<p>I was recently admitted to the college of letters and sciences as a transfer student. I was initially admitted as a political economy major, though I’m reconsidering. I read that Cal has the top sociology program in the country and I find sociology to be fascinating. I do have all of the pre-reqs met (except for soc 5 which berkeley recommends to take after transfer). I assume that the fact that I was admitted as a PEIS major is irrelevant, since your major at Cal is not “official” until CalSo, right? I think that I would enjoy studying sociology more, but PEIS might have better career/grad school opportunities.</p>
<p>I would like to pursue an MBA after graduation. My goal is to work in marketing or human resources. Since most top MBA programs value work experience, do you think it would be possible for me to find the types of internships and networking opportunities that I would need in order to get an entry-level job in these fields? I’m also considering going to Law school or pursuing graduate work in education, though at the moment I think I would much rather get an MBA. Does anybody have any pertinent experience with Cal’s sociology department that could either persuade or dissuade me?</p>
<p>Can’t speak about the sociology major, but here’s data on the type of jobs these two majors get: </p>
<p>Here are the surveys for graduates of 2012 that either got a Sociology or Political Economy degree.
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major2012/Soc.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major2012/Soc.stm</a>
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major2012/PEIS.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major2012/PEIS.stm</a></p>
<p>The jobs that PE majors got after graduating tend to be more on the business side (though it is possible they may have doubled in business as well), while the jobs that Sociology majors got are not really pointing towards any sort of career. However, it’s not to say that you shouldn’t major in Sociology, but just to show you what are the sort of jobs some of them get after graduating. </p>
<p>I can’t say whether majoring in sociology would make it harder for you to get an internship in marketing or human resources, but it does not necessarily help either. However, you can make it up by just participating in extracurricular activities on campus that could help develop your resume towards marketing (there’s a undergraduate marketing association, for example). And it would help to take some business classes on marketing or human resources. If you are just going to take sociology classes and apply for jobs with no experience or any extracurricular activities leaning towards your intended career, it’d be a lot harder even with networking. A MBA for marketing would be useful, but I don’t think a career in human resources would really need a MBA, but I’m not too sure. </p>
<p>EDIT: Top MBA programs usually require a couple of years of work experience…<a href=“Class Profile | Full-Time MBA | Berkeley Haas”>http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/community/classprofile.html</a>
For example, the Haas MBA program’s students have a average of 5 years of experience. So the important question is what sort of career you want. You don’t really need a MBA in order to get a marketing or human resources job. Do you want a business-oriented career though? </p>
<p>If you’re considering law, law schools don’t focus so much on the years of working experience that a MBA school requires, but you would have to take the LSAT and get a high score if you hope to get into a top law school. Your GPA needs to be high as well. MBA school requires GMAT, but they also look into work experience as well. You might want to quickly figure out what sort of career you want soon. If you want to do law, go join a pre-law club and start studying for the LSAT. If you want to do marketing, join a marketing club and take some marketing classes. </p>
<p>If you do major in sociology, note that some of the courses can be relevant to a “business” career:</p>
<p>SOCIOL 116 Sociology of Work
SOCIOL C116G/L & S C150T Working People in the Global Economy
SOCIOL 119S Organizational Strategy and Design: A Sociological Perspective
SOCIOL 121 Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Social and Cultural Context
SOCIOL 123 Corporate Social Responsibility and Green Business
SOCIOL 165 Social Networks
SOCIOL 166 Society and Technology
SOCIOL 167 Virtual Communities/Social Media</p>