Innovation Nation (A Series on Young Entrepreneurs)
Part 2: Starting Without a Business Degree?
Every year, thousands of newly admitted students come to UCLA, certain that they want to study business. However, the university does not offer a business major or minor. While some see this as a setback, others have come to perceive this reality as an advantage. Director of the UCLA Career Center Kathy Sims, fourth-year business economics student and president of the Undergraduate Business Society Steve Wu, and third-year math and economics student Ziwen Cai share their thoughts on UCLA’s lack of an undergraduate business program, and how they feel young entrepreneurs can pursue their goals without it.
I agree that if a student is driven and motivated, they can do well in business even if there is no designated undergraduate business program.
However certain skills are not taught in the Biz-Econ program that are taught in dedicated Business programs (in Berkeley’s Haas program, there are several more courses devoted to finance and microeconomic decision making and whatnot, and I’m not too aware of any such equivalents available for undergrads here).
The anecdote given about Ziwen Cai, the guy who founded the minerals trading company, isn’t relevant to most of people because he apparently has had experience in business due to his being surrounded by that since a young age. For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to learn business practices from family members who run companies, a business program might teach some some of those skills that aren’t otherwise innate.
Yes, the accounting minor is a great program for those who want to become accountants, but it doesn’t necessarily suffice for those interested in finance/investment banking. There’s a reason why Haas’ undergraduate has better recruiting than biz-econ in that particular field – because their curriculum prepares students for it!
Comparing the UCLA and UC Berkeley career center surveys for 2011 graduates from Biz-econ and Business Administration majors shows that Berkeley graduates from Haas on average make $11,000 more than UCLA biz-econ graduates and $21k more than Math/econ graduates yearly.
I feel like the person from the career center was giving an ad-hoc justification of why the school is not investing in a dedicated business program. It’s beyond me why the school feels that it’s sufficient not to have a dedicated business program.