Triple Major

<p>I know questions regarding this have been asked but my situation is slightly different.</p>

<p>I'm going to go to FSU to major in marketing with tuition, housing and books already paid for. It is also important to note that I will be entering with two years of college already completed during high school. I'm entering the business field but eventually I would like to become an entrepreneur and start my own business.</p>

<p>Now all the scholarships and financial aid will be awarded for the next 4 years as long as i stay in school but I can get my bachelors in two. Due to the number of courses that overlap I would be able to double major in Finance with an extra semester and triple in Entrepreneurship with an additional semester after that.</p>

<p>My question is what would be the best option in this situation? Should I stay in school for the 3rd year and get the 2 extra majors, which in my mind would better prepare me to start a business, and is free (also I heard University life is pretty fun)? Should I get only the marketing or finance degree and start working for a while and then go for my MBA? or should I go for my MBA directly after I get my first degree?</p>

<p>You may not get another chance to be in school with someone else footing the bill. Stay in school, enjoy the experience,there's no rush.
Make sure you take college calculus and statistics classes even though you may have college credits through high school. College courses vs AP or IB classes are not equivalent in depth. The top MBA schools want to see those in your college transcript.
You might want to read the thread about working experience and top MBA schools. You need some working experience.</p>

<p>yeah, i'm taking college calculus now and took statistics aswell thanks for your imput btw.</p>

<p>If that is all being paid in grants, I would try to find a way to stretch that time out to a full 4 years.</p>

<p>Go to FSU for 4 years. Think of it like this, what do you get if you graduate early...a job, bills, responsibilities. You're only young once, so you mine as well have as much fun while you still can.</p>

<p>^ thats a good way of thinking</p>

<p>Can you "learn" entrepreneurship? I always question courses that are focused on this theme. Personally, I would only do marketing and finance, and stop there.</p>

<p>I'd just go for the finance and marketing, so that you can take classes that are actually kind of fun (bowling) and interesting (sexual psychology)</p>

<p>In terms of scheduling, I'd evenly space out your hard classes over 4 years so that you have only 2 or 3 classes that you feel are going to be challenge you, then 2 or 3 not so challenging classes. Don't forget that college is an experience, and you're supposed to have fun.</p>

<p>Do not focus on entrepreneurship courses. They are only useful if they explicitly teach you how to handle cash-flow issues and how to set-up a business (which is a very extensive topic, covering issues like taxation and proper accounting practices, how the loan industry works, what the HR/employment process will be like for you, advertising on a tight budget, etc). Most entrepreneurship courses have been propped up by VC money, and much of the curriculum seems to be dedicated less to starting and maintaining a business than it is to valuating and investing in a small business. You cannot be taught how to have an "entrepreneurial spirit," and for that reason it's incredibly important that if you do try and take something entrepreneurial in nature that you focus on classes that are extremely pragmatic--avoid fluff at all costs. It will teach you bad habits that will be hard to unlearn.</p>

<p>As for the triple-major issue, it's normally a non-issue. You want to go into business, not academia (and triple-majoring could actually be a turn off to grad schools anyway). You need the skill set and the knowledge set, you don't need to jump through requirement hoops to get another line of text on your diploma that's going to be irrelevant 4 years out of college. What matters is what you learn, not what your degree says you've learned. Triple majoring would require you to put yourself in some uncomfortable scheduling positions, and since I've never heard of a school counting more than 50% of courses in one major to apply to a second--and that's an extreme case, it's normally much lower than that--you're probably going to have to pick from the bottom of the barrel as far as electives go, which is absolutely something you do not want.</p>

<p>I'd recommend, since the bill is covered, that you try and find one "normal" academic topic you enjoy, and that you spend half your time on that and half your time on business related courses. Accounting as a major is great if you want to be an accountant, it's incredibly useful. But if you want to run your own business you do not need every single accounting course, you need to learn to pick and choose what works for you. It's the same thing with marketing, it's the same thing with finance. I actually think finance is the most useful major for someone who wants to run their own business, over general management or accounting or entrepreneurship bs or whatever else, because it teaches you to be detached and to properly evaluate your own position, something that's often a pitfall for small business owners who often become emotionally attached to one specific business or one specific method of running their business.</p>

<p>If you intend to go into "business" prior to branching out on your own, then accounting and finance are probably the best majors within most business administration programs to get you a solid job (something tech related is also relatively solid, but it depends on the quality of your program).</p>

<p>I certainly wish you the best, but recognize that 9/10 it's what you learn in those electives that matters--you know what you want to do, and that puts you ahead of the curve of most college students. Check how people like certain teachers, find courses you think line up with the skill set you'd like to develop, and do everything you can to learn what you specifically want while you have the time--free isn't something that comes around often. It doesn't matter what major you end up with, if you know what it is you want to do when you're out you've got to do what you can to develop that skill set in college--major be damned.</p>

<p>thank you very much</p>