<p>Can an undergrad majoring in economics (no major or minor in applied math) at an Ivy League school with a GPA of 3.8+ get investment banking jobs at top companies such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Or do top investment banks prefer econ major + applied math major/minor?</p>
<p>Short Answer: Yes</p>
<p>Agree with the poster above, but it does depend on the school. If you’re at Brown, do consider pursuing an applied math degree, in addition to your econ degree.</p>
<p>I have heard of guys at Brown majoring in COE (Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship) who broke into banking. Of course, that sort of makes the whole entrepreneurship aspect of thing ironic, but then of course no one is actually in top entrepreneurship programs for the purposes of learning to be an entrepreneur.</p>
<p>But yeah, 3.8 at an Ivy? You’re set.</p>
<p>So say I really want a well rounded liberal arts education, and I take a lot of classes in studio arts, history, and random subjects since I’m interested in them. I’m most interested in econ but take just enough econ classes to get the econ degree; I can still be competitive for jobs at Goldman and Morgan Stanley if I have 3.8+ GPA from an Ivy?</p>
<p>Ya you’re fine. just make sure you have a couple of more technical/math classes you can point to in order to show that you are quantitatively capable. But ya, an econ major should be fine.</p>
<p>Econ is more than technical enough for an investment bank. Do you think finance or accounting majors need college math courses? No. They don’t. An econ degree includes way more math than a finance degree does. You won’t do anything more than arithmetic as an I-Banking analyst. The benefit to pursuing a math degree, however, is it shows you are smart. It takes a smart individual to complete a math major (not that you would use a drop of it in I-Banking).</p>