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Why are commerce degrees relatively competitive to get into. Especially at UNSW (1 Viewer)

turntaker

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Its not like there is a shortage of graduates with commerce/business degrees. I was just curious.
Do people think they can start a business and become a millionaire if they graduate or do they just do it for fun.

I don't know much about commerce so don't hate but I was just curious as to why it is really popular.
 

turntaker

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Or maybe become CEO after 60 years
 

obliviousninja

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Asians have an inherirant belief that they are to follow the commerce tradition. Asians follow their asian friends. Hence a lot of people doing commerce.

This is not a troll post btw
 

OzKo

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Its not like there is a shortage of graduates with commerce/business degrees. I was just curious.
Do people think they can start a business and become a millionaire if they graduate or do they just do it for fun.

I don't know much about commerce so don't hate but I was just curious as to why it is really popular.
Either this or the belief that Comm grads are the only ones qualified to be a CEO.
 

Crobat

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Because it's the go-to degree for people who have no idea what they want to do but still want to be somewhat employable.
 

OzKo

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A lot of people are going to be very disappointed.
Yeah, from what I've seen, this really only applies to financial services.

Majority of senior management positions are filled by people who have a degree in their own field (because they naturally have a stronger understanding of the industry), rather than a generic Comms degree. With that being said, there is always scope to do post-graduate studies so the option is always open.
 

Trebla

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I don't think a Commerce degree is actually that 'competitive' to get into tbh. A lot of people I know who were well below the cut-off got into UNSW Commerce.

It's more of a fact that far too many people do them. This is partly because of what is described above and also because there is an insane level of supply for Business/Commerce degrees available across all universities big and small. I'm pretty sure anyone with a semi-decent set of marks has accessibility to a Commerce or Business degree.
 

Chronost

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Relatively broad degree that that has good potential employability. Does not have to be a double degree and takes only 3 years.
 

RivalryofTroll

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Asians have an inherirant belief that they are to follow the commerce tradition. Asians follow their asian friends. Hence a lot of people doing commerce.

This is not a troll post btw
This is somewhat true.

Nevertheless, in the end, "Asians" (or really their parents) tend to prefer the 'safer' options/degrees. This means Commerce tends to be only a back-up course and they'd much prefer to do something like Medicine or Dentistry.

I remember my mum telling me how the (Asian) GP, which she visits, complained about her older son, who went into Engineering, and is glad that her younger son wants to go into Medicine. Apparently the GP told my mum that "yeah he can suffer if he wants" (referring to her older son). I was just laughing when my mum told me this :haha:

Until this very day, my parents still preferred if I did Dentistry or Medicine (instead of what I'm doing right now - Business/Law). But they've accepted that I just like/am more passionate about what I'm doing right now more than those courses.

A lot of people are going to be very disappointed.
It happens in some other degrees as well, especially Law (being disappointed due to unrealistic expectations).

However, due to the fierce competition in those degrees, I think commerce or law students are ultimately more prone to disappointment than lets say medical students.

Because it's the go-to degree for people who have no idea what they want to do but still want to be somewhat employable.
Basically this.

If you don't have any specific interests and weren't the most spectacular student, it seems like commerce is the 'go-to degree' like Crobat says.

Many of my friends/relatives, who had no idea what they wanted to do, just went into Business/Commerce or combined Commerce in the end.
 

enoilgam

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Its not like there is a shortage of graduates with commerce/business degrees. I was just curious.
Do people think they can start a business and become a millionaire if they graduate or do they just do it for fun.

I don't know much about commerce so don't hate but I was just curious as to why it is really popular.
A lot of HS students have this misconception that a Commerce degree is needed/used for starting a business. Hardly any graduates use it for this purpose (whether it is even useful for starting your own business is debatable). Overall, Commerce is popular because it provides a person with a variety of options and skills sets which are needed within the business world. Another misconception held more by uni students is that a real business only contains fields which are studied at uni (i.e. marketing, HR, finance, accounting etc). But when you work in an actual business, you discover that there are a variety of fields that you cant really study at uni, but still require a similar skill set to what a Commerce degree offers (i.e. Supply Chain, Sales, Service Quality, Compliance, Risk Management etc). Going off on a tangent, but that's why I always scoff when people say an Economics major is useless, because it actually relates to quite a few fields (you just need to take a non-traditional route into those fields).
 

seremify007

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Because it's the go-to degree for people who have no idea what they want to do but still want to be somewhat employable.
As long as you do a safe major you're unlikely to go hungry... but that being said, I know quite a few people who for whatever reason couldn't land graduate positions and ended up going with entry level roles (some accounting some not) which pay about the same as a cadetship. It's not a guarantee of a lifetime of wealth and opportunity but rather, it just means that you should be able to find something- just not necessarily the perfect position.
 

enoilgam

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As long as you do a safe major you're unlikely to go hungry... but that being said, I know quite a few people who for whatever reason couldn't land graduate positions and ended up going with entry level roles (some accounting some not) which pay about the same as a cadetship. It's not a guarantee of a lifetime of wealth and opportunity but rather, it just means that you should be able to find something- just not necessarily the perfect position.
Accounting tends to be a more grad program driven field. Most Commerce fields are not - there are hardly any graduate programs for HR, Marketing or Operations. They are mostly driven by entry level positions.
 

RishBonjour99

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Accounting tends to be a more grad program driven field. Most Commerce fields are not - there are hardly any graduate programs for HR, Marketing or Operations. They are mostly driven by entry level positions.
Most commerce/business students don't exclusively pick those majors so it isn't too much of a problem.
Commerce is a generally good degree for the 'corporate life' I assume + what others said above. It is not really competitive because access to a commerce degree is readily available (e.g. UWS). UNSW isn't 'that' high either, its around 91-92 ATAR with bonus points which most kids get.
 

enoilgam

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Most commerce/business students don't exclusively pick those majors so it isn't too much of a problem.
The reason I emphasise the point is because a lot of people wrongly assume that a lack of positions/demand for graduates equals a general lack of positions/demand within an entire profession.
 

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