I've been pissing people off left and right lately, and I hope not to do so with you, but I wanted to make one point against a Business degree (not that Emily's point isn't valid, because it is).
In my experience in the corporate world, unless you get the degree from one of the top schools for it (top 25 or 30 I'd say, not necessarily top 5; though Northwestern, Chicago, Penn, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, and Cal Berkeley will always be the cream of the crop), it really doesn't matter that you have a business degree. Any degree is fine 99% of the time, plus you can get an MBA with nearly any bachelor's (though it is much quicker and less difficult if you had the business bachelor's first).
My department manager at GEICO had a Chemistry degree, she'd only been in the business for a few years and was making a $60k salary. And trust me, she wasn't some legendary manager in training either...she was pretty average all around and incompetent in the eyes of some.
Don't let me discourage you from your path though, as any degree is better than none. Myself and my father before me are evidence of that.
However, if you're truly interested in being a manager, in a lot of cases it would be better to figure out what field you want to go in, get your bachelor's in a concentration relevant to that, and minor in business (and/or get an MBA). Or if you want to be a straight management nerd and don't care what field you're in, go MIS or Accounting or Econ (Finance is good for Accounting + Econ but is viewed as less prestigious than either of its parts).
Anymore, Business is viewed as a general education degree by many employers. I guess what I'm saying in short is, don't choose business for the concentration of your degree if the only reason is for job prospects, because there is almost always a better way that will simultaneously be more interesting/rewarding for you. It's certainly worth looking in to, anyway? :)
In my experience in the corporate world, unless you get the degree from one of the top schools for it (top 25 or 30 I'd say, not necessarily top 5; though Northwestern, Chicago, Penn, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, and Cal Berkeley will always be the cream of the crop), it really doesn't matter that you have a business degree. Any degree is fine 99% of the time, plus you can get an MBA with nearly any bachelor's (though it is much quicker and less difficult if you had the business bachelor's first).
My department manager at GEICO had a Chemistry degree, she'd only been in the business for a few years and was making a $60k salary. And trust me, she wasn't some legendary manager in training either...she was pretty average all around and incompetent in the eyes of some.
Don't let me discourage you from your path though, as any degree is better than none. Myself and my father before me are evidence of that.
However, if you're truly interested in being a manager, in a lot of cases it would be better to figure out what field you want to go in, get your bachelor's in a concentration relevant to that, and minor in business (and/or get an MBA). Or if you want to be a straight management nerd and don't care what field you're in, go MIS or Accounting or Econ (Finance is good for Accounting + Econ but is viewed as less prestigious than either of its parts).
Anymore, Business is viewed as a general education degree by many employers. I guess what I'm saying in short is, don't choose business for the concentration of your degree if the only reason is for job prospects, because there is almost always a better way that will simultaneously be more interesting/rewarding for you. It's certainly worth looking in to, anyway? :)
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