Your mom is almost right. But from what you have just said, I think you should go for a business degree. Otherwise you would go through a very torturous period in engineering school. All the super difficult math, wonderful engineering projects, complex computer programming, etc, all going to waste the day you finish your last exam after several years. It's a waste of tax payers' money, your family money and your life. Then you have to invest more on accounting, finance and business courses. And there is something more which your mom probably didn't experience in her time - the biz students go for internship program with banks (the good ones may go to top banks and earn 5k or more as interns) and would have establish better resumes and contacts than you. Finally, schools like SMU have relevant internship program, organize employers/students networking sessions and interview program for their students. In short, unless you are a going to engineering school in MIT/Stanford/UC Berkeley or your mom can get you a banking/finance job when you graduate (is your mom part of the Lee dynasty?), forget it.