Math Major Practical?

<p>I'm already majoring in a "B.S." form of Economics that requires Calc I-III, Diff Eq, and Stat: is adding a math major onto it (obviously more theoretical and higher level math) beneficial. that is will it impress potential employers that I went further to develop my quant skills, or would they view it as impractical and unnecessary (even in trading)?</p>

<p>i think engineering or applied based majors such as physics, and even statistics develops your quant skills a lot more than a math major, i think the desirable quant skills is more about applying mathematical thinking than having the knowledge of mathematics. I think that’s why whenever trading firms or quant firms post listings on the career center, they always say…quant majors desirable, including engineering, physics, statistics or other hard science.</p>

<p>Which certainly includes math. If you are interested in math and think you could do well, go for it. Will it have practical applications to finance? Most likely not. However it will show, especially in S&T, that you have an ability to handle very complex computations and concepts, which is what they like to see, in particular on more mathy desks.</p>

<p>As far as banking goes, I wouldn’t do it unless you really wanted to. It’s likely not going to give you any additional edge, economics is a rigorous enough series of courses. </p>

<p>If your school has a Mathematical Finance class (or something similar) that would be a good way to bridge theoretical with practical(ish). If not, try to take a class of Measure Theory or Stochastic processes/calculus, statistics, maybe complex analysis, and both real analysis. Those along with ODE should be good, especially if you are ever going to consider a Masters in FinEng</p>