Hello, new member to the site here, and I was looking for advice, on choosing a double major. I’m a current freshman at West Chester University, which is a Pa State School, but is generally well regarded throughout the state. Their business program is fairly flexible, and requires that you pass several business pre-reqs before being admitted to the business program of your choice. I should be able to declare my major at the end of the upcoming fall semester and am looking for any helpful advice regarding the business disciplines and their relative advantages in the job market. WCU’s business program gives you the choices between management, marketing, accounting, finance, and economics, however economics is the only discipline that you can get a minor in. The three that interest me the most are finance, economics, and marketing as you can probably already guess from the title. Regardless of my other major, first and foremost I know that I will major in finance, because it interests me the most and I love learning about financial markets and investments, and would love to have a career featuring that. I feel that having an accompanying economics degree would lend to being a more marketable prospect to employers, however, I also have an interest in marketing, but am turned off by it being seen as a soft major, as well as it being less related to finance. I would love to minor in it if I could, but that is not an option, the only way to incorporate it would be with my dual major, relegating econ to a minor. So I suppose what I’m asking is this: should I bother with a dual major in Finance/marketing, or just hedge my bets with a safer and more closely intertwined finance/econ major? Thank you in advance for any input!
Finance/Econ (or Acctg). Drop Marketing, get the textbooks if you’re that interested.
Accounting in general the most helpful complement to your Finance pursuits but it isn’t necessary. Do you know what type of roles you want to end up in? If you’re looking into venture capital, finance teams on the client side, etc. then a marketing major may not be a detriment and might actually help. If you’re looking into traditional finance institutions then an accounting/econ major would probably be preferable.
In my opinion, I would not bother obtaining a double major. It is not worth your time. I would rather focus on one major and doing the best in that one. Get an internship in that field to boost your chances to getting a great position after college. Finance and Accounting are the best ones to focus on. You get the most of out your degree with those majors. Marketing, not so much. You might change your mind during college too since you said you are a freshman.
Good luck!!!
Have you taken classes in all of these disciplines? If not then take some before making a decision. At most schools there is no need to declare a major so quickly.
I agree with @happy1 most school of businesses don’t require you to declare a major until your second semester of junior year. You take all similar pre-reqs anyways. Just remember to talk to an advisor if you can wait to declare a concentration