MS Finance WHILE an Undergrad?

College Majors Business Majors
1

<p>DS will be majoring in Accounting at a large U (tier 3?) and has been invited into a program called the University Scholars program which allows "students identified with outstanding potential at an early stage of their undergraduate program to pursue both an undergraduate degree in Finance or Economics and a Masters degree (MS Finance/MA Economics/ MS Statistics) usually within 4 years of starting the Undergraduate program.</p>

<p>While having turned down full pay at several school’s like UT (McCombs) and Emory he chose this school because he was awarded a full tuition scholarship (8 free semesters and will bank his college savings for future MBA at top tier school) and felt this school was a regional target school for Big 4 recruiting, that he could manage a higher GPA and resume hopefully leading to a lucrative internship/employment. Thanks to already bringing in 39 credits from AP credit/dual enrollment he has opportunities to double major/study abroad. </p>

<p>Should DS consider MS Finance in addition to his undergrad accounting pursuits? His concern is that this may jeopardize his GPA for Accounting and just wants to see how his first semester goes. He just dropped Calc II from his schedule. He did well in HS Calculus AB (A+ and 5 on AP exam) but he is extremely tentative about continuing with Calc. He has other interests (i.e. study abroad, internship,perhaps German or English minor, enjoying college, tennis) but it is hard to turn down an MS in Finance that can be paid for within this scholarship. Should he just focus on Accounting?</p>

2

<p>Does he want to be an accountant or do something in finance. A masters is cool, but not necessary if he wants to work Big 4.</p>

3

<p>No offense, but this is laughable. Schools have recently made this huge push to make their graduate programs big cash cows. I see this as nothing more than that. “Your kid is special so why don’t we go ahead and book him up for 6 years of tuition!”</p>

<p>What are the requirements for this program? My guess is GPA + SAT scores. A basic requirement that allows a large amount of people to be suckered in to the program and hopefully retained for a couple more semesters.</p>

<p>A MS in Finance is 100% irrelevant in the Big 4 and pointless if he wants his MBA.</p>

4

<p>^But in general, still better than MAcc.</p>

5

<p>If you want to work in accounting, get a MAcc. If you want to work in finance, go to a school with a great UG finance/econ program. The Masters will not help you in this circumstance. </p>

<p>MBA’s, unless they are from top schools, are generally big jokes.</p>

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<p>What do you mean by top? And they are big jokes to whom?</p>

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<p>Top as in T10-25 schools. </p>

<p>Joke to anyone who did a business undergrad. Material isn’t hard and generally just a refresher. More of a check the box than anything else.</p>

8

<p>Oh ok.</p>

<p>I was reading it as jokes to employers.</p>

<p>I agree though, MBAs are just as redundant to UG business majors as a MAcc is to an UG Accounting major. Both were originally designed to give people from other majors a chance to learn the subject. </p>

<p>I would say that an MBA is an important piece to move up in any F1000 company nowadays - even when they aren’t from top 25 schools. And I think, for example, that it is very useful if (to apply it to the OP’s situation) a Big 4 alum goes back and gets an MBA with a focus in Finance and then moves into industry. CPA + Big 4 + MBA = Golden Ticket.</p>