

Why Do Computer Science Majors Dislike Business Majors - erebus_rex
http://www.quora.com/Why-do-computer-science-majors-often-dislike-business-majors/answer/Michael-O-Church?srid=2ijl&share=1&fb_action_ids=857886107622590&fb_action_types=og.shares

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Hhefferman1989
His answer is boorish, frivolous, and, quite simply, factually inaccurate. I
usually like MOC, but his Quora writing has become excruciatingly hostile
lately -- bordering on bitter.

Any undergraduate business school encompasses a large number of disciplines,
and not everyone studying for an undergraduate degree in business is doing so
exclusively to other degrees (see:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_majors_in_the_United_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_majors_in_the_United_States)).
Additionally, many business schools host their university's economics
department.

But even putting that aside, his argument seems to be that to study a
"synthetic" major (that is, a career-preparation major that brings together
elements of other disciplines, eg. Marketing: Statistics + Psychology) is
somehow lazy by (his own, arbitrary) intellectual and Maslowian standards.
Why? Many people choose to study broad subjects in undergrad and then
specialize in graduate school. And in the cases where "business majors"
(again, the term is so unspecific as to be meaningless) don't ultimately go on
to study at the graduate level or specialize by some other mechanism, they
generally don't make a lot of money. Since MOC's primary point of distaste
over "business majors" is that they generally tend to become the superiors of
computer science majors, it should be obvious that his argument is built upon
a flawed premise: the best of the best "business majors" might ascend into
management positions (above their CS-educated colleagues), but most don't:
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/11/19/the-
colleg...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/11/19/the-college-
degrees-with-the-highest-starting-salaries-in-2015/) (and that doesn't even
control for eg. finance majors that go on to get MBAs and become MDs at
Goldman Sachs. If you stripped those from the average -- the best of the best
-- the discrepancy would be even greater!).

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erebus_rex
I'll add that I intensely dislike his answer but felt compelled to link it due
to its honesty and debate inspiring nature. But here goes: I think it is
question begging to call CS a new liberal art without qualifying why (many
people go for CS precisely because its practical). And its also unfair to
think that a person cannot be intellectually devoted to a practical field (law
is a pragmatic degree yes but its a love affair for a supreme court judge, why
not the same for a business professor?) I think its more anti-intelectual to
rank disciplines based on merit.

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shams93
Ironically if you want to be an engineer with longevity its better to start
out as an art or music major lol. All I people I know who majored in CS are
doing anything but computer related work.

