<p>Is it possible to start a career in Finance or Trading without a Finance or business degree? For example, if I studied econ at Columbia, Princeton, etc would I not be qualified for the job or would I just "learn on the job"?</p>
<p>You are actually better off studying econ at Columbia or Princeton than studying business at 99% of other schools out there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. And what would the 1% be? Wharton?</p>
<p>Yes. Ross over Columbia, arguably.</p>
<p>I would go with Sloan as well.</p>
<p>columbia > ross</p>
<p>Ross isn’t a trading school, better for banking and consulting.</p>
<p>~4% went S&T compared to ~20% each for I-banking and consulting.</p>
<p>^Yea, minus the trading</p>
<p>D1 is a “trader” (learning to be) at a BB. She graduated in May, did her “class” work this summer, passed both tests (Series 7 and 63 (?)). She is now at the desk.</p>
<p>She was not a business, acct, finance, math or engineering major. Her major was very specific to her school. It did require several econ and stat courses. She also decided to minor in information science, which is essentially computer science. She took several programming courses and was a TA for a programming course. </p>
<p>She also took financial accounting and corporation finance as electives.</p>
<p>So you do not have to earn a traditional business degree to get into trading. The school you attend, your gpa and the courses you take (don’t avoid difficult courses) are all important.</p>