An undergraduate degree in business isn't that useful by itself. An engineering degree will buy you a lot more credibility down the line, no matter what you end up doing. But the real money isn't in being an engineer--it's in finance, operations, and strategic management. So the MBA is still crucial--it allows you to transition between the two domains.

Do you really think an MBA is that important for operations?

I sometimes think it would be fun to get one (although, since I dropped out of MBA undergrad, the only easy way for me to get one is LSE or LBS or another UK or EU school).

I know finance to the extent of "how to read a balance sheet", run a startup, or do very basic investment analysis, but nothing really exciting. If an MBA actually would be useful for something beyond credentialing in operations/management, I might consider it more.

I have a business degree and an MBA and I agree with this statement. If I could go back, I would major is something more technical.

But, I also have an MBA. And I would get that again.

> I have a business degree and an MBA and I agree with this statement. If I could go back, I would major is something more technical.

I don't know much about MBA programs, but don't you study Economics, Accounting, Finance...? Or Economics isn't considered technical enough?

I wouldn't consider economics to be technical at all. Traditional Economics is the art of taking outdated physical models as analogies for sociological phenomena. There are modern branches of economics that are useful and arguably even technical, but I doubt you get into them as a typical undergraduate.

In my opinion you don’t get a lot of hard skills at a MBA program. MBA program usually gets you 1-2 courses on any specific topic. If you get a Harvard MBA, you'll get two Finance and one Accounting course, and part of one course will cover econ. Just look at the curriculum http://www.hbs.edu/mba/academic-experience/curriculum/Pages/...

I had the choice of getting an MBA or MS in Finance. I went for the MS Finance and took these courses; 2 stats, 2 econ, 2accounting, 2 Managerial Analysis, and 8 Finance courses as my paid for course load. I took non-required courses in Operations management, MIS, Leadership, Business Law, and Marketing at the cheap Grad student rate and sat in the same classes as MBA’s.

Go to my schools website and you can see the simple thought approach difference between an MS and MBA The MBA program landing page is all about school rank, how to get in, cost. The course work isn’t directly linked to that page. http://bauer.uh.edu/graduate-studies/mba/index.php The M.S. Finance page tells you the goals about what they want you to learn, and has the curriculum http://bauer.uh.edu/graduate-studies/ms-finance/index.php MBA programs are LARGELY about getting credentials. They are profit centers for universities, and get run that way. Most students are there to punch a card. You can see that mindset in terms of how the websites are set up.

I don't have a problem with MBA course flaunting their rankings, but why sacrifice learning? You can very well flaunt your ranking, and teach statistics and economics.