<p>I disagree. Econ majors from NU get most of the consulting and banking positions. It’s also how you market yourself though. You really should not have thattt many issues getting a job with an Econ degree…</p>
<p>Do most of the economics majors at Northwestern who get consulting and banking positions take the ‘mathematical economics’ concentration or something similar?</p>
<p>MMSS? I’m not so sure it makes a HUGE difference for banking. I know people who are just econ majors who have full-time offers from JPM and I believe GS as well. I also know quite a few people who got at least summer internships at the top few consulting firms without being in any special programs.</p>
<p>I guess all my friends who took ******** marketing classes which consisted of making cool power point slides for fake products would be a lot more qualified than I because lets face it, the study of economics has NOTHING to do with business… /sarcasm.</p>
<p>Econ is no longer the pathway to finance in my opinion.</p>
<p>It is Math/Econ, Math, Physics, Engineering, and Accounting. All from a Top 20 school or Ivy. My kids are going to an Ivy, even if it kills them.</p>
<p>If I could redo my major, it would have been Math or Engineering.</p>
<p>most people who have a BA in economics end up working in Finance. </p>
<p>what gets you a internship are your grades and connections and school name</p>
<p>what gets you a job is your internship and job experience</p>
<p>major is just something they put on your diploma to look fancy.</p>
<p>What about an econ degree and working for non-profits and research organizations? Banking and finance just ain’t my thing.</p>
<p>I agree to an extent. Economics is more applicable to business than most degrees, but when there is a business school, those students will more often than not already have many necessary business skills.</p>
<p>aquamarinee overlooks the fact that NU is a top school without a business undergrad, therefore economics majors are the most in-touch with the business world. This is the case with lots of top schools and ivies and it’s why economics majors’ statistics look so good. Also, her comment about marketing majors is pretty irrelevant seeing as they don’t usually get the high-paying business jobs and liberal arts majors easily do less-relevant work.</p>
<p>However, at schools that have good business programs, employers come for the business students. They may pick up some economics majors if the business students are in relatively short supply (such as at Wharton), but I know it’s pretty common for employers to ask to see only the business students.</p>
<p>Employers go where they know they will get good people for the job. If it’s a top school, the students are likely smarter, if it’s a business school the students are likely more prepared. Lots of times an employer must simply choose one, but if you can say you’re in both, I would say you’ve got the best shot.</p>
<p>How do you decided an “average school”?</p>
<p>Is it a bad idea to get a BA in Econ from UMD-CP or UMBC?</p>
<p>I was considering majoring in econ before my uncle convinced me a math or business major would be much better when it comes to looking for a job after college. He graduated with an econ/political science major at Harvard.</p>
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<p>Any comments?</p>
<p>At UMD, econ majors are kids who couldn’t get into the business school after 2 years, and are now stuck studying econ in the College of Letters and Sciences.</p>
<p>Treebounders, ya I’ve heard that sentiment expressed previously. Does that show in the job placement too?</p>
<p>Yes </p>
<p>Not to say that UMD has great recruiting, but econ majors don’t have access to Smith’s recruiting network/events. Also econ and biz tend to seek different job types. Econ tends to shoot for grad school or work for the government (DC close by), while biz tends to well… about 75% of the people go into some sort of accounting.</p>
<p>Oh :(</p>
<p>I wanna major in Economics but would prefer not to go into govt or non-profit =/</p>
<p>Terps, what do you want to <em>do</em> with an Econ degree?</p>
<p>I don’t share JPN’s “Ivy or die!” outlook. But having a Math degree coupled with an Econ degree makes you a stronger candidate for just about everything. My D got her first job with a Government/Math double with a few Econ courses on the side. She had this habit of skipping Intro courses and plunging right in to Intermediate Macro and going from there.</p>
<p>Limited anecdotal evidence from her says that she can run rings around the straight Econ majors on math stuff.</p>
<p>Fwiw, I don’t think my D would be caught dead applying for biz-type jobs.</p>
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<p>What kind of jobs does your daughter apply to, just out of curiosity?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind competing for the same jobs the Business students get. I’d like to go into Consulting (Not McKinsey or Bain or anything like that, but similar work).</p>
<p>Ya I’ve heard that the more quantitative the coursework is, the better the job prospects. Thing is I haven’t really decided on a career path or anything like most CCers have 
I really liked AP/IB Economics this year and I did really well, so thought I might continue it in college.</p>
<p>OP,
I kind of agree with you but I suspect that your adviser and the teachers in the economic department at your schools were simply as lame as the ones who work at my school.</p>
<p>But, one thing that might surprises you:</p>
<p>I went to a career fair at my school and I talked to the representatives of a financial firm and another Big corporation. The two companies were looking for Business majors but when I told them that I was an econ major, they said that I could apply for the internships and learn along the way. My guess was that they did not mind my application because none of the Business students at my school went to the fair. It did not matter to me because I felt that from what I have learned in the past years as a former econ major and from my personal research in economics and Business, I could have beat any Business kids who would have compete with me for the internships.</p>
<p>As someone else said, you need some determination. I sold my Economics studies to the recruiter as if there was no difference between the Business majors and me.In fact, whereas I could understand the financial world, these kids only knew how to make beautiful PowerPoint slides. In fact, I was taking this money and banking class with the seniors Business majors, none of them could understand the financial jargon nor the broad economic terms that people use to talk about the problems of the current financial market or the appropriate terms that we needed to use to talk about the government’s economic policies. It was only another econ major and I , who could sit in a class and listen to the teacher talking without consulting Wikictionary. </p>
<p>I don’t think that this sort of ignorance pertains to all Business major , I think that the Business program at my school was just too lame to prepare the students correctly . I have an entrepreneurial spirit, a flair for Business, so these modest personal qualities gave me some confidence during my interview.Nevertheless, I do think that studying economics has its plus, I hope that I can do a Master in International economics once I am done with my horrible undergraduate experience. I always wanted to study econ, so the lame @ss teachers of my school won’t make me give my dream up.</p>
<p>OP, since you must be already done with your econ degree , you will now need to work on how to sale yourself to some job recruiters as a potential Business man who will learn by doing and bring a strong economic background on the table.</p>
<p>I wish you the best.</p>
<p>Anyway, I switched to finance and and Computer Sciences and I will complete them after I come back from my trips to Cuba and Peru, so I won’t have to worry about the suckers of the economic department and my former adviser anymore.OP must of them studied economics, they ended homeless and teaching was the only job that they could get.They end up making the students pay for their failure as if we were the ones who told them to study Economics.They are as lazy as a pregnant cats.</p>
<p>**
To The Young Kids who want to study economics: **</p>
<p>If any of you young people, or highschoolers are planing on studying economics, be aware of the starving and homeless economist syndrome.</p>
<p>You can also double major in Economics and Statistics so you might not end up like a starving and bitter economist. No matter what you choose to do at the end,get a second major as a back up plan because we don’t want anymore bitterness in the world.And it would be sad to add to the lists of economic losers.</p>
<p>These losers have one thing in common with the filthy Wall Street thief: They ruin everyone’s life with theirs. I feel that my adviser partly messed up with my undergrad studies. He was just being a loser like most starving economists are.</p>