Business at university

rebbe373

What is the best degree within business to study , for someone that isn't sure what they enjoy most in business ?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by rebbe373

What is the best degree within business to study , for someone that isn't sure what they enjoy most in business ?

It depends on your sort of personality. Personally, I don't particularly like business degrees (just as a disclaimer), but I will try to give you an idea where possible.

Accounting - pretty much the go to degree for anyone looking to go into accounting, even though you would never need the degree to go into accounting
Finance - very quantitative field, unless you do a joint degree with accounting modules. The maths here are generally more difficult than that in accounting degrees (even though accounting is generally more difficult as a subject)
Marketing - usually talks about promotion and market research (more emphasis on research than anything); in practice, it's more about mass selling
HR - talks a lot about organisational psychology, but generally very niche and not often offered as a standalone subject
Economics - even though it's a completely different subject to business, it's sometimes clumped in with the business school. Very theoretical and the mainstream economics degrees tend to involve a lot of A Level mathematics e.g. differentiation, logarithms,
Business information systems - essentially applied computer science, without asking for A Level Maths. Very theoretical, but involves programming.
Business/management - the jack of all trades of business degrees. They usually include a lot of the elements of the above topics (except for business information systems), but they lean more towards HR and strategy modules (which requires you to write and talk a lot about theory).
Business analytics/maths/statistics - generally considered the statistics and basic business maths. Generally include material from accounting, but you can sometimes have modules that involve a lot of statistics.

If you're not particularly sure about which area of business to go into, business studies or business management tend to give you the full flavour. If you're more into the quantiative side, then economics and finance would be more up your alley. If you're keen on statistics and focusing on what's useful in practice, consider business analytics. Accounting, HR, and marketing tend to be more focused on specific careers. Business information systems tend to be OK for programming, but I would pick computer science over BIS anyday if I want to go into tech (not that you need a degree or even a degree in computer science or BIS to go into tech).

Do note, for marketing, accounting, data analytics, and HR, you can get professional certificates for the specific roles (even though accounting is the only role that legally requires professional certification) to help you get the job. Do also note that business/management degrees tend to just repeat a large portion of what is already covered in A Level Business Studies (or similar Level 3 business qualifications).
Do also note, if you do a business management degree at undergrad level, you generally can't do it at master's level (i.e. MSc Management, not MBAs) because a lot of the material would have been repeated. Masters' in business subjects generally don't have required subjects from undergrads. The only possible exceptions are economics, finance, and business analytics - generally asks for a quantitative undergrad or in their respective subjects.
There are generally no required subjects for undergrad business degrees, except for Maths for Analytics, Finance, and Economics (for obvious reasons). For the other subjects, you can pick the subjects you like most so long you get high grades in them.

With the above, you can more or less plan out how you want to go at this. You can switch to a different business discipline at master's level or pick a general degree at undergrad level.