BBA Triple Major

College Majors Business Majors
1

<p>Would a BBA degree with three separate concentrations give the student an advantage in the job market? I know a technical degree like math/engineering is usually the safest in terms of salary and job availability currently but I was thinking of Triple Majoring in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Risk Management. The reason is then I would have to take six less breadth courses and 2 of the classes in RMI and Entrepreneurship overlap with two finance classes. I would have to take 15 credits sophomore year, but then only 12 credits junior/senior year to graduate. In terms of rigor do you think it would be feasible to still earn a high GPA and what type of career advantages do you see (if any)?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Typically I would say that “triple majoring” is really not worth it unless you are really finding fields that complement one another. However, in your case, I think it could be worth it for two reasons:</p>

<p>1) You won’t have to stay in school longer.
2) Those three are pretty complementary, especially the Finance and Risk areas.</p>

<p>The other option would be to graduate early and then go get a Masters in something in the year you “saved.”</p>

<p>A lot depends on what you want to do in the future. </p>

<p>I always think having accounting on your degree/transcript/record is extremely valuable, so I always suggest a least a consideration of that area of study. IMO, it is the strongest area of a business major, with finance second.</p>

<p>Just a thought, but you could probably do something like this:</p>

<p>3-3 1/2 years: Finance/Accounting and Risk
1 year Masters in Finance</p>

<p>I don’t think entrepreneurship is going to add much value to be quite honest. I think risk adds some value depending on what you are looking at doing.</p>

<p>I think some form of information systems concentration, instead of entrepreneurship would be better because it perfectly complements risk.</p>

<p>When you start getting into 3 different areas of study, the combinations you can create are endless. It comes down to what you want to do post graduation.</p>

<p>If I had to choose 3, I would personally do Info System, Accounting, and Finance. I think they are the 3 most valuable business disciplines and can complement each other in a variety of ways for a variety of different jobs.</p>

<p>You could apply to just about every business opening in almost every industry with those as your concentrations (except maybe marketing or HR…but even then you would have a chance).</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the input. The entrepreneurship option is more of a “because I can” type of reasoning. The classes aren’t too bad and they overlap with a finance class so I think it would be a healthy boost to the GPA. Also entrepreneurship falls into the Management/HR major so I felt like it was just the most interesting of the 3 and I heard the professors are great too. I like your ideas for the triple major, but the issue is for double majoring in Finance/Accounting the credit load would be way too much Accounting actually doesn’t overlap that much at our school so it would still be another 21 credits for accounting plus 21 for Finance. I think I will end up choosing between accounting/finance depending on what I like. So in the end what are your feelings between Finance and Information Systems (this would be 15 credits, plus another breadth course I would need) versus Finance, Risk Management, and Entrepreneurship as a triple major?</p>

<p>As for the master’s option that would still take another two years. I think I’m planning on working right away then go getting and MBA or perhaps Law School.</p>

4

<p>If you want to major in Entrepreneurship due to personal interest/enjoyment, that is ok as long as you also major in those other more valuable majors. But don’t major in it if the deciding factor is that it will give you even the slightest edge, because it won’t give you even the slightest edge. Even a minor in something more relevant (Accounting, Information Systems Management), or even standalone electives in those subjects for that matter, would give you a bigger advantage than an entire Entrepreneurship major (whether overlapping or not).</p>

5

<p>I agree Serious101. Ideally an accounting minor would be nice with my Finance major, but at my school we are fairly limited in minors. We only have “certificates” (I go to Madison). And these certificates let’s say for computer science, would still be a solid 18 credits, and I would have to take extra breadth courses.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, my business school has very limited options with minors as well.</p>

7

<p>In your case, triple majoring would probably be ok. The entrepreneurship major probably won’t add a whole lot, but the risk management will be really good to have, especially because Madison has a pretty thriving insurance industry.</p>