How many times have you been on TikTok or the Instagram Explore Page or Twitter or any other form of social media and seen the video format of *(insert any major here stressed)* vs Business Majors knitting away, watching Netflix? Maybe you’ve laughed at them, hey, even I’ve laughed at a lot of them, but it is obvious that the people making the videos are usually not actually business majors. As someone who is a business major, I thought it would be fun to take some of these myths and see if there is any truth to them!
*Disclaimer: I know these are made for laughs and this is just based on my experience at UGA*
- Myth #1: Business Majors are for people who have no interests or cannot decide on a major.
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From what I’ve seen at UGA, a lot of people switch to business majors AFTER being in another major, usually STEM. After Organic Chemistry or another tough science class, many people switch to Marketing because it doesn’t require an application like the other Terry majors. Some people may not know exactly what they want to study, but most people just change their major to “undecided” and take the prerequisite classes that every student has to take anyway. In my experience, I knew I wanted to do Business Management before I applied to UGA, so there may be some truth in this, but it depends on the person.
- Myth #2: Business Majors don’t have any homework.
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This one always makes me laugh because it is kind of true… okay, really true sometimes. My brother is a biochem major at Georgia Tech and sometimes he is staying up late doing homework and I am chillin’ and watching Vampire Diaries on Netflix, but other times I may be working on an essay late at night and he is playing video games.
Now for this one, I think the difference has to do with the specific major. The majors with more math involved may have a lot of problems or homework they have to do at night. Other majors may not have homework every night or at all. I’ve had classes where my professors think that homework is busy work, and in some classes, it’s true. We have lectures, then we have exams. We have a group project, and that’s it. Most of the homework for all business majors comes from our Pre-Req classes. Not the Life Science, Physical Science, Math, and history classes that everyone has to take. Terry Majors have to take Managerial Accounting, Financial Accounting, Finance, Calculus, Statistics, Information Systems, classes on Microsoft Excel, and others that have a good bit of homework on a regular basis. After those classes, you may have homework or you may not. It depends on the major, class, and professor. Will you have as much homework as a Biology Major? Probably not, but it’s relative and depends on the student. What may be a lot of homework to you, might not be a lot of homework to someone else.
- Myth #3: Business Majors don’t have any stress.
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Now I wish this one was true! In general, stress is relative to the person. Basing your level of stress and comparing it to someone else makes no sense. Everyone handles it differently and you can’t invalidate someone just because the situation doesn’t seem stressful to you.
For me, most of my stress comes from a lot of my assignments from different classes lining up and being due at the same time. This may be because I am a chronic procrastinator. Or I have a few serious presentations coming up and I feel the pressure. Am I CONSTANTLY stressed? No. Does that mean I am never stressed? No. If you are looking for less stress, maybe consider switching majors, but don’t think that just because you are a business major everything will automatically be smooth sailing. Everyone handles stress differently. If you are dealing with stress, in any major, consider checking the resources available through the University Health Center. No one, no matter the major, wants to be stressed and unhappy for 4+ years of their life.
- Myth #4: Business Majors will make a lot of money.
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I think there is some truth in this statement. Not everyone is going to graduate and immediately make six figures. Some people may end up becoming billionaires. It really depends. On average, a lot of salaries for jobs surrounding business majors is based on factors like the industry, the job, prior experience, location, and major. Many business majors may set out to climb the “corporate ladder,” become corporate lawyers, Wall Street traders, consultants, or financial controllers, for example. Let’s take a few of these jobs and look at average salaries in New York, NY, and you can analyze the pay.
Average Base Pay in New York, NY
Corporate Lawyer: $127,027 / yr
Trader: $125,447 / yr
Management Consultant: $110,479 / yr
Financial Controller: $117,023 / yr
Everyone will have different experiences and these are just the averages from Glassdoor. You can use Glassdoor to be more specific in your search, or you can use the Career Center to see salaries from alumni who graduated with a specific major and what companies hired them.
While it is fun to laugh at these videos and poke fun at a specific major, remember, the main point is that you should do something that you genuinely find interesting. We all may change career paths many times and may end up doing something completely different from our major, but for the 4 years we are in school, make the best of it and don’t just do something to chase money. If you dislike what you are doing, you may find that you are more stressed out or have more homework pile up that you have no interest in, and the money won’t be enough to make it all worth it. Everyone has different interests, career goals, and we all learn differently; do what makes you happy!
For a good laugh, here are a few tweets and Tiktoks about Business majors! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6