Undergrad BBA

To some extent, this depends on which tier of employers you are considering and the type of position. If we are considering the big name/big city employers for entry level analyst positions, the two degrees would probably be viewed as basically interchangeable. There are several reasons for this. Perhaps the simplest is that most of the top undergraduate institutions do not offer undergrad degrees in finance but do offer undergrad degrees in economics (e.g. HYP, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, Amherst, Williams). A second factor is that these major firms have a better sense of what is covered in different degrees programs and can thus look beyond the title of the degree to see if the material covered is functionally similar to what they are looking for. Further, firms with extensive training programs of their own will place more emphasis on the candidate's foundation skills (e.g., numeracy, reasoning skills) rather than specific curriculum the student followed while in college.

When you consider more local firms that expect students to become productive employees with little additional training, a bias in favor of a BS Finance would likely emerge.