Hello, I’m currently in a dilemma. I’m going to be a senior come this Fall 2020 majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University.
As I’ve progressed through my course load / program requirements, I find the major that I’ve chosen to be dull and not stimulating. I’ve grown to love the financial side of capital markets and want to pursue a career in Equity Research, however the University (NCSU) I currently attend is not highly regarded in financial sphere nor is the program particularly strong.
UNC Chapel Hill on the other hand is highly regarded as one of top Business undergraduate programs in the nation that provides an Area of emphasis in Investment Management, Investment Banking, Consulting, Marketing Management, and Multinational Finance.
I do want a career that has to do with capital markets and banking rather than a operations management role. I had applied to transfer to UNC Chapel Hill as junior (then a sophomore at NC State) and was waitlisted, I have since become a stronger candidate with my major GPA and my overall GPA rising to 3.78 and 3.82 respectively. I have secured an internship with a Fortune 100 company and have held multiple internship positions that relates to research and analysis of financial transactions. Currently hold a leadership position within NC State and have volunteered for a Non-profit.
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(I know that UNC has 75 transferable credits as the max with 45 credits as minimum to be taken at the University for them to grant a Bachelor’s degree. I am an in-state student and tuition is not a problem for me plus I wouldn’t have to retake classes that I had taken in Freshman and Sophomore year since Operations and Finance have a similar course load (Accounting / Econ etc.) in the infancy stages of their respective programs) The courses I would mostly have to take if I were to be accepted would be the concentration / area of emphasis courses which would make up fro 45 credit hour minimum to be awarded a degree from the University)
Life doesn’t end after undergrad and your undergrad major doesn’t dictate your life.
If you already have an internship and are well on your way to securing a job after graduation, do that.
Then you have 2 potential paths:
- Self-study, maybe see if you can go for a CFA, and try to switch internally within a company.
- Start an MBA or other finance degree soon after you start working FT (either PT or FT; research your options). For a career-switcher, FT is usually recommended, but some companies pay for part of a PT degree.
Another option is going for a 1 year specialty finance/business master’s right after undergrad. There are various MEM (http://www.mempc.org/engineering-management-programs/) and MIM programs (like UVa/NU/Duke and a ton in Europe) out there. Also stuff like Berkeley’s Master of Engineering.
I know, at your age, 1-3 years seems like forever, but you really indeed can put up with nonstimulating material/work for a few years while excelling.
BTW, equity research is a dying field.
And no, schools don’t take transfers after senior year.
You need to ask UNC what is possible.
You might have the option of applying for transfer now. Yes, it is likely that some of your credits won’t transfer and it is likely that you would need to be there for two years. However, depending on how the credits are recorded, you might have senior status for class registration and so be able to get into the sections that you want.
You also might have the option of applying for a second bachelor degree, in which case not all of your credits would be applied toward your degree and you would probably need to be there for two years. Again, this might qualify you for senior status for course registration.
All that said, I agree with PurpleTitan that finishing up where you are, and doing a grad program to specialize later almost certainly makes better sense.
“I have secured an internship with a Fortune 100 company and have held multiple internship positions that relates to research and analysis of financial transactions.”
This is really good.
“You need to ask UNC what is possible”
I agree with this also.
What comes to mind immediately is to ask about the opportunities for a master’s degree, possibly an MBA. I think that it is relatively common for a student to do their master’s in an area that is related to their bachelor’s degree, but with a slightly different focus or a slightly different area. Having some internship and/or work experience is also valuable when applying to graduate schools.
Thank you so much for your replies!
I was a Classics major and then went to business school. You absolutely do not need another bachelor’s degree, and I agree with Purple Titan that looking at the CFA or other certifications is absolutely the way to go. Long term nobody is going to force you to do supply chain your entire career- but trust me, if you do end up in a capital markets type role, your supply chain background is going to make you a VERY valuable member of the team. As the entire COVID epidemic has exposed- supply chain is a strategic global issue, taking up more and more of a CEO’s time (where did all the toilet paper go? Why is it so hard to get medical supplies to hospitals? Why did most of the world allow China to become the manufacturing center for critical chemicals, components, industrial products?). Evaluating companies and industries and really understanding supply chain is an incredibly valuable skill. Some companies develop deep backup plans for severe interruption of their sourcing of critical components, and always have excess capacity in case of global emergencies. And others don’t. You could become the subject matter expert on a wide range of companies after a few years of SC experience, and then a shift to capital markets.
Get a job after you graduate, give it your all. Then figure out the next chapter…