Best Undergraduate/Graduate Degree to Break Into Consulting/Finance/I-Banking

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'm at U Penn (will be studying there next year) and I've been considering Economics as my prospective major for a long time.</p>

<p>Of late, though, I've heard many say that cracking a great job in finance/consulting/I-Banking requires top level QUANTITATIVE skills, which are not generally found in Economics undergraduate majors. Do these jobs really require a huge amount of advanced math for modeling, etc?</p>

<p>Should I major in Economics, or Engineering, or Computer Science? Also thinking about applied mathematics, but I'm not sure. I want to equip myself with the skills that employers (firms such as Goldman, McKinsey, Bain, boutique firms, etc) will find attractive, and I want to get my foot in the door.</p>

<p>I do plan to get my MBA later (hopefully from a very solid grad B-school).</p>

<p>What's the route I should take (generally speaking)?</p>

2

<p>Economics is a perfectly satisfactory feeder major.</p>

3

<p>The math taken by economics majors ranges anywhere from stopping at freshman calculus to several upper division courses that normally only math majors take. The math-heavy economics majors are the ones who intend to go to graduate school in economics, though extra math (and statistics and computer science) certainly can’t hurt for going into quantitative finance.</p>

4

<p>it doesn’t really matter if you’re coming out of penn, you just need over a 3.5</p>

<p>the kids with the best offers usually come out of the M&T program. i don’t know if it’s too late for you to apply for that.</p>

5

<p>Econ is fine, just get a 3.5+ and you will likely get interviews.</p>