The Preprofessional Degree: Business

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Are you a strong communicator who is good at leading, organizing, and working with a team? Do you enjoy solving challenging math problems and working with numbers? Are you skilled at working on a computer? In today's competitive business world, these qualities and more are essential for success. If you answered yes to the questions above, you're probably considering, or should consider, majoring in business.

Business students today can expect a balanced and broad-based education that focuses on a lot more than business-related courses. As a freshman and sophomore, you will take mostly arts and science classes including: calculus, psychology and/or sociology, economics, computers, writing workshops, oral and written communications, accounting, and statistics. Your professional business education generally begins junior year, and includes a set of core courses in areas such as finance, management and organizational behavior, marketing, and operations management. The rest of your junior and senior year courses will focus on your specific business major (e.g., finance, accounting, or management), electives, and a course in business policy in which you apply all the subjects you have studied in order to solve actual business problems.

Understanding Your Career Choices

What can you do with a business degree? Plenty! Majoring in business prepares you to work in a variety of settings including business, government, and nonprofit. Most students who graduate with a business degree go to work immediately after graduation in jobs such as:

Only 10 to 15 percent go directly to graduate school. Most work for two or more years before applying to a graduate program, and when they do, it is usually for a master's of business administration (M.B.A.).

With all these career choices, it's important to think about your specific interests, skills, and preferences. Practical experience, such as internships, part-time jobs, or volunteer positions during your college years can help you figure out what type of work setting and industries are most interesting to you. Some colleges and universities offer internships, in which business majors may earn academic credit while getting firsthand business experience.

The Pros and Cons of the Business Major

If an M.B.A. is your goal, there are a few things you should know as you decide what to major in. First, business schools will accept students from any major. There are some requirements, but these can be fulfilled outside of a business major. Second, graduate business schools generally prefer applicants who've completed a broad, well-rounded, and challenging curriculum, with no one major preferred over another. More important are grades, college achievements, and strong standardized test results. With this in mind, you may want to take advantage of your college years as a time to explore subjects unrelated to business.

On the other hand, while a business major will not guarantee you acceptance into an M.B.A program, it will provide a focused education and the knowledge you need to succeed in areas that interest you. It will also help prepare you for the GMAT (the business school entrance exam)—though, like students in any major, you will have to study for this exam. Business majors are also sometimes able to complete an M.B.A. program more quickly than other majors. Still another advantage to majoring in business is the balanced curriculum which includes a mix of liberal arts and business-oriented courses. This combination of courses provides you with the tools, skills, and knowledge for your first job following graduation, while also giving you an opportunity to explore areas of interest.

So whether you decide to major in business or not, there are many paths that can lead you to the same goal, you just need to decide which is best for you.

The Business of Business Classes

Like many other college courses, business classes tend to be lectures. However, rather than just listening and taking notes, students are given case studies, and asked to analyze actual business problems. You must come up with solutions, and present and defend your ideas to professors and classmates. Working on these cases will develop your problem-solving skills and the ability to think analytically. You will defend ideas logically and learn how to challenge others. Hands-on learning—as provided through case studies—give business majors experience with problems and situations that managers face in real life.

In addition, business majors gain valuable technological skills as they learn to work with spreadsheet programs, database packages, and other programs for conducting statistical analysis, preparing financial projections, and carrying out market research.

Recommended High School Courses

The recommended high school preparation for a business major includes the following years of study in each subject: four years of English, two years of algebra, one year of geometry, one year of trigonometry, two years of lab science, two years of social studies, and two years of a foreign language.

The high school course recommendations vary slightly depending on which area of business you choose to major in (e.g., business administration, finance, accounting, or management).

Required Courses for Graduate Business School

Graduate business schools usually require five or six semester-long courses in basic economics, calculus, and statistics. If you decide not to major in business as an undergrad, you will need to take these courses as electives. Beyond that, business schools are most interested to see that you've taken a broad and challenging range of courses.

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