<p>I'm not totally sure what i want to do with my life, but I am thinking of double majoring in Applied Math and Political Science (with a focus on Political Economy), and I want to at least have the option of joining a top Ibank or Consulting firm upon graduation. So there'd be some amount of macroecon, which I might supplement with one or two finance classes; however, there wouldn't be nearly an econ major's worth of stuff. I go to a top tier school.</p>
<p>Now I know that people say "whatever your major is, you're fine," but I don't really buy it. Given that I'd be developing hard skills through the applied math, qualitative skills through poli sci, and gain some amount of basic econ knowledge, would this be attractive to the IBanks and Consulting Firms? Or would lack of an econ major be a pause factor?</p>
<p>^^This is true (for ibanking), but only if you are at a top target school (like an ivy). When Ibanks post positions on your schools website, does it list those majors as acceptable majors for the positions? At NYU the only majors listed there were econ, finance, business, and accounting. Check with your career development office to make sure. </p>
<p>Consulting and banking require almost the same academic preparation. Both require analytical and interpersonal skills. However, if you want to get into detail, there is one specific skill you need for consulting. If you want to go into consulting, you should be interested in high-level abstract/theoretical thinking, not just quantitative.</p>
<p>I hear so many mixed things coming from different people. What I can say for sure is that my friend showed me some sort of yearbook that had the profiles of different people that interened along with him at Morgan. Most were from top 20 schools, the majority ivy, but they all majored in stuff like Political Science, English, Philosophy, one even majored in Theatre! So my take is if you're coming from an ivy or an ivy plus college like Stanford, Duke or MIT, then major in what you feel like. But if you're just from a generic Top 20 then Econ helps most. I hear Poli. Sci (government), IR and Math major help too.</p>