Why Undergraduate Business School.

oldfort
Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:55:04 +0000

Depending on what job you want after graduation. If you are going into highly competitive job (as in many people want those jobs) then your employer is going to want to see you have taken the most rigorous course load, no different than when you were applying to colleges. Once you have your first few jobs, then no one really cares what your majored in college.

I know math and science majors within A&S and engineering or CS majors are harder than business major. The reason why we hire undergrads with no experience is to “mold” them to the way we do things. One firm’s culture is very different than another. One of my summer intern said to me, “The way you do accounting here is very different than what I learned in school.” We usually plan on teaching new hires everything from scratch. There are very few things undergrads could learn in college that would be applicable to work. What we look for is applicant’s aptitude for learning, and the right fit.

The reason graduates of Wharton, or other first tier business schools, are highly sought after by employers is not so much for the courses they have taken, but for their intelligence (those schools have done a very good job of weeding out people). The same could be said for highly ranked LACs or any schools (target schools).

My advice is go to business school if that’s what you want to do, but compliment it by taking as many humanities courses (language included) as possible, take some hard math/CS courses to prove you have aptitude for it. As you go up the corproate ladder, it is also important for you to be well versed in art, music, history, politics… If you prefer A&S or engineering, take some business courses to also prove you have mind for finance. My daughter is double major in math/econ, with a few finance courses in AEM. This is the advice a few of my friends (in IB) have given her. They feel many business graduates do no have enough higher level math knowledge for their jobs.