Double Concentration: Finance and What Else

So guys I have been admitted to Penn's Wharton Business School for finance. I wanna do a double concentration and im just wondering what major would be a good idea to combine with finance. I am hoping to go into investment banking and I would just love some tips from other people out there.

9 Comments
 

if you're at Wharton, make ur second major something interesting, like a language, a science, something to make yourself stand out, or at least make it your minor. Make accounting either your second major or minor.

 
Best Response

Don't do this, GPA matters. To get a second major in the college, you'll likely need to take 10-15 more classes to fulfill the college's general education requirements. You won't stand out with a double major if you have a 3.5.

If you're not particularly interested in any of the other concentrations, but want a second one, just do management or accounting (like most people do who do 2). Management if you want a more soft skill set, accounting if you want a more technical one. All depends on your interests and capabilities (stats if you are into math/probability, marketing if you're into research/branding, OPIM if you're interested in operations, social impact and responsibility if you're into non-profit/global issues, etc, etc.)

 

Also, Penn (and Wharton) used to publish reports each year of where all of its students went and what concentrations (double, triple, sometimes quadruple) and majors they had. It was a good proxy for students to figure out where what they could do with their concentrations. Just can't seem to find it anymore...

 

If you want to double down on finance, get an accounting concentration, too. Finance gives you a lot of the portfolio management, stock theory, international finance, and like one class on corporate finance. If you're going the IB route, accounting is really useful and will help bring together all of the concepts you learn in finance.

Don't bother with the management concentration even though I'm sure Wharton's is pretty good. Marketing might be more useful for doing market research / competitive analyses, etc.

Note: I wish I took more accounting classes.

 

I would do something else that rounds you out as a person. Finance at Wharton will be sufficient in preparing your professional faculties, but I think that having a broader scope of studies would very beneficial in the long run. Accounting for example (IMO) isn't something that is very difficult to grasp and can really be learned with a few books, a modeling tutorial and some time spent reviewing the material/concepts. It doesn't really develop critical thinking as much as studying something a little more abstract.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use.
 

Congrats! There's no reason to decide now... I recommend trying out all the core classes, and see what you actually enjoy, and then concentrate in that. Finance + Accounting definitely gives you the best technical background. OPIM classes are actually pretty interesting, and I wish I had taken more earlier on.

 

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