Need help making a decision
Hey guys and gals, so here is my sucky situation:
-I just finished my junior year
-I'm a finance and economics major at an undergraduate business school (lame, I know).
-Both the university and the undergrad business school are top 75 according to US news. Not a target school, but not a joke either. A lot of kids go to work for Dell, Accenture, Big 4, and JP Morgan. The best and brightest break into oil & energy IBD/PE. No one really lands opportunities in NYC or Silicon Valley for high finance because the school is in Texas. Most of the kids end up in Dallas or Houston.
-My Overall GPA just slipped from 3.52 down to 3.48 (ouch).
-My Business GPA just slipped from 3.66 to 3.5.
-My Finance GPA is 3.66.
-My Accounting GPA is 3.5 (Introductory financial and managerial, both levels of intermediate financial).
-My Economics GPA is a cringeworthy 3.1 (Introductory macro and micro, intermediate micro, one dropped class on transcript).
-I stuck with economics rather than accounting because I wanted to learn about something that would help me "make a difference," as naive as it sounds.
-My high school test scores were well above average but not stellar (I went in cold).
-I am scheduled to graduate on time in May 2018.
-My involvements have been alright, not phenomenal.
-I pass the airplane test with flying colors.
-I am about to start a summer internship at a respectable, mid-sized commercial bank this summer (over $16b in assets, fast growth over the last year).
My question is this:
Should I take a victory lap and tack on an accounting degree, or should I just go work for the commercial bank after college as a credit analyst (assuming that I do well in the internship and land a FT offer)?
-The commercial banking job would probably start off at a humble $45,000-$55,000.
-Tuition is a whopping $20,000/semester.
-The accounting core victory lap would give me the 150 credit hours that I would need to sit for the CPA, so I would potentially have the same options as someone doing a 5 year masters of accountancy/taxation program, but with finance and economics.
-I could get more time to redeem my GPA, and therefore improve my options and starting salary potential.
-It would potentially open doors to the Big 4 (They recruit heavily from my school for audit and tax), which opens the doors to valuation, transactions, transfer pricing, advisory, consulting, and a myriad of other opportunities (Although I don't think audit/tax associates can easily transfer to different disciplines).
I don't really know what I want long term, but I know this: I don't want a lack of money precluding me from living my life to the fullest, I want to orchestrate positive change on a high level (go ahead and cringe at my innocent, vague, crusader mentality), and I prefer excitement over certainty and safety.
Does anyone with any success have any insights or resources that they could offer me?
Would dropping 20 grand on an accounting degree be a good idea?
Or am I better off just rocking it at the bank?
Am I thinking too far ahead? Do I need to just calm tf down?