Best Double Major/ Major-Minor Combinations
If you were giving advice to an undergrad, what double major or major/minor combination would you recommend for the following fields?
Private Equity
VC
What are Recommended Double Majors for Business Students?
Double majoring or having a single major and a minor is quite a common choice most college students make. While choosing your major(s) can provide a quick snapshot of who you are to recruiters, it is also possible to strategically select majors to benefit you towards a certain field.
While in today's ever expanding technological advancements, a common major/minor combination is finance/accounting/business administration + any computational science or programming degree.
Another recommendation is to minor or major in a foreign language such as Mandarin, Korean, or one of your choosing.
Unique Major Combinations
While the few recommendations are common choices to double major or minor in, there are countless unique combinations that you can choose.
@snakeplissken" gives a good example regarding having a philosophy minor:
math and philosophy. 1. it's an interesting combo. 2. it proves your ability to work with numbers and be quantitative, but also means you have to be able to write and be articulate.
you could probably swap in other double major combos that achieve the same / similar things, but i think the most important thing is to show recruiters you can do both.
also, it would probably make for an interesting undergrad career
While there are countless different variations for majors and minors that you can choose from, it's equally important that you make your selections on courses that genuinely interest you. Furthermore, do not just focus on your majors and minors, but also leadership roles around your college campus, as that provides recruiters with a sense of how connected you are with your community.
If you have any other recommendations for college majors and minors please comment below!
Still in school but wish I majored in CS.
Ideal combination for me: technical major + liberal art. CS or EE + Psychology, or Physics or Math + Philosophy.
I'm personally in the school of thought that any major can work if you leverage it successfully - I'm geography and have been able to leverage it pretty well when talking with energy-focused bankers. Statistics, at least at my school, looks solid on paper as a minor and isn't a huge amount of work.
Short version: What you like. If you happen to enjoy relevant topics, then that's great. If you don't, are you sure you are targeting the right career?
Um - The majors/minors you find interesting and can get a 3.7+ GPA in. Seriously. Pick things you find interesting. I know people with English, Biology, Stats, Math, Finance, Languages, Geology, Religion, and the list goes on in all those fields you list.
Don't double major just to double major either - only do it if when you wake up in the morning you can't imagine only studying one thing.
As a side, the vast majority of the people who interviewed me did not have double majors. They had done a major they enjoyed + were president of a club/on the football team/a marathon runner/ran their own businesses. So keep that in mind.
I did Finance and a Foreign Language. Only 5% of the people that interviewed me cared about that foreign language (I will say the offer I accepted, I believe, was given in part because I spoke with an MD for 30 minutes about how he had also "learned a worthless language for a girl before things didn't work out". At the end of the interview he said "Damn, I was suppose to ask you a few technical questions...").
If I could have done a third (don't do that), it would have been computer science like mentioned above. I wouldn't go as far to say I would go back and take it over the language if I could - the language has changed my life in many ways - but if I was 18-19 again, I would definitely take an intro CS course or something to see how much I like it. (though, I am a hobby programmer. If you hate the idea of coding, then don't do that.)
I've been playing around with python and going through some stuff in a quant book by Ernie Chan, so I would love to be better with CS. I went ahead and declared my major as finance and my minor as stats. I'll probably take CS electives if/when I can. I have my own startup and everything, so I think I will have some goods to bring at the interview
Finance/Accounting/Econ + CS, MIS, Mandarin, English, Other Language
Prob in that order
Best Undergrad Major/Double Major/Minor Combinations? (Originally Posted: 11/14/2012)
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I am new here and have been looking through lots of threads which were very helpful. I am in my first year of junior, attending a semi-target b-school, and international student from Asia who is interested in trading career opportunities.
I initially thought only majoring in Finance. However after numerous internship rejections in Finance (more like Accounting duties) and realizing how hard it is to survive in this competitive economy (especially as a F-1 Visa status), I decided to give some change in my studies.
Although I haven't taken any Finance courses yet because they are offered in senior years, I have really nothing to lose because I don't have any knowledge in Finance. I was initially attending a small community college and then transferred last semester (spent all the time getting into the business school last semester).
I was shocked by the fact that to be a trader, I may don't even have to be a business undergrad. I have seen people discussing math/computer science is probably a better major to be a trader.
I have a poor resume. I was not really into study until I decided to transfer to university. My GPA is around 3.6, treasurer at local baseball club (15 members, in control of $1,500), 2 years of military experience in my home country, 30 hrs volunteer, fluent in my home country language (not Chinese) and a member of Finance club at the business school.
After realizing the facts, I narrowed some options down.
Minor in Comp Science needs 15 credits from these classes (I wrote down the course description so you can judge whether the program looks good):
Introduction to Computer Science -A first course in computer science for those intending to take advanced computer science courses. Introduction to programming and to algorithm design and analysis. Using the Scheme programming language, the course covers several programming paradigms
Introduction to Software Systems -Design of computer software systems and introduction to programming in the environment of a contemporary operating system. Topics include a modern object-oriented programming language; building and maintaining large projects; and understanding the operating system interface.
Discrete Structures for Computer Science -Induction and recursive programs, running time, asymptotic notations, combinatorics and discrete probability, trees and lists, the relational data model, graph algorithms, propositional and predicate logic
Computer Structures OR -Structure and internal operation of computers. The architecture and assembly language programming of a specific computer are stressed, in addition to general principles of hardware organization and low-level software systems.
Data Structures -Systematic study of data structures encountered in computing problems, structure and use of storage media, methods of representing structured data, and techniques for operating on data structures.
Any valuable advice would be appreciated. Please give me a straightforward advice. Beat me up please!
math and philosophy. 1. it's an interesting combo. 2. it proves your ability to work with numbers and be quantitative, but also means you have to be able to write and be articulate.
you could probably swap in other double major combos that achieve the same / similar things, but i think the most important thing is to show recruiters you can do both. also, it would probably make for an interesting undergrad career
^sorry, i realize my suggestion isn't included in your list of 5 options, but if you have credit space for it, maybe consider it.
Thanks for the info!
Major in finance, minor in stats
I did Finance and Global Business...but that was because i wanted to work outside the US
You can't go wrong with computer science.. I can tell you that much.
Does the course descriptions for compute science sounds legit? Do people think I can get out of something from taking those 4 classes?
Bump! Comp Sci majors please give me some advice!
Gender studies + minor in Psychology
As a student, honestly I've seen so people go into those sectors from various majors. Generally if you plan on doing a double major, please have one of them be math-intensive. For example, Computer Science + English > Philosophy + Enlgish
What do you think of Economics with Accounting in general?
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