I was just wondering if anyone here has a business degree of some sort, and if they have any regrets about going that route. I am a transfer student right now, but will be attending a 4 yr. university soon. I have made up my mind to go with a business degree because I figured with such a broad degree, I could do lots of different things. Anyway, if anyone could chime in about this, I would love to hear about it!

Greg

 

I got my undergrad degree in biochem and am currently doing my MBA, and I'd agree with your reasoning. A business degree is applicable across a broad range of jobs and is a safe way to go. IMO, business degrees also give a good return for the amount of effort you put in; in other words, they aren't that difficult to get (relatively speaking), are practical, and can be geared toward a wide variety of well-paying jobs. I say go for it.

 

Cyber, thanks for your response, I feel the same way. Good luck getting your MBA!

Greg

 

doesn't really make much of a difference unless you go to a top program .... from what i've heard from highly successful business people.

 

Thanks, and good luck to you as well! Btw, any idea what area you're going to go into? I'll probably do a concentration in Accounting myself.

 

Well, i'm kind of interested in marketing, but thats later on down the road so we'll see.

Greg

 

I agree. I know several engineers with MBAs who are doing the same work they were doing before the MBA. Their MBAs were earned through the local university; University of Houston1, UT-Houston, LSU, etc.

From an experienced professional point of view, a MBA from a non-Harvard-type university does not mean too much. You may hear that it does make a difference, but I have not seen it. Advancement within the company will occur more from your demonstrated ability than an MBA.

Conversely, if you really want to get a business degree and actually work in business, I highly recommend going for the big names: Yale, Harvard, Rice. It is not as hard as you may think to get in as long as you have the credentials, really good grades and a way to pay for it as well as support yourself.

Finally, I remember my commencement, I was one of 12 graduating chemical engineers and there were almost 300 business graduates (LSU, 1996). The business majors were competing for manager positions at Kinkos while the entire ChE graduating class already had a job offer before graduating or were going into a graduate program.

Do your career research carefully.

 

yup, Hustn is right on the money. If you're not gonna do it balls to the walls and go to an Ivy league or NEAR ivy league programm, then you really need to just start working for a business and work on advancing your career asap.

BusinessWeek has a list of the top 20 programs, those are the only ones that will make a significant difference in the path of your life.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xpander4
yup, Hustn is right on the money.

 

The one thing I do agree with, though, is that the return one gets from business school is overrated. A lot of people are fooled into believing that once they get a business degree, especially a MBA, jobs will just start falling into their laps and employers will innundate them with job offers. That just isn't true, but it's a pretty prevalent belief. You need to be realistic about any degree and what it can do for you.