BS in Finance from a Business school or BA in Mathematics from a liberal arts school?

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
1

<p>What's better, ceteris paribus, to put myself in a position to be hired in Sales & Trading at a Wall Street Firm: </p>

<p>A finance degree from a top non-Wharton business school like NYU Stern, UVa McIntyre, or Michigan Ross </p>

<p>vs. </p>

<p>A mathematics degree from top schools like Penn, Stanford, or Columbia?</p>

2

<p>If you can get into Stanford or Columbia, they’re your best choices. Though if you can get into those, try Princeton for math and financial engineering which would be even better.</p>

3

<p>As an interviewer, I would be much more impressed with the math degree.</p>

4

<p>Math degree is probably a better idea, although you will have to self-learn a lot of finance stuff (isn’t that hard, especially after math). Penn math has a double-edged sword in Wharton recruiting; recruiters come in droves, but mainly recruit from Wharton. </p>

<p>Regarding UG business schools, there’s a steep drop-off after Wharton; Stanford and Columbia would almost certainly offer you better recruiting opps than all but perhaps NYU Stern.</p>

5

<p>why not get a double major in math AND econ/finance? Quite a few seniors in my school with that combination have fixed income S&T offers from BBs. It would also be a good idea to take a programming class</p>

6

<p>If I transferred, I don’t think I would have enough time to double major. In particular, I’m curious about NYU Stern Finance vs. Penn SAS Mathematics. I was just asking in the more general form in case anyone else was in a similar situation as me. Thanks for the responses so far, of course I’d love more input ;)</p>

7

<p>Both are quite good, you wouldn’t lose in any case (unless you decide you don’t like either finance or math). I would say to go to UPenn Math since that gives you much greater flexibility. But if you were able to double major then NYU Stern would be a much better choice since Courant (NYU’s math department) is excellent within their field.</p>

8

<p>I’m a double math/finance major at NYU Stern. IMO I would choose math over finance. You could learn everything Stern teaches you about finance in 4 years by just reading the vault guide. I can’t speak for other schools though. From a recruiting standpoint, Stern is really good though. But courant is highly respected as well.</p>