Somebody explain the practical differences between the various business majors.

Finance and Accounting > the rest.

Marketing and General Business are degrees that give students a little bit of everything from business, but there is no real specialization (more true for Gen. Biz than Marketing) - in marketing you can obviously specialize in certain aspects.

Accounting, Economics and Finance degrees are more in demand, more specialized and you can't bullshite your way through them.


If your daughter is a numbers girl and she has an interest in it, Finance seems like a good fit with several opportunities in several industries.

Finance or Accounting. CFA (finance) is a whole lot harder to get than a CPA license, but you can major in finance and as long as you take the correct electives, be eligible to sit for the CPA

marketing is a waste
general business may as well be general studies
econ is hit or miss, id recommend staying away
the whole ISDS/computer informations is on the upswing, very good payoff after graduationg

cliffnotes: acct/finance or ISDS

I have an ISDS degree and although I didn't go into that line of work after school, almost every other ISDS grad had a job lined up after graduation.

IT isn't going away, so like accounting, there will always be a need.

In Louisiana, 150 hours, 24 hours of undergrad acct, or 21 or grad acct

I got my degree in ISDS. Every company these days has at least one computer in it, and somebody's gotta be there to fix it.

accounting:prepares you to be an accountant. Doing taxes, tracking cost, ect. It's the most focused business major and also probably the most useful one. It takes a certain kind of personality though, analytical and detail oriented.

Marketing: study of how to sell things. This is the second most focused and second most useful business major. Requires a certain type of personality though.

Financing: all about investing capital and taking out loans. It's about interest and investing. Third most focused, 2nd most useless because few students actually get to go to finance jobs when they graduate, but the information is very good to know in general.

Economics: study of the economy. It's absolute bullshite because Keynesian economics (what your kid will likely be taught unless they go to Auburn or Loyola) is the kind of bull shite that says a broken window is good for the economy because then we have to pay to fix them, without realizing that the money used to fix the window would otherwise have gone to something more useful. Most useless business major as most economist positions are purely academic.

General Business: This is the most broad business major and pretty average for usefulness. One learns a lot that is very applicable to a wide variety of jobs, but the major is also held by so many people that it lacks much cache as a major. It's just really generic.

I graduated with an Econ degree last year. I'm making $75,000 right now and I'm actually just about to switch jobs, so here's to hoping I'll get more.

Econ is really not even considered business anymore, at Auburn it isn't even part of the business program. Econ teaches you to critically think while learning social skills and how to analyze every situation. I can't even tell you how useful these skills have been to me. Also, I understand money, investing, and how to make more of it better than probably 98% of people in this country. But then again, my minor was finance as well.

I've always seen it as Econ > Finance > Accounting > all else.

You have a WAYYY higher potential to make more money in Econ than in the other 2 professions. Hell the starting salary of Econ majors is much higher than the 2.

ETA: Also every Economics major I have met have all seemed to be incredibly intelligent. Most of them are very wealthy (a few investment bankers, area managers, ect). And not many people doing Economics so when you meet another you say "eyyyy you went through all that shite too!?"

Did you graduate with an undergrad or an advanced degree?

Once again, just my experience with some major CPG companies

1.) Finance majors can easily change career paths mid career to allow for more/better promotions. We've promoted a few Sr. Financial Analysts into sales roles that showed the required aptitude. Also into customer marketing and trade marketing.

2.) Marketing people generally just stay in marketing, even if that means they never get past a mid-level role.