<p>Some day, I want to land a position as an investment banker or hedge fund manager, or if I even make it big, a CFO or possibly even a CEO in the distant future :). Therefore, I want to major in math or economics.</p>
<p>Well, I know the Olin Business School at WashU is ranked among the top 12 among all undergraduate business/econ programs in the country.</p>
<p>^^What ranking are you referring to? And are you sure that that is for both business and econ, as opposed to just business? I would have assumed that econ at WashU is an arts and sciences major, while business is Olin. They are not the same. There are schools that probably have stronger econ departments but are not in whatever ranking you are referring to because they don’t have undergrad business programs (like UChicago, Northwestern, Columbia, Harvard and others). Remember, only a few of the top university have undergrad business programs. WashU happens to be one of them, but that means the ranking (if, as I suspect, is of only schools with undergrad business programs) is of limited value, because it is ranking a limited number of schools.</p>
<p>I’ve completed majors in both math and econ, and have had a hard time answering this question. The courses are likely equivalent to what you’d see at any university. The econ department does have one nobel laureate, but he is retiring at the end of this upcoming semester. I’ve had fantastic professors in my Econ classes…but four of the best professors retired/are retiring this year. It’s a really hard question to answer…the professors are all good, but getting a true answer as to how good a department is seems impossible.</p>
<p>You may want to join the business school, which is definitely a solid option.</p>
<p>To above poster: Economics by itself is in ArtSci. The business school does have a Managerial Economics department, but it only has about 5-6 different classes.</p>
<p>If you want to go into Ibanking then you want to major in Finance at the B-school and not so much econ in artsci…</p>
<p>I majored in econ through artsci…it will get you there…but you’re better off going with straight finance through the b-school (and you can throw in the math too if you like).</p>
<p>And really…if you’re shooting for cfo or ceo, you want to join the business school and not do econ at artsci…you can always pick up an artsci econ class here or there if they interest you…</p>