<p>I'm undecided between majoring in econ or finance. However, if I picked finance I would double up with accounting as well since numerous classes at many b-schools are the same. What's the best major or combination of majors to get into investment banking?</p>
<p>If your school offers finance as a major then major in it. If not, major in econ.</p>
<p>nepotism, if it is offered.</p>
<p>Major in networking. Just get a high GPA and network your ass off with a few ECs sprinkled in. That’s really all it takes. Also, be prepared to take a boutique and don’t just settle for bulge brackets or you’ll be sorely disappointed</p>
<p>I heard Vanderbilt was coming out with an investment banking major. You should look into that. What’s gonna be better, am i right?</p>
<p>^I dunno about that. I’d really avoid these kinds of things. A major in investment banking hardly guarantees you a job in investment banking and that may pigeon hole you, in employers eyes, that you only know investment banking related finance. I guess it may help for investment banks, but unless you can’t do any job besides IB and are willing to potentially sit there unemployed for months before scoring a boutique IB job, I would avoid these very narrow concentrations. Its best to not be too broad (i.e. “management”) but not too narrow either (i.e. “investment banking” vs “finance” or “accounting” major).</p>
<p>finance, banking, depending on if you’re going to double major possibly accounting as well. but if you want to get into investment banking, you’re going to want to go to a pretty darn good school.</p>
<p>Chemistry or Chemical Engineering. Stock prices are modeled by brownian motion.</p>
<p>^^^ wow, this guy…</p>
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<p>I’d actually argue that accounting + studying DCFs/business valuations in depth on your own is the way to go if you want to do investment banking. There’s a lot of tearing apart of 10-Ks in banking and you’ll need to know your way around the income statements extremely well for even the interviews, forget about the actual job. Unless you loathe taxation/advanced auditing classes like I do, study accounting and do DCFs and business valuations on the side. This is much better than finance not just IMO, but based on what people I’ve spoken to have said as well.</p>
<p>And lol at the guy who said to major in chem/chem e to become a banker. Maybe if you want to be a quant/trader/quant HF dude, but for a banker? LMAO!</p>
<p>I know a banker who was a chem major. Purely coincidence though.</p>
<p>Don’t major in accounting. People will rag on you a lot.</p>
<p>First of all, I’d like to thank you guys for those ideas of nepotism and chemistry because of the brownian motion thing. I really love the stock prices being like the brownian motion. Anyways, it sounds like there are many different ways to become an investment banker. While none of the schools I’m applying to are targets, the majority have strong alumni networks. I will be networking, believe that! I’m just curious as to why accounting wouldn’t be good? I’ve heard that a double major in accounting and finance is really good for getting into investment banking but I could be wrong. I was thinking of a minor in econ too but not sure about that one.</p>
<p>Accounting knowledge is extremely useful for banking but it is still not a highly regarded major. No managing director wants to say they have an accounting major as one of their summer analysts.</p>
<p>^^^ Yeah. I know what you mean, the embarrassment of having an employee that knows business like the back of his hand. Perfect sense.</p>
<p>Dude, did you not read ANYTHING I wrote. You definitely need to major in accounting so you will not only pay attention to minor details but huge pieces of text that will answer your question.</p>
<p>Finance, economics or accountancy, I guess. But you should look for better schools than better majors or programs. If you’ve attended a target school for IB, you’d get into IB regardless of your undergrad major. For example, you can get into Goldman Sachs as an Investment Banking Analyst with a degree in South & Southeast Asian Studies from UC Berkeley because Berkeley is a target school for most top bulge bracket firms. <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/SSEAStud.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/SSEAStud.stm</a></p>
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<p>Sadly, Vanderbilt isn’t a target school for those top bulge bracket firms. If you dream of getting into IB, you would have many more chances of achieving that dream coming out of Stern or Ross or McIntire or Georgetown than of Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>@#16, Out of the 22 graduates, 9 responed. Out of that 9, 3 has jobs, 2 attending graduate school. What about the other 17?</p>
<p>creamgethamoney, I’m sorry if it appeared I wasn’t listening to you. I totally agreed with you about accounting. That’s why I was asking foolovsky why they didn’t think accounting was good because everything I had heard was so positive about it. And since you suggest doing DCFs on the side, any idea how I could learn more about it? Is learning about it on the internet the best way?</p>
<p>I can’t get into a target business school. I’m most strongly considering Miami U (OH) and Wisconsin and also Illinois and Penn State. They’re all big state schools and I’ve heard that IB is doable because of the large alumni networks.</p>
<p>Coincidently, Miami has a stellar accounting program, which would be great. That is probably my first choice though I’m in-state for Wisconsin.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Illinios also has a really good accounting/business program, so that’s good that you’re looking at them too.</p>