8 Reasons Not to Get a Business Degree
This post is part of a series on college degrees that you may want to avoid. Read my other post: 5 Reasons Not 
to Get a Law Degree.
Thinking about getting a business degree?
Business degrees are hot, but you might want to reconsider your decision. Here are eight reasons why you should not major in business:
That's one of the bombshell conclusions of Academically Adrift, a new blockbuster bestseller that suggests that 45% of college students don't learn much of anything in their first two years of college, while more than one out of three students graduate with no improvement in writing and analytical skills.
Among the students who learn the least in college are social work, education and business majors. In contrast, the researchers found that students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences and math do relatively well.
When PayScale looked at starting and mid-career salaries of college graduates in dozens of college majors, business came in as the 56th best-paying college degree. It fared worse than such "impractical" college degrees as philosophy, history and American studies.
A employer survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicates that workplaces most value these three skills that you are usually more likely to find with a liberal arts eduction:
On PayScale's list of the highest paying college majors, economics came in No. 10. Engineering majors dominated the rest of the top-paying degrees. Economics is one of the liberal arts so you are more likely to learn how to write and think in college, which is what employers covet in their workers.
Illustrious econ majors include Warren Buffettt, Steve Ballmer, Ted Turner, Steve Fossett, Henry Kravis, Diane von Furstenberg, Esther Dyson, Bill Belichick and Mick Jagger
25 Colleges With the Best Professors
10 Hottest Careers in America
Paying For College With a Duffle Bag Stuffed With Cash
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog.
Business major image by epicharmus. CC 2.0.
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to Get a Law Degree.
Thinking about getting a business degree?
Business degrees are hot, but you might want to reconsider your decision. Here are eight reasons why you should not major in business:
1. Business majors don't learn much in business school.
That's one of the bombshell conclusions of Academically Adrift, a new blockbuster bestseller that suggests that 45% of college students don't learn much of anything in their first two years of college, while more than one out of three students graduate with no improvement in writing and analytical skills.
Among the students who learn the least in college are social work, education and business majors. In contrast, the researchers found that students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences and math do relatively well.
2. You won't make as much money as you think.
If you're interested in making tons of money, here's a wake-up call: in the latest college degree salary survey from PayScale, business is NOT one of the best-paying college degrees.When PayScale looked at starting and mid-career salaries of college graduates in dozens of college majors, business came in as the 56th best-paying college degree. It fared worse than such "impractical" college degrees as philosophy, history and American studies.
3. The job market is crawling with business majors.
It's hard to stand out from the crowd when more than one out of every five new college grads is a business major. What you're telegraphing when you major in business is that you want to make money, but do you have what it takes to some day earn that corner office?4. Your quality of life could suck.
Prominent labor economists examined what Harvard Business School grads were doing 15 years after graduating and certain business majors were having a difficult time juggling career and home life. Here's a post that I wrote about the study: The Perils of Majoring in Business.5. Majoring in business could hurt your MBA chances.
Not having an undergrad business degree can actually help when applying to MBA programs. At some MBA programs less than 25% of their students possess undergrad business degrees. One study documented that business undergrads actually performed worse in MBA programs than non-business majors.6. You don't need a business degree to work in business.
You're kidding yourself if you think a business degree gives you the skills to work in the corporate world.A employer survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicates that workplaces most value these three skills that you are usually more likely to find with a liberal arts eduction:
- Communication skills.
- Analytic skills.
- Teamwork skills.
7. You can make more money with an economics degree.
Economics majors earn more.On PayScale's list of the highest paying college majors, economics came in No. 10. Engineering majors dominated the rest of the top-paying degrees. Economics is one of the liberal arts so you are more likely to learn how to write and think in college, which is what employers covet in their workers.
Illustrious econ majors include Warren Buffettt, Steve Ballmer, Ted Turner, Steve Fossett, Henry Kravis, Diane von Furstenberg, Esther Dyson, Bill Belichick and Mick Jagger
8. Your parents want you to major in business.
Don't be a wuss and major in business because your parents are nagging you. If you're pressured into majoring in business or any other major, studies show that you'll be less likely to succeed professionally AND financially.More on CBS MoneyWatch:
25 Colleges With the Worst Professors25 Colleges With the Best Professors
10 Hottest Careers in America
Paying For College With a Duffle Bag Stuffed With Cash
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog.
