5 year Dual Degree Econ or 4 years HBA?(Western Ivey)(Canada)

Hey everyone,

I'm a high school senior who recently got accepted to the Richard Ivey school of business(well, granted advanced entry opportunity as its a 2+2) and have a question about what undergrad to choose.

Hopefully I don't come off as another HS whose overly optimistic and wants to go down the banking route, but my goal is to have 2 years of banking experience and then move into a buy side firm/do an MBA.

So at Western University, I could do a 2 year undergrad of MOS(management and organizational studies, not a great program tbh) and then do 2 years of ivey and get my HBA or I could do 2 years of econ, and 3 years of ivey+econ for a dual degree.

Obviously there are pros and cons to both, but here is my logic:

Reasons to go with MOS
-Much easier to maintain a high GPA, which may be beneficial for internships and maintaining the 80% requirement for ivey
-Can take econ courses but they aren't as math heavy as the ones in the econ undergrad
-With econ+HBA, I will spend an extra year in school which may be detrimental to securing a job in banking

Reasons for econ dual degree
-2 degrees
-Econ is more recognized than MOS

So WSO, based on these guidelines which do you think the right path is?

4 Comments
 

please do not study econ+HBA/Bmos+HBA if you're gonna do the 3+2, study something INTERESTING otherwise, it's basically pointless, since in the eyes of recruiters, econ and business admin is the same thing

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Thank you guys for your feedback. @"notthehospitalER", that is my plan yes. If my end goal is to end up on the buy side, is it true that an MBA may not be necessary? I believe that certain megafunds don't require an MBA, and 2 years of banking experience is sufficient for them.

@"matayo" Well if I go down the MOS route, it won't be a 3+2. the MOS program doesn't offer a dual degree, so I'd have my HBA in 4 years. That gives me an extra year over the 3+2 guys for potentially getting some banking exp early. My question is, will the 3+2(and dual degree) be significantly more beneficial than just graduation with an HBA for recruiters? The trade off in this situation is 1 year for a dual degree vs finishing my undergraduate program in 4 years but with just an HBA.

 
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