - NCBI Bookshelf)</p>
<p>Anyhow, I’d like to get more opinions on other fields other than Engineering and CS.</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>justtotalk: “But econ isn’t really for smart people either. It’s a dumbed down version of math that replaces the more advanced/abstract mathematical concepts with concrete names and ideas. My brother was a math undergrad and went on to get a masters in econ; he said econ was a joke.”</p>
<p>The math major is one of the most difficult majors out there, so it’s hard to regard your brother’s opinion as unbiased. For strong math types (like your brother), Econ comes pretty easily. Granted it’s not as difficult as Math CS Engineering Physics et al, but it’s miles ahead of Business in terms of difficulty. And it’s much much more than simplification of math. Mathematics (specifically basic algebra, multivariate calculus, linear algebra) are used as tools of economic analysis but they do not define economic theories - they support them.</p>
<p>“Mathematics (specifically basic algebra, multivariate calculus, linear algebra) are used as tools of economic analysis but they do not define economic theories - they support them.”</p>
<p>This is what I mean by a simplification of math. You’re skipping the topology, fourier analysis, and other courses that really are the heart of upper lever math in favor of applying simpler math to economic theory.</p>
<p>That’s no different than what a business major does–he or she uses algebra, calculus, and stats to analyze and understand the financial statements and inner workings of companies–ultimately to either help the company or invest properly in companies. This is an application of simple mathematics to understand the business world. </p>
<p>This doesn’t make either econ or business useless or boring–they’re both trying to understand the business world around them in pretty interesting ways. One focuses on business at more of a micro level, while the other focuses on a broader, conceptual picture. </p>
<p>While neither is boring, both econ and business are pretty simple. That’s all I’m saying. They’re nothing compared to the math involved in engineering, physics, or even CS. And all 3 of those subjects–like econ and business–go well beyond the math to understand difficult concepts. </p>
<p>As an accounting major that’s taken a fair number of econ, chem and physics courses, I don’t feel like this is an unfair judgment. It’s impossible not to be subjective, though.</p>
<p>“This is what I mean by a simplification of math. You’re skipping the topology, fourier analysis, and other courses that really are the heart of upper lever math in favor of applying simpler math to economic theory.”</p>
<p>At the Bachelors level yeah, they use the simpler (by which you mean Calc Series, Linear, Calc-based Stats, and Probability theory, pretty advanced math for any major except Math/Physics) than math majors. You’re basically criticizing Econ as a major because it isn’t as math intensive as a math major, and they can’t fit all Econ knowledge out there into a 4-year degree. That’s just silly.</p>
<p>How does a Statistics major compare to Math, Econ, CS, Engineering, Physics majors when it comes to marketability and level of difficulty?</p>
<p>I’m not criticizing econ as a major. I just think people on this thread exaggerated its difficulty.</p>
<p>I’m looking for the most “marketable” major, not necessarily the most math intensive or complex major. Also note difficulty is relative…</p>
<p>For example, Engineering and CS students will find gaining good social skills more difficult than solving mathematical problems. I’m not saying all Engineers suffer from this, but many do.</p>
<p>For example, people in sales can make a bundle of money, but it takes a high degree of social skills to do so.</p>
<p>Regards,</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>“How does a Statistics major compare to Math, Econ, CS, Engineering, Physics majors when it comes to marketability and level of difficulty?”</p>
<p>Hard - - - Easy
Engineering (including CS) > Physics > Math >> Stats = Econ</p>
<p>As for marketability, it’s very dependent on what sort of job you’re looking for, and is hard to compare. In general, CS and Engineering will be at the top, Stats will be at the bottom. How Econ, Math, and Physics fit in and how much difference between all of these there is is hard to tell.</p>
<p>
But this stuff just isn’t useful in the real world. Math gives you a great foundation to think about problems, but to be marketable, you need to have an applied field.</p>
<p>Economics is really, really easy as a major (compared to math). There is certainly heavy-duty upper level mathematics in Economics, it’s that econ departments don’t teach it until grad school. However, and this was surprising to me, I think it is a very, very marketable major. At the very least, they expect one to know calc, and right out of college, knowing business principles is fairly useful. </p>
<p>I think statistics, a BS in Stat is about as marketable as a math major, perhaps a bit more. Data Analysis as a field hasn’t really caught on yet (and it certainly will), and for pure statistics, people generally want you to have a MS. It’s not a guaranteed job right out of college the way Engineering is (again, this is an exaggeration).</p>
<p>However, if you do Statistics, employers know that you will have technical and computer skills, and you will likely learn, at the very least, how to manipulate large amounts of data. In a broad sense, I think Stat career path is similar to the Math/Econ/Phys one, in that you will need to spend some time adding other skills, but the technical skills that the major teaches you is invaluable. </p>
<p>I’m going to repeat what I said earlier. Maybe the BLS data is wrong, sure. But I think the general big changes in this economy are still the same. </p>
<p>
JKLERMKLDSKLSDJKL. TILT. </p>
<p>Ok, let us assume sales skills are incredibly valuable. They are. I agree. Communication and writing skills have great value, and everyone needs to know them.</p>
<p>There is no major that is going to teach you how to be a great salesman. No one needs you to have a business major to do a sales job. No one needs to have a business major to do a retail management job. They will hire anyone who graduates college. Most liberal arts majors will learn how to communicate effectively and write effectively. These skills are not as rare as technical skills, and even if they were, many, many majors will teach you how to do write well, how to communicate with other people, how to analyze qualitatively. </p>
<p>Technical skills are far and away the most valuable in our current society. Knowing how to code, knowing how to run networks, knowing how to analyze data quantitatively. These are far and away the most valuable skills in our current society, and will be for the next few years. And that’s why all of these technical majors such as Engineering and CS, such as Math, Physics, Statistics or Economics are far and away the most valuable majors.</p>
