Pros and Cons of an Economics degree
August 31, 2004 10:21 AM   Subscribe

My friend needs help deciding on either a BA or BSBA degree in economics. He would like to work in international trade or something related. What are some pros/cons of each degree (and possible minors for the BA)? He would probably be working for a few years before pursuing a master's degree.
posted by Sangre Azul to Education (1 answer total)
 
I would say that school choice and/or program choice would be much more important than the difference between BSBA and BA.

However, a BA degree will give him a much more rounded education and he could find a school with a strong foreign relations program. If that's his intended career path, though, he'll need an MBA as well.

There's two paths. If he/she wants to be the wheelin' and dealin' international businessman or he wants to work in government, then he should get a BA at a decent undergrad school with ivy league ties and an ivy-league MBA. The education value here is negligably different from non ivy league schools, but the connections and networking is of immeasurable value and is the difference between working a desk as a coordinator for twenty years before promotion or getting into the higher level positions immediately.
If he/she wants to go the technician side (international freight broker, etc.) then he should look at an BSBA in Operations or Supply and Logistics, and an MBA in international management (Aka MIM). For the latter programs, there is none better for the price (IMHO, as a graduate) than Portland State University's programs, which are run by Dr. Lee Buddress. (Michigan and Arizona have similar progrmas, without the international component, AFAIK.)

Basically, your friend needs to decide if he/she is into the nuts and bolts of the international trade operations, or whether they want to go the prestige, high-visibility business role. They're very different paths and have drastically different education requirements to get you started. From your description and the focus on economics, it sounds like your friend is not looking for an operations role, so my first reccomendation stands.
posted by SpecialK at 11:29 AM on August 31, 2004


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