Hello! I am going to be a Tar Heel at UNC Chapel Hill next year and I am trying to pick my majors/minors. My ultimate goal is to go into management consulting, but I am trying to study a broad array of business topics as I want to have a “flexible” degree in case I change my mind and decide to just pursue general business management.
I have already received assured enrollment into Kenan-Flagler, and I know that I am interested in majoring in Business Administration with focuses in Consulting and Multinational Finance (K-F allows you to choose two areas of focus). These areas of focus won’t appear on my diploma, but they will add to my resume.
UNC also allows students to select up to three areas of study (one major and two minors, two majors and one minor, etc). I am considering adding a combination of additional majors and/or minors to my Business Admin major (mostly to help increase my chances of landing a good job). These are the options I’m most interested in:
Majors - Statistics and Analytics; Management and Society
Minors - Statistics and Analytics; Entrepreneurship
What do you think would be the best combination of majors/minors for me out of the above? Is it even worth it to pursue double-majors/minors? Do you have any other suggestions for majors/minors to look into for management consulting?
In my opinion, I think my safest bet would be to add the two minors, but I was reading on a few Quora forms that minors aren’t always beneficial. However, I don’t want to double major if it isn’t going to set me apart much, either. I need some opinions!
Anecdotally, I can tell you that not a single just-graduated management consultant that I know has an undergrad business degree. The ones I know studied all kinds of things- from geology to theology to history to math. Internships at MC firms summer after Junior year were the key to getting hired.
You don’t have to pick major/minors now: take classes that are honestly interesting to you and see where they lead. Start looking for summer internships early, and use them strategically to build your skills and test out what you find interesting in practice. IRL that will be what gets you jobs. Employers will see 1)UNC-CH / K-F BA BusAdmin, followed by 2) Consulting/MF. They are much, much less interested in parsing the differences between which stats & analytics path you followed than you might imagine.
Econ is a very popular major for future consultants. The firms also heavily recruit math, stats, and finance majors. The more quant based the better (so the analytics path is good). Regardless of major, you definitely want to pick up computer skills in Excel, SQL, Python, etc.). Working with large data sets, analyzing the data, drawing conclusions, and presenting the findings in powerful, action oriented formats is important. S has been told how important those skills are on several consulting interviews. Based on your school’s curriculum, you may not get exposed to the computer training until later in your college career but you can take many of these classes independently on line. There are several companies that provide certificates recognized by many major companies. Also shows your initiative.
Management Consulting at all the major firms (not just MBB) is very competitive just to get the interview. Focus on getting great grades, networking (easy to do via Linkedin), joining relevant clubs, doing case competitions, etc.
FYI - S attends a peer school (to UNC-CH), is in the B school (Junior), and the vast majority of kids recruited to consulting jobs come out of their business school (Finance or Enterprise Management tracks). Some come from Econ, Math, etc.
Good luck and congrats on direct admission to K-F. Awesome school! Don’t worry, I’m sure the hoop team will rebuild from this year’s performance.
My best advice is that you don’t need to decide or even think about your major/minor now. You will gain so much more information and knowledge over the next year and a half. Here are some ways that will happen:
–You will start off by taking a business core meaning you will take introductory coursework in array of areas such as finance, IT, accounting, statistics, econ. etc. This will give you a much better sense of where your interests/aptitudes lie.
–You will have the opportunity to speak with professors and gain a deeper understanding of areas you find interesting.
–You will have the opportunity to discuss options as well as where people with different majors historically have ended up working with career placement at the college.
–Give yourself time and also allow your career interests to change/evolve as you learn more about the many different career paths you can take in the business world.
–However, FWIW I’d stay away from a Business Admin. major – it is generally considered to be a less rigorous, very general business major.