Business major image by epicharmus. CC 2.0.
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2.) Yes high end pays the huge salaries. However, if someone goes through business and makes 45k, they can pay their bills, manage their money, and make more through investing information you get in college. I am taking the Engineering route and I hope my business degree will allow me to be a manager quicker than the average person. But a business person can take the extra 10k per year and invest it. That can double every six years once you learn how to invest your money and when too. That "small" 45k can become a snowball of (6-7 figures over a lot of time and early retirement unless you just love work) endless capitalism. If used correctly.
3.) Their are more business majors for sure. No doubt about that. However, as I stated, business majors can do more with a salary than a non-business major.
4.) Your quality of life could suck with anything if you hate it. Why would they even put this on here? That's a childish and ambiguous argument.
5.) I don't know about MBA's. I just got two Bachelor's
6.) I get what you are saying Jet, you do not need one if they took the licensing and all that away and just trained people. My sister was having a baby and a nurse tripped and yanked her IV's out...I'm sorry but I could be better than that nurse with the correct training, I wouldn't need a license to trip over a string of IVs. Then she wanted to do an epidural and my sister said no because she didn't want to get paralyzed. So I get where you are coming from Jet. Dealbreaker, take away the license and and the barrier exams and we could have better surgeons. They would be younger, healthier, steadier, etc.
7.) Yeah you make more with an economics degree from high-end colleges. Not from where I graduated. Economics is as good as a Business degree here.
8.) Not saying anything about this lol. It's your life. That's all I'm saying and I feel like someone ran out of excuses on some of these and this is a BS excuse.
Overall, I learned the same amount. However, engineering was used way more in the job perspective of things. I knew the terms before I went on the job. With business, it was busy work, which I see as business. Although I do not plan to have one, business will always be busy work to me and that's what they were training me for. I'll never know and I'm not going to take a huge pay-cut to find out. That's my 2 cents on this. I wonder if this article was actually made by CBS. Some of the arguments are crappy and sound like someone has a grudge against business or something.
I took a 4 year hiatus to serve in the Marines, and I just graduated in December 2011 with my BBA. Post 2008, companies have GUTTED middle management. Even more unfortunate for us BBAs is they don't plan on refilling those gaps now that they see how lean they can operate (more profits, don't mind if I do).
Business majors don't learn much in college? In what context? That's absurd. What could we possibly be doing for two years after our core classes? We learn the foundation of every single aspect of business.. Management, HR, Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Operations, Business Law, Contract Law, Accounting, and on the list goes depending on which business electives and major you choose. I majored in management, which I will say has turned out to be somewhat of a waste of time.. nobody needs take that many classes regarding how to manage stuff. I only continued with it to get the damn degree after starting it 10 years earlier. However almost every other major has very practical application in any company out there.
Won't make as much money? Meh, I couldn't tell you. I just accepted my first job out of college for a pretty low amount. I'm banking on the idea of me getting my foot in the door and showing them what I can do. For general business positions, you can pretty much learn the company routine there, it's how productive, efficient, ethical, and your ability to lead others that may open the doors to the executive level positions. I've noticed that the more specialized fields pay better entry level, but I think the opportunity for advancement is anyone's game if you have what it takes.
#4.. whatever I think that could go for anyone. But I can see how business men/women may end up putting in more hours to get the job done.. traveling a lot.. moving. My dad was an executive at Ford for a long time and moved like 5 times in 15 years.. traveled all the time.. but he was paid well too.. before he took a severance package after 2008. He still found a similar job afterwards paying well though.
#5, no idea. Haven't applied yet. Haven't done research on it. I bet you the author probably wasn't looking for results that refuted the article's claim though lol.
