Most Valuable Business Double Major Combo of 2025

May 18, 2025

The top companies know most business majors are an absolute joke.

Only a couple allow you to compete for the best jobs and aren’t a complete waste of money.

You need to pick one that

  • (A) Proves You’re Smart (if you get good grades)

  • (B) Gives You a Practical Skillset You Can Directly Apply to High-Paying Jobs

As a freshman, I was good at math and knew there were tons of high paying careers in finance -

So I decided to attend an info session for our “prestigious” investment banking academy.

The director (former partner at top CHI bank) told us which majors look best on a resume -

And what he said took most of us by surprise.

He said if you could only pick one - pick ACCOUNTING > FINANCE every day of the week.

He preached that accounting is the “Language of Business” -

And that building a foundational skillset in accounting before before starting your career will accelerate your success in any field of business.

Our academy places over 30 kids into the most competitive business internships every year -

And every single kid is an ACCY + FIN double major.

This combo gives you the best ROI and opens doors to the most lucrative careers where you’ll be making ~$200k right out of school such as

  • Hedge Funds

  • Private Equity

  • Venture Capital

  • Investment Banking

  • Management Consulting

  • Asset Management

  • Private Credit

I’m first going to explain the three reasons this combo is so valuable.

Then I’ll explain how I strategically planned my courses around the rigorous recruitment process.

WHY ACCY + FIN? (3 REASONS)

(1) HARD TO GET GOOD GRADES

I interned at an elite boutique in NY and was surprised by how many engineering majors my class had.

When looking at resumes, bankers don’t care what your major is as long as it was challenging.

You just have to prove you’re a high achiever and capable of learning.

They know a smart engineer will pick up all the finance-specific stuff really quick on the job -

Since ~80% of what you learn during your finance classes in college isn’t directly applicable anyway.

Under the umbrella of business majors, ACCY’s the most challenging because of its complex nuances.

Finance alone is a borderline cake walk at most schools so seriously consider adding on ACCY.

(2) LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS

It’s no secret accounting is BORING.

Nobody wants to be a boring accountant for the rest of their life -

But spending time up front mastering the complex concepts & terminology will make you 10x more successful in all the sexier fields of business.

This article from Wharton does an excellent job explaining why it’s so important.

The director of our academy said he loved hiring analysts with ACCY backgrounds because it “clicked” much quicker for them during the training process.

In investment banking, you need to know how to read financial statements like the back of your hand.

You need to be able to analyze how much cash a business is actually generating so you can make informed conclusions about a business’s health and accurately forecast future figures.

(3) TECHNICAL INTERVIEWS WILL BE EASIER

If you’ve taken the first couple entry level ACCY classes -

Prepping for the intense technical portions of banking / private equity interviews will go way quicker.

Since ACCY’s so important for banking - you get grilled with ACCY questions to start off every interview.

Over half of the technical questions I got asked during real interviews were straight ACCY.

The valuation / modeling questions also just won’t make sense if you don’t learn the ACCY first.

Here’s a good resource that gives an overview of the concepts you need to know.

HOW I PLANNED COURSES AROUND RECRUITMENT

Getting interviews at the most prestigious banks takes way more than just good grades.

Plus - the timeline’s so early now that you have to have all the extra stuff done before spring semester sophomore year.

I was strategic about how I planned my course load so I could spend time

  • Resume Building (Internships & Student Org Leadership)

  • Networking

  • Studying for Interviews (Technical & Behavioral)

Here were the three main parts of that strategy.

(1) MINIMAL IN-SEMESTER CREDITS

I took 13 credits both semesters sophomore year and was still on track to graduate early.

Here was my schedule during the intense semester that interviews happen (spring sophomore year).

Bankers see the GPA on your resume, but not the specific classes underneath it.

Taking a light course load frees up your time to network and build your resume.

Here’s what you should focus on instead of taking an extra class or two.

  • Networking - You need a referral to be invited to a first round interview. I did over 70 networking calls in a three month span my sophomore year. A light course load gives you flexibility to schedule calls around the busy schedules of bankers. Here’s an example of a networking week from my G-Cal that year

  • Internships - A part-time internship that builds real-world experience will look way better on your resume than knocking out an extra gen-ed. Your best option is a search fund (https://mergersandinquisitions.com/search-fund-internship/)

  • Leadership - I was senior consultant in a consulting org, director of new members for my business fraternity and joined our intro to banking org freshman year (while playing a full hockey schedule). Show them you can juggle many responsibilities at once just like you’d be doing on the desk

(2) SUMMER & WINTER CLASSES

I took online / asynchronous classes during the winter & summer semesters my first two years.

I was able to knock out gen-eds so I could focus on the other items mentioned before in-semester.

You naturally have much more downtime during winter & summer break - so take advantage!

I also repped out an excel financial modeling certification (https://www.adventiscg.com/) to add to my resume during those breaks.

(3) EASY TEACHERS

My school had a website that listed average GPA by professor for every course (linked here).

Most schools probably don’t have this -

But make sure to to ask upperclassmen who the best professors are - especially for courses known to be the most intense.

Those conversations will save you so much time & energy in the long-run.

Cheers 🥂

- Jack