Seek advice about undergraduate major and career path for VC
My son will start his senior year of high school this fall and need to submit his college application(ED) before Nov 1. He is very interested in pursuing a career in the VC firm in the future. However he is uncertain of what major he should start from and what the ideal VC career path is. He is thinking about dual majors with the following combinations. Wish the professionals in the form can give him some advice.
1) Dual majors/major+minor with combination of some STEM majors such as Computer Science(CS)/Math/Applied math/Statistics/Biomedical etc. => work in industry for 2 years => back to Business School for MBA=> VC
2) Dual majors, business(Finance/Entrepreneur) plus one of STEM majors(CS/Math/Applied math/Statistics/ Biomedical Engineering) => consulting/IB => VC
Thank you
I think his career ambitious, although important, shouldn't be the primary reason for choosing a major. People from all different kinds of backgrounds have gotten into VC. Yes, the pipeline that you laid out in number 2 of your question is the way a lot of kids do it, but I would have your son do what he likes, regardless of whether or not that fits the stereotypical progression. In the long run it won't make that much of a difference.
I'm just a UG so I can't speak with too much experience here. From my experience pitching to VCs in a startup, it seems like having at least some STEM background is critical for their understanding of startups, as you have noted. Also, for more of a meta perspective, read article about when Guy Kawasaki thinks you should enter VC: https://guykawasaki.com/the_venture_cap/
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