Thoughts on Graduating Early
Currently, I am a freshman in college but I have enough credit hours to be a junior (only about 40 left to graduate). I am majoring in Finance and International Business (co-major). I have networked with several investment bankers in the field, and it seems the best thing I can do is delay my graduation as the recruitment process is very structured. I have a strong scholarship, so there is no real concern about the added cost of staying for several more years. I am also about 6 months younger than most freshmen. We have one club at my school that has a very good placement rate for IB and consulting (I believe 100% for the last few years) so it is critical to get into the club. I am interested in investment banking, private equity, or hedge fund. Hedge fund would be the most interesting to me, but I think I would be happy with any of these careers.
I was wondering what would be the best way to delay my graduation. I am not sure which other majors would strengthen my resume the most. I could double major in something unrelated to IB, but I do not think that is a particularly good idea. The other options are accounting, math, economics, or risk management. Additionally, I could instead choose to get my master's degree (dual degree program - you graduate with both your undergrad and master's at the same time). The current options for this program are a MAcc, MSBA (Master of Science in Business Analytics) or a MAcc/MS Financial Planning.
I would really like to hear people's thoughts or any advice as to what may be best for me.
i replied to your comment on your other post I will try to be more clear:
as long as you graduate within the time frame that is explicitly given on the SA applications, how many credits or what major you are doing doesn't matter at all. since you're a freshman now, it would be spring 2026 or fall 2025. Adding an unrelated double major wouldn't affect your candidacy at all, or I would even argue that it can make your resume more interesting to others since you are already majoring in business - it can be a talking point during chats or interviews. I would recommend taking lighter courseload to aim to graduate during those semesters as well.
as to masters, I would argue against it because it can potentially make you look like you struck out recruiting in undergrad and brings up questions in interviews that can be easily avoided if you just graduate from your undergrad. plus forming a story for your interviews and chats maybe more difficult this way. but if this is a more financially logical way to approach things, I would take this route, but I wouldn't if you can just afford to delay your graduation. also if you are at a non target getting a better school name might help but idk what school you go to now so take that how you want to.
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