#6. If you're getting the job via an inside connection, prob not. But I'd love to see a study done on people applying for business jobs online with an education or engineering degree lol. You wouldn't stand a chance against those online resume sifters. I can tell you this though, they want people with experience now since they aren't looking for as many employees.. I doubt your degree would make a difference if you had the amount of experience they were looking for in that specific position. I'm willing to bet that's not what's happening the majority of the time though, so regardless of how #6 is worded, you should prob have a business degree if looking for business jobs.
#7. Duh, prob has something to do with how terrible our economy is doing right now. But economics is a department of business *******.. it's almost like the author ran out of things to say at this point, and #8 further supports this claim. Saying economics majors make more in an article about why not to get a business degree is like saying you should eat cookie dough ice cream but that ice cream sucks. Quite lame.
#8. I hope that's not true because that's exactly what I did! I'm not worried though. I've excelled at every job I've ever had because I'm hard working and intelligent. The fact that I majored in business during one of the worst recessions in American history is just a minor setback. You'll see!
Do you have enough analytic skills for derivative, risk-metric when you graduate with a degree in business?
-----
Well, get to work! Clearly you're a little offended, but hey, taking a dig at journalists on a comments section isn't the way to dispel the myths, now is it?
My first criticism, "Business Degree" is too broad a term. There are a number of majors in the business program. Each is distinct. The more quantitative programs such as Accounting and Finance are the most lucrative and practical. Others, not so much. However, even with the broad term, there are flaws in the arguement.
Let's start with "Business majors don't learn much in business school." How does a fact that relates to the learning by ALL COLLEGE DEGREES in their first two years bolster an arguement that business majors don't learn much? It is then followed by a statement of "among those that learn the least". I have to wonder how this qualitative statement is measured. No matter what the degree, if you are actively participating, you are learning.
"You won't make as much as you think." If you look at the author's links, there is one to an article she wrote, "The top 20 best-paying college degrees." Maybe someone needs to understand the degree programs in the business field. In that list are finance and management information systems, both of which were business degrees in my college.
"The job market is crawling with business majors." Maybe that has something to do with where the demand is. If the unemployment lines were full of business majors, the author would have a better point.
"Your quality of life could suck." This is not specific to a business degree. Depending on your job and how successful you want to be at it, long hours could be a part of it. It's a choice. There are several jobs in business that aren't long hours. Of course, they don't pay as much.
"Majoring in business could hurt your MBA chances." The statistic that at some MBA programs less than 25% of students possess undergraduate business degrees, seem useless. At some? But even if it held for all, in my experience at graduate school, many attendees with non-business degrees needed the MBA to move up the management ranks, not something a business undergraduate needs.
For the one study that document worse performance of business degrees in MBA programs, it is based on a study from a single, non-tradditional MBA school. In the same article listing the study, there are two other studies that showed no better performance. Reality check, performance is based on being a good student, not your degree. This provides no support for the statement "Majoring in business could hurt your MBA chances."
"You don't need a business degree to work in business." Yes, that can be correct, depending on the area of business. You can't be an accountant without an accounting degree. In finance, either a finance or economics degree is a huge advantage in getting into that field.
I cannot ignore the comment "You're kidding yourself if you think a business degree gives you the skills to work in the corporate world."
The author's support for this is that the skills needed of communication skills, analytic skills, and teamwork skills are more likely to be found in a liberal arts education. Those three skills are integral to most business degree programs. Apparently, the author is unfamiliar with business degree programs. The author also leaves out that familiarity with accounting is essential in long-term business success, an academic area not taught in liberal arts programs.
"You can make more money with an economics degree." I'll give you this. But you also make more with engineering degrees, which dominated the top 10. There are areas where the economics degree won't get you the job. However the comment, "Economics is one of the liberal arts so you are more likely to learn how to write and think in college, which is what employers covet in their workers.", is unfounded at best and ignorant at worst. Writing courses for the economics program and business program at my school were the same. Critical thinking was an integral part of both programs.
"Your parents want you to major in business." How is this a reason not to get a business degree? "You don't want to pursue a business major" is a reason. You need to enjoy what you do.
