Are business studies/management degrees any good

[AbGonk]

DD wants to study French with either business studies or management at uni. DSD is studying MFL and says business studies degrees are "rubbish" and "useless"
I'd appreciate any info as I have no idea and think lovely DSD might be a bit of an academic snob!

It's one of those it depends situations. An MBA when backed with another degree is very valuable.

A business and management degree can be good if its from a good university and is a first as it gets you onto graduate programs.

However a more focused degree like economics, econometrics, etc. Is likely to be viewed more favourably.

It really depends on what they think they will do with it.

Thanks, iwouldprefer - DD isn't sure what she wants to do career wise. She isn't naturally academic but works incredibly hard to get her grades. She wants to do French but analyzing medieval literature (or whatever it is DSD does!) doesn't appeal.

I wondered if there might be a more practical aspect to business studies.

She'll go to a good uni (or not at all) but if her future depends on her getting a first, she may have a problem!

I think a combined degree (such as French with Business Studies) sounds good.

However, Business Management as a standalone undergraduate degree is a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. I had friends who studied Business Management, and I definitely learnt more in my first year in employment than they did over the 3 years of their degree.

Consequently, I don't really see what "added value" someone with a standalone Business Management degree has over someone who has done Sociology, for example (indeed, many Business Management courses follow sociological theories).

I work in investment banking and business management with a language is the holy grail I look for in recent grads. Business and /or management degrees are highly numerical though and so if she or you think it an easy option it’s best not to go for it; most are as numerical as an economics degree.

Yes, she definitely wants to do French (which she speaks very well).

A 2:1 in business and / or management would be better valued than a 2:1 in economics for non-economics grad schemes across the banking and finance industries.

Business was in the top three highest earning degrees according to graduate salary last year and has been for a while

Posted too soon. She's top set maths but won't be doing it at A level. I don't think she's cut out for investment banking .

What about French and Law? Not with a view to being a solicitor though.

Law unless it’s at the top universities is a waste of time. She’s better off just studying a full on French degree or combine it with another language - many companies will hire her and train her if she has the language skills they need. French and Mandarin is often offered at some of the top unis.

I work in change project management alongside a few people with business management degrees, most of them go down the Business Analyst route

Well, mine served me very well, although we are going back a few years. I specilaised in accountancy and economics and trained as an accountant when I graduated. Pays the bills and there's lots of opportunities

However, Business Management as a standalone undergraduate degree is a bit of a waste of time in my opinion.

This is my opinion too. I'd go for French and Law over BM.

70% of graduate jobs will accept people with a degree in any subject - and most of the remaining 30% are jobs like nursing or architecture where you do need a specific degree.

When I've recruited fresh graduates, we've rarely given more than a cursory glance at their degree, so long as they had one and ideally it was a 2:1 (though my eyebrows did go up at one applicant who had taken 5 years to get a 2:2 in his BA from a mid range uni).

Your elder DSD is being a bit of a snob about subjects. Business / management are perfectly respectable subjects. Encourage DD to drill down to course content at each uni (it varies enormously!) and see what appeals. Get her to visit the uni open days (there's a lot to be said for gut instinct about these things). Most of all encourage her to pick a uni where she thinks she will be happy and a course with content she thinks she will enjoy.

While she's there, strongly encourage her to take up work experience / part time work. I'm always very at fresh grads who have never held paid work - even if it's only bar work they will have learned a lot about the fundamentals of the working world. I'd much sooner employ a graduate with a 2:1 and work experience than someone with a 1st and little to no experience.

I did law at UCL and then went on to do my masters in management as LSE as I wanted to work in consultancy. I felt that the content of my MSc was fairly basic as I had covered a lot of it during GCSE business studies. It was useful as it gave me something to talk about at assessment centres.

My degree was in international management and French. Loved the degree as I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do career wise and it gave me the ability to do modules in Law, Psychology, Economics, Accounting, Statistics, HR etc... which I really enjoyed as it was so varied. I ended up having to take one french literature module as that's all that was available to fit into my timetable but that's it. It also gives you the opportunity to do a year abroad. It definitely wasn't an easy course but I researched very carefully and chose one with a good reputation and where the modules appealed to me which I think is important. They vary so much from one university to another. I don't think I had any compulsory non-french modules after my first year which gave me the chance to study what I enjoyed which made me work harder.

As others have said, it's best to actually drill down and look at what is actually included in each course as they do vary a lot.

You generally have options that you can choose from so that you can do something more mathematical or something a bit woolly less mathematical.

But overall, from how you have described your DD I would say that doing a combined degree would be a better choice than doing a straight French degree.

Has your DD given any thought to doing two languages? Either two similar languages or two very different ones?

There are plenty of places that do French and Mandarin for example and others that do things like French and Arabic.

This would also avoid the deep dive into medieval literature I would say.

Forgot to say that if she does two languages then she also gets to spend her year abroad in two very different countries as well.

Thanks very much for replies.

Nicky- her comp only offers French but she's hoping to do Spanish GCSE when she goes to college for A levels.

@AbGonk For degrees with two languages they only expect knowledge of one language.

For example, Manchester offer French & Chinese and just want one language A level:-

A-level Grades ABB including one of the languages to be studied

This programme is designed for students whose level of Mandarin Chinese at entry ranges from complete beginner to approximately A-level standard.

And UCL offer French and African or Asian Language (there's Arabic and lots of other choices) for which only French is required:-

A Levels Grades AAB
Subjects French required at grade A