re: Value of an LSU Business/Econ Degree?

Law school grades are not exactly the best indicator of one's future success in that field. Wouldn't you agree?

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Law school grades are not exactly the best indicator of one's future success in that field. Wouldn't you agree?

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I don't know if I do or don't agree with that. There are plenty of examples of good lawyers who had poor law school grades, so clearly grades are not the only factor. Most good firms rely heavily on law school grades when making hires, but they also look at personality and other factors that are important in practice but not in the classroom. I guess I'd say that grades together with personality and work ethic are the best predictors of future success. What would you say is the best indicator of future success in the law?

Grades are important to an extent, but there are numerous examples of front-row kids who get the grades but yet still fail to land the good jobs. This is in large part due to their having the personality of a brick wall, little to no social skills, and general awkwardness in how they uphold themselves. The law, more than most professions, is a social field. If you can't shoot the shite with the best of them, you probably won't make a good attorney.

Grades are important but are only one ingredient and not the most important in my opinion. You have to be able to perform under pressure, absorb criticism, think on your feet, and generally be warm to people in order to make it in most fields of law. Maybe if you want to be a tax attorney you'd be okay checking your personality at the door. But the legal profession, though still a profession in the truest since of the word, is more and more each day taking the form of a business. You need to be able to sell yourself and your product and as business students know your product is only perceived to be as good as the presenter makes it out to be.

Lastly, law school grades are subjective and that method of thinking takes adjusting to. Actual practice and the testing environment bear little semblance, in my view.

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Which was that, if you're going to stay in Louisiana, why would you spend 160k at a private school, and if you're going to go out of the state, your best bet is to do exactly the opposite, and go to the best school that you can. Please tell me what is incorrect about that.

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Deciding as a freshman in college that you are going to stay in a particular location for your entire career is pretty short sighted. You cannot predict what opportunity will arise in the future, only prepare for the possibility. I worked a long stent with GE, if a West Point or other service academy graduate turned up for an interview, nobody cared what they majored in or what their GPA was, if they had acceptable people skills they got a job.

I would liken it to a marketing or business management degree over a history degree. That is pretty degrading.

Like I said, I am ITF by default. I hate accounting but understand that it is a necessary evil. In fact, if all goes according to plan I will not have to use my major (involved in a start-up), but it is a no brainer to finish and get my degree. I can tell you that the little experience I have in the real world involves much more heavily on critical and analytical thinking than what you would learn in a tax class. In essence, the classes are are building blocks filled with information that you will likely forget by the time you enter your profession.

I agree mostly with the classes that you listed. For ITF, the econ requirements after 2035 are:
intermediate macro
intermediate micro
international trade
international finance (an economics class for some odd reason)
and 2 econ 4+++ (I am taking game theory and an econ internship for mine)

Th other requirements are an international policy class and an international management class. I think that is about it that separates econ from finance or acct. I probably missed a few, but you get the idea.

The point I was trying to make is that someone who majors in Finance does not exactly have an outright advantage over an econ major. I think there is a slight advantage in material learned, but that is all contingent upon whether or not the student applied himself in those classes.

Hopefully I will never have to find out if employers like my major. Anyhow, I digress.

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The King

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You have made a few fairly valid points, but KFizz is right pertaining to the current job market, which is the only job market I've ever known. As much as I'd love to hire an ECON major fresh out of college that seemed intelligent, personable, and had a history to show progession and hard work, I wouldn't. There are too many accounting and finance majors that bring the same characteristics to the table, but they don't have a huge learning curve to overcome, and they don't require babysitting for the first 6 months to understand fundamental accounting and finance because they only took 1 or 2 of each in college.


ETA: Obviously, every industry has different needs, but I work for a company that employees roughly 800 people, and I don't believe we have one ECON major in the company. Maybe some of the attorneys are?? I think we should get one. Call it the M/T board experiment. I'll report back

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The point I was trying to make is that someone who majors in Finance does not exactly have an outright advantage over an econ major. I think there is a slight advantage in material learned, but that is all contingent upon whether or not the student applied himself in those classes.

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I think in your particular case, that's absolutely true, but you don't have a typical entry-level professional job.

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IDK if that's the best example, since he did IA

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He was ITF but got a job in IA, which proves my point that an economics degree will get you a job. However he did say that he was behind the curve for the first 3 months, just catching up on the accounting.

Both points are likely valid, but I would say that and Econ/ITF degree is not absolutely worthless. Like I mentioned before, an econ grad is probably no worse off that someone who graduates in general business administration.

Lynx, ironically my International Finance class has been the most interesting with respect to current affairs. Everyday the WSJ has articles about one issue or another (e.g. Greece, Chinese Yuan). So in that class, in addition to learning classical and neoclassical international economics, there is a lot of discussion about the current state of the economy and the markets. I would say it is practical.

I do wish that we were required to take at least one investments class. Instead I have to waste my elective on an upper level Finance (as opposed to basket weaving).

As for the teacher that you approached after class, there is no excuse for that. Sometimes you just get an ignorant teacher. It happens.

ETA: You would think that Ourso would offer a international shipping/brokerage class for its ITF majors. That is something I struggled to learn in the real world, would have helped to have a knowledgeable professor to pick his brain (I don't think they make "international shipping for dummies" books).