Overall, the lack of reasoned arguement and ill supported facts makes this a useless article. Take it as such.
Here lets go down the list of major wrongness.
1. Business majors don't learn much in business school.
WRONG! They learn plenty, they learn to network, to meet new people, to take risks and how to socialize on a professional level(start practicing your golf swing). Sure this is stuff they may already know and most likely aren't taught in class, but most the pro-biz-peeps come learn from the best school of all, the streets. Either they get in and conquer or they get creamed, just like in real life, now that's about as 'real world' as you can get son.
2. You won't make as much money as you think.
Dude, look at what a businessman wears. It's a frigg'n suit and suits cost money, nice ones cost even more. Where ya think they're making all that paper from? From working in business!
3. The job market is crawling with business majors.
Damn right. What can I say, the markets have spoken, business is cool and people want to be cool. That's not a meat-headed observation that's all American capitalism b*tch!
4. Your quality of life could suck.
You are what you make yourself out to be. Don't let this johnny-come-lately blogger tell you different if you suck at you're career chances are it's probably because you suck. The solution then is vary obvious what you need to do is to stop sucking.
5. Majoring in business could hurt your MBA chances.
No way. You're just gonna sit there and tell me that having spend 5 years studying business is some how detrimental to studying even more business? No frigg'n way. Worried about the GMAT? Than f**king study, do it the night before if you have to that's usually the time business majors are must productive anyway.
Engineering, math and science are topics for straight up shy nerds who do nothing all day but tedious calculations. STEM fields just aren't for people who can actually communicate, socialize, network and get stuff done. Of course business people aren't hitting the books as hard, they're too busy making connections and having an actual social life that's where the real work gets done. Everyone who isn't a square knows that.
6. You don't need a business degree to work in business.
Sure and I don't really need a degree in acting to be an actor, look at all the non-college educated actors we have in movies and on TV. I really don't need a degree in medicine to be a surgeon, I could just read a bunch of books and experiment on road kill. College isn't necessary for learning as much as it is for being able to show that you are capable of making a 4-5 year commitment employers like that.
7. You can make more money with an economics degree.
You sure can you can also make more with an engineering degree. But those fields require lots of math and that's for nerds anyway.
8. Your parents want you to major in business.
Honor your mother and father that's in the bible yo.
1) I'm not really touvhing that one, I simply don't know how much a business major learns relative to other majors. It wouldn't surprise me that engineers learn more simply because the study a diverse range of topics.
2) Only the high end business jobs pay the HUGE salaries that business undergrads dream of. And let's face it, with so many competitors (others with a business degree) you'll have to really strive to stand above the rest to snag one of these top jobs. Also, nice suits does not equal more money. It's called credit.
3) The authors point is there are X number of jobs in business and there are way more than X business majors. Therefore competition will be fierce for those jobs. In other words, even an entry level job isn't certain, let alone the top dollar positions.
4) This one is simple. If you can't score a job then your quality of life will suck. If you do get a job, it will likely be entry level and require long hours resulting in less time with family and friends.
5) MBA programs are like medicine programs now. They are looking for diversity and as long as you bring the communication, analytical, and teamwork skills to the table you have a good chance at getting into an MBA. This doesn't mean that a business undergrad is bad, just that it isn't the only, or nessesarily, the best way to get into an MBA.
6) I tried to be polite on this but I couldn't come up with anything other than "Are you kidding me??" Of course you need a medical degree to be a surgeon. You can't practice medicine without a liscense and can't get a liscense without completing medical school.
7) We all agree the author is right. Sidenote: 'nerds' as you are calling them are responsible for the vast majority of products and procedures that make modern life what it is today; I suggest you give them a bit more respect.
8) If you don't want to go to school and study business then it is likely you will not enjoy working the next 30+ years in business. And I believe respectfully explaining your disinterest in studying business and explaining why you wan to study another field is the best way to 'honor your mother and father' as far as career path is concerned.
All that being said, this article is an opinion piece. While I agree that studying business is not the be all end all that some people believe it to be, there is no best degree. I firmly believe that everybody should study what they want to.