Students who intend to work toward undergraduate or graduate degrees in business administration would be well advised to brush up on their math. The reason? Every accredited, worthwhile school of business administration will require students to demonstrate proficiency in statistics, calculus and quantitative techniques.
Many recent high school grads experience a rude awakening when they begin their college studies, particularly in business administration. They discover they are graded on what they know--not on the basis of their personal popularity or whether or not they are members of the football team.
If high school students want to minimize the shock associated with college-level math classes, they should take courses in advanced algebra, analytic geometry, statistics and calculus before they finish the 12th grade.
Statistics at the college level is a struggle for many students, but most end up passing the course. Calculus "for business and economics" is a special course commonly offered as part of BSBA and MBA programs, and it also is a struggle for those students who are not prepared. The course in quantitative techniques is not too difficult, essentially because the math is straightforward. All that is required is the ability to think conceptually and to apply principles.
My recommendation to current and future business students is that they include math books as part of their summer reading programs. Reading The Bourne Identity may be enjoyable, but it will not help them in college as much as a math tutorial in business calculus.
I got my MBA around a year ago. It should have been earlier if it wasn't for all the math classes I had to take. It took me two times to pass Calculus, and three times to pass finance. I've taken a Pre Calc class in high school but it still didn't help me out in the long run.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 22, 2007 10:17 AM | Permalink to Comment