Declaring a major in college can be incredibly difficult. Balancing your academic interests and career goals can be challenging and confusing especially during your early undergraduate career, leading many universities to not require the declaring of a major until the end of ones freshman or sophomore year. If your University doesn't offer Business and you aren’t sure what you want to study, but know consulting is the career path you wish to go down, the following degree options may be for you.
If you’re interested in financial or strategy consulting, a degree in economics may be for you. Able to help ensure your skills are broad enough for many different fields within consulting, a degree in economics equips you with the knowledge of how businesses function within the market– a highly transferable skill. Economics helps build the analytical reasoning, data interpretation, and forecasting skills needed for a successful consulting career.
Engineering, whether mechanical, electrical, civil, softwar, or even biomedical, help people stand out in the consulting job market. These degrees cultivate problem solving skills, critical thinking, and teach students how to manage projects. Engineers are trained to break down complicated problems using data analysis and mathematical reasoning. This makes you a strong candidate for consulting in the field of technology, operations, or digital transformation, and highly sought after by firms such as McKinsey and BCG.
A finance degree, often offered within undergraduate BBA programs. It shows that you’re proficient in math, but also showcases ability to understand problems in context. It’s important to note though that finance is usually understood as a pipeline into investment banking meaning finance majors need to make intentional efforts to showcase that consulting isn’t just a second choice. By taking leadership in business and consulting related organizations you can build relevant experience and showcase your commitment to business and consulting.
At its core, political science is the study of systems and how they interact, are influenced, and operate. As well, they focus on how individuals find a place in the system they live in and how those systems change in response to changes in society and the wants and needs of people. Understanding this is invaluable in the field of consulting which often requires you to see the problem behind the problem, and address issues at the very root. Despite this, political science students are sometimes at a disadvantage due to a lack of quantitative skills. If you want to pursue consulting with a political science degree, it’s helpful to also pursue a minor in a field such as Econ, Finance, or Physics to build up and showcase your quantitative skills. As well, getting involved in math and coding clubs on campus will be helpful.
Majoring in computer science shows strong proficiency in mathematics and the commitment to effective problem solving. An almost essential prerequisite for IT consulting, a background in computer science gives you an edge in one of consulting’s most rapidly growing fields. As a computer science major however, it’s important to also focus on fine tuning your skills in communication and social sciences. Consider getting involved with extracurriculars such as debate, public speaking, or your school paper to fine tune your rhetorical skills and look into adopting a minor in a field such as political science or econ.
