<p>I really want to become an investment banker(pretty set on it). I'm just wondering what undergrad majors are best to prepare for ibanking, and what undergrad schools also. Thanks</p>
<p>Finance, Business Admin.</p>
<p>I don't know too much about I-banking or I-banking firms, but I do know that if you want to go through a liberal arts education, an economics major works very well. If you decide to go through a business education, then finance will work. Some good schools are the ivies and the ones near it like Duke and Stanford and Chicago, if you want liberal arts. If you want business, you should check out Stern, Wharton, or Umich. But there are plenty of other good schools. I-banking is tough to break into, though.</p>
<p>Also, note that I-banking firms these days want diversity, meaning any major might work.</p>
<p>Engineering also tends to work quite well - many IB's scoop up lots of engineering students from places like MIT, Stanford, etc. to be analysts. This is because engineering students are both highly quantitative and extremely hard working and can therefore put up with the 90 hour work weeks demanded of analysts.</p>
<p>how about for non ivy league schools? does anyone know how the job market is coming out of a good but non ivy league school? i am assuming that the companies dont go out recruiting at these schools so how does one get into a analyst position?</p>
<p>I can assure you that IB's recruit quite heavily at places like Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, Berkeley, and the like, and none of these schools are in the Ivy League. Heck, IB's probably recruit at some of those schools more heavily than at some of the Ivy League schools. For example, I think it's safe to say that at least as much IB recruiting is happening at Stanford or MIT as at Brown, if not more so.</p>
<p>Now, if you're talking about non-Ivy and non-"Ivy-like" schools, (in other words, "normal" schools) there is indeed some IB recruiting going on. Not a lot, but some. For example, here is Morgan Stanley's college recruiting calendar for this year. The Morgan Stanley site doesn't allow for direct hyperlinking into the calendar, so you will have to manually choose Region and Program. Choose "North America" and "Undergraduate" and you will see the calendar where Morgan Stanley is recruiting this year. While obviously the list is mostly filled with Ivy and Ivy-ish schools, there are also some less prominent schools that show up as well. </p>
<p>Where is WashU or Illinois? :( those are the schools im looking to transfer.</p>
<p>You don't need to worry too much about that for Illinois. Many of the major i-banking firms actually have on-campus recruiters here during career fairs. Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, and JP Morgan Chase are represented here. So you'll at the very least have the chance to try to get your foot in the door. Here's a link to a complete list of companies that are recruiting here:</p>
<p>The link shows the winter semester list of recruiting companies. There are even more companies here during the fall semester.</p>
<p>Best undergraduate major: Whichever will best develop your writing skills, analytical acuity and oral presentation skills.</p>
<p>Best schools: The schools that are well known to be among the "best" schools in the country.</p>