<p>The percentage of engineering majors with good social skills is way higher than the percentage of business majors who can do quality technical analysis.</p>
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<p>Dude, don’t take this discussion as an attack on your choice of major. There are many ways to make money. I was using the example to try and get you folks out there to think from a different angle. You’re being a little harsh on the salesman, they actually do need business majors and in some cases technical backgrounds. For example the director and above level software sales people may not be as technical as a programmer, but they better understand something about software architecture, infrastructure, and deployment in order to sell a multi-million dollar software project.</p>
<p>OK, how about medicine? Anesthesiologist get paid a kings ransom.</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>justtotalk: As I alluded to before (and QwertyKey corroborated), Econ (as an undergraduate)'s failure to explore the upper levels of mathematics (which only math majors do) does not make it an easy major… at least not comparable to business. Yes, the upper level of mathematics/physics is extremely complex, but similarly there do exist economic theories that are inherently difficult to comprehend. And going back to the topic of this thread, where’s the relevance of knowledge of Fourier analysis, etc, beyond the sharping of logic and analytical skills? My math major friends are some of the smartest kids I know, but they do not have a clue what they’re doing upon graduation besides possibly teaching. Out of curiosity, how many Econ courses have you taken?</p>
<p>Also, economics may have many applications in the field of business, but generalizing about the two as you did is not particularly accurate. Having taken both Econ courses and Business courses (at a “top ranked” business school that’s part of my university), I’ve realized that Econ completely blows Business out of the water in terms of difficulty.</p>
<p>All that said, I do agree that math is a very difficult major, probably one of the hardest.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m getting too worked up. Meh. </p>
<p>Yes, for certain types of sales, one does need some kind of technical background, and certainly a business major can’t hurt in a sales background. But for entry-level sales, they really don’t care that much about what you majored in. Trust me, I’ve been interviewing a lot the past year, and you could major in English and be fine, as long as you communicated well. </p>
<p>There are certain types of jobs where you NEED an engineer, you NEED a CS major. It’s just far less true in the business world (other than accounting). </p>
<p>Anesthiologists do get paid a king’s ransom, but again, there’s no major that directly feeds into that job the way Engineering directly feeds into these highly skilled and well-paid jobs. You still need to get through med school, and that’s not easy. It’s kind of like comparing a PhD to a BS. Not really fair. And while the standard pre-med majors aren’t horrible, such as Biology and Chemistry, those majors really only give you a great chance of getting lab work or health care. And I just don’t think the demand is there, not yet anyway.</p>
<p>However, in terms of fields that are expected to grow by a lot, health care is very close to #1. Actually, in terms of major I expect to make the biggest jump in marketability, I think it’s probably Biology, AINEC. Biotech’s growing by a lot. Nursing is growing by a lot.</p>
<p>Don’t pick your major solely on how marketable it is. I’m not saying that this shouldn’t be a factor in your decision, however, just make sure you enjoy the major you choose. Otherewise, you won’t be motivated enough to keep up with your school work or to get internships in your field.</p>
<p>“Also, economics may have many applications in the field of business, but generalizing about the two as you did is not particularly accurate. Having taken both Econ courses and Business courses (at a “top ranked” business school that’s part of my university), I’ve realized that Econ completely blows Business out of the water in terms of difficulty.”</p>
<p>I’ve only taken 4 econ courses (since I’m not an econ major)–obviously including the 2 intros, another macro course and game theory. Game theory was interesting but straightforward, and the other 3 were a breeze. Since you haven’t admitted to being a business major, I’m assuming you’re not. So I doubt you’ve taken upper level accounting courses like taxation, auditing etc., These courses are also fairly straightforward, but not “easier” than econ. I’m not saying business school is hard–I’m just saying econ majors can’t complain either. We have it easy. If you don’t have it easy, you probably aren’t even a mildly math-oriented person; in which case, econ was probably a silly choice. </p>
<p>Of course it’s subjective, but both are in my opinion (unfortunately) a joke (at least as far as my experience goes with econ at undergrad level).</p>
<p>My only point is that we should be accepting the simplicity of these majors and trying to improve the curriculum. How are you going to entice the bright students if you don’t teach anything? </p>
<p>Marketability of a major depends on many factors, but it’s definitely a function of the type of students that graduate with the major. If the most intelligent students are passing up business and econ, then our degrees are losing face value.</p>
<p>Haha, let’s just take a break from all the economics and arguing, and let me just say…</p>
<p>Chemical engineering makes a very nice salary directly out of college :D</p>
<p>justtotalk: You’re probably right about Business in terms of Accounting/Finance. I’m sure they are more rigorous than marketing/management/HR courses. I wouldn’t know. But likewise, intro level Econ courses are a breeze compared to intermediate/advanced courses. 'Tis probably the case in every major (except maybe woman’s studies or something… they’re always hard to understand :P)</p>
<p>I don’t consider myself a math whiz, but I still manage to be towards the top of my Econ courses full of quantitatively adept individuals. Unlike many, I actually find the subject matter interesting and am not using the degree as the vehicle to an i-banking job. As an aside I feel (as do many of my professors) that modern economics has become too mathematical; it should be more game theory and psychology based… IMO. That’s another story though.</p>
<p>At my school, 3/4 of the business school is accounting/finance so I didn’t realize this wasn’t what you were referring to. There’s like 30 people (of 500 graduates per semester) that major in management/HR/OTM, so that’s not really representative of what a typical graduate learns =). </p>
<p>The others major in marketing, which stereotypically (but truthfully) attracts mostly women and fashion-oriented guys. It’s a different breed.</p>
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</p>
<p>Stern ?</p>
<p>Uh Music Performance. Duhhh 
I’m set for life with this one.</p>