Majors and IB

<p>For a typical analyst job at an IB, which of those two appeals more to the adcoms and has more relevance to the work?</p>

<p>Personally I love economics and pursue to study it in college. But my friends who are also aiming for the IB are all finance majors so I'm confused a little over whether I have to make some changes. I'm an entering freshman, not having any idea what really helps to land a job I want.</p>

<p>Also, I have particular interests in the mathematical field. Regardless of my major, I'm planning to take some challenging math and science courses as my electives. Would that help?</p>

<p>Just to reconfirm, I'm an entering freshman at a non-selective school in nyc. The only advantage I have by far is the geographical location which makes possible easy access to information and hopefully some internship opportunities.</p>

<p>I think that both Economics and Finance are good to go into ibanking but I personally believe that Economics is "better" because if ibanking doesn't work out, you can go into research with it and it gives a broader range of jobs possible for you.</p>

<p>Thank you. That's good to hear since Econ is what I'd like to study</p>

<p>Honestly, no one in IB really cares whether you study economics or finance. Choose which you like better.</p>

<p>i hear that the major itself doesnt make a difference one way or another as long as you go to a target school</p>

<p>^Can anyone confirm that?</p>

<p>If you are a, say, anthro major, they may ask you why you want to do this, and maybe be a little more critical in evaluating your analytical skills. For the most part though, major doesn't matter, they just want intelligent, driven people. An interest in finance is more important than a major in finance.</p>

<p>Can anyone speak to the possibility of a UC Berkeley economics major (without a Haas double-major) breaking into investment banking?</p>

<p>If you come from a target school, you can pretty much major in whatever you want.</p>

<p>The biggest advantage of going to a target school is being able to major in whatever the heck you want, take whatever courses you want, and at the same time being able to be confident that you'll graduate with better job prospects than 95% of all college grads -- regardless of the fact that you don't know how to reduce a fraction to lowest terms (true story).</p>

<p>would it be better to get a degree in applied mathematics and economics at georgia tech or a degree at emory in finance and business management?
What about finance and economics at georgia tech?</p>

<p>emory would be alot more expensive for me but i heard it is worth it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The biggest advantage of going to a target school is being able to major in whatever the heck you want, take whatever courses you want, and at the same time being able to be confident that you'll graduate with better job prospects than 95% of all college grads -- regardless of the fact that you don't know how to reduce a fraction to lowest terms (true story).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Precisely. And this is why the economy is f***ed. It's because investment banks are more interested in hiring incompetent morons from prestigious universities instead of actually hiring people with real job and analaytical skills.</p>

<p>You people constantly like to rag on others for going to less prestigious universities, but it always gets me how idiots and morons can literally major in basket weaving or painting at Harvard and still get better job prospects than finance and accounting majors from GOOD universities (I'm not talking TTTs here, I'm talking solid Top 30 to Top 75 universities) who actually can hit the ground running and contribute.</p>

<p>I hope the investment banking industry does go under. i think we need a serious economic depression otherwise people will not have learned a damn f***ing thing from this mess.</p>

<p>DON'T HIRE MORONS JUST BECAUSE THEY WENT TO F***ING HARVARD!!!</p>

<p>Edit: when I mean incompetent morons, I don't mean these people are dummies. So stop clamoring and getting defensive with the whole, "Wah wah wah!!! I worked hard to get into Harvard!!! That must mean I'm smart!!!!!!!!!" No, I'm saying that once you get into Harvard, you have no incentive to actually learn and work hard b/c unfortunately, you'll realize that an ibanking job will be handed down to you like cheap candy. So by incompetent morons, I mean people who become lazy and complacent and develop entitlement issues at the said prestigious institutions b/c why bother to learn if ibanks are willing to hand out an ibanking job to you as long as you don't completely f*** up (which is hard to do).</p>

<p>Investment banks are not struggling because they hire smart people who become lazy once they get to college. Most of what you learn in college is irrelevant and unrelated to anything you do in investment banking. </p>

<p>College grads are not 'hitting the ground running' no matter what their major and certainly is not the reason for the economic downfall since English majors are going to be caught up to finance majors in any pertinent knowledge base long before they're making any meaningful decisions that are going to determine the course of anything. </p>

<p>The investment banking industry is always going to exist as long as there is a publicly traded stock market.</p>

<p>If I major in either finance or marketing or economics and double minor in Japanese & Arabic. I want to work in international business when I enter the street. Right now I'm in HS and studying french so if I independently study french on my own in college just so I won't lose it. After 4 years I have BA in business or economics with advance fluency of french & intermediate with Japanese & Arabic what are my chances of getting into the industry on the global side?</p>

<p>"To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital—to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn’t the first clue. "</p>

<p>It gets worse:</p>

<p>The End of Wall Street's Boom - National Business News - Portfolio.com</p>