<p>Is it worth taking a finance major in a non Ivy league school? I go to State University at Buffalo and i am entering my second year with a 3.7 GPA. My main concern is, will it be hard for me to get a job after i graduate? I am currently in the Financial Management Association and Accounting association clubs. I also play for the rugby team. Will these activities and possibly a few internships help me land a good job or i should go to accounting?</p>
<p>“My main concern is, will it be hard for me to get a job after i graduate?”
Answer: No, it just depends on what kind of finance job you want.</p>
<p>I want a job that pays at least 55k + after graduation. What is the typical salary from a school like SUNY Buffalo with a student with grades above average? Also what extracurricular activities can i do to land better jobs?</p>
<p>go to your career office’s website and check what jobs and internships grads get, they should also list avg salary. Get exec positions in clubs that are relevant to jobs you may want, more importantly, get internships.</p>
<p>^ cool thanks for the info, going to do that right when semester starts.</p>
<p>Should i Major in accounting and minor in finance? i feel that if i major in accounting, i can do what ever a finance major can. I also looked at job postings for financial analyst etc, some of them require accounting/finance degree and CPA preferred. Does that mean accounting degree is valued more over finance degree?</p>
<p>Sometimes. Not always. It is a good general background is augmented by some finance classes.</p>
<p>you realize most ivy league schools are liberal arts and dont have finance right?</p>
<p>pretty sure only penn and columbia do. cornell has hotel which kinda counts</p>
<p>Cornell as a finance specialization in the AEM major in CALS.</p>
<p>It really depends on your anticipated graduation date. I may be in the minority but I agree that some patterns are emerging that may suggest that the job losses of the last 1-2 years will be reversed and possibly jobs will be created by last quarter of next year. When the economy recovers finance, in every sense, will be in high demand. Financial Analysts are expected to have among the top 5 job growth in the next 10 years (according to bls.gov) with a 37% increase expected.</p>
<p>People on this website have some idea the iBanking is the only career possibility for Finance majors. While an IVY league (and other target schools) school is the path to iBanking, any decent business school can provide you with the ability to make a career in Finance. </p>
<p>The Associations may help with an internship, less with a full-time job. And no, I don’t see any relevance between Rugby and a finance job.</p>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p>I agree with the above post. The idea on these forums is that unless you go to an Ivy, get an accounting degree, or get involved with Investment Banking your life is basically over and the best you can do is struggle to live over the poverty line your whole life.</p>
<p>The two careers right off the top of my head are Financial Analysts (aforementioned) and Financial Planners/Investment Advisers. The job growth and salary potential from those two careers is amazing. A lot of people make even more money with financial planning than the IB’s and the job satisfaction between the two is not even comparable.</p>
<p>The most important thing is really the certification. If you get an advanced certification such as a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) or CFA (Certified Financial Analyst) you are already ahead of a lot of people. Hell, if you have a bachelor’s degree you are already ahead of a lot of people as far as financial planning is considered.</p>
<p>I’ll take my 50% off (I pay $4,500 a year) for a top 20 business school rather than the $200,000 student loan I would have to take out at an Ivy any day, and will go ahead and live my “mediocre” life. The same “mediocre” life that 99% of the people on these forums PRETEND they don’t have.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information plscatamacchia and uxley.2. I have two more years and 90% sure that i will go for finance. </p>
<p>Btw, what do you guys study?</p>
<p>I think by Ivy, the OP essentially means those prestigious target schools, not LITERALLY ivy league schools only.</p>
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<p>I’m assuming when you say you’re paying less money for a top 20 business school, you’re talking about being instate for something like UMich, UT, Haas, UVA, etc. I think what the OP is worried about is that if you don’t go to a brand name school, or a top state school, you won’t have that good of job opportunities from finance (not saying that one will or won’t, just trying to clarify what I think the OP is asking).</p>
<p>But to the OP, look into financial planning and even private wealth management as has already been explained. I keep reading that this is to be an emerging field with good demand for the next few years. I’m not sure if you need to go a top school to get a good job (someone else can answer that), but that’s a non-consulting/banking job that has good demand and relatively good pay.</p>
<p>Cream,</p>
<p>yeah I am at OSU who has a wonderful finance program and with a place like Columbus where there are a lot of banks that have headquarters there. Comes down to my mother working at OSU and me being less than 20 minutes away from campus. </p>
<p>Plus I know that I want to get into financial planning and am EXPECTING to make in the range of $30-$35 thousand for the first couple years. My student loans are going to be two or three grand which I will be able to pay off in a year or two. But your right, I wasn’t really thinking of the OP because for all anyone knows he could live in North Dakota or someplace like that and be forced to pay the $30,000 a year because there are no decent schools in his state.</p>
<p>To the OP, I am in Finance at OSU. And more information you might need to know about Financial planning is that it is not something you can probably get into right after college as of now. Most people generally get the bachelors, study their asses off for the CFP, and work in asset or private wealth management for a couple of years to get the work experience part of the CFP done.</p>
<p>Now as cream said, this field is going to grow by 35-45% over the next 10 years because of all the people that are getting ready to retire, so maybe when we graduate (you said two years so I assume you mean late 2011- early 2012) places will be more inclined to hire rookies with no work experience.</p>
<p>Places such as Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Raymond James will want 2-3 years work experience (Asset or PWM is really only thing I can come up with) and then you would get into their training program to become a full fledged advisor (after you pass the series 7, 63, 65 etc. )</p>
<p>The ultimate goal for most advisers is to become independent and be your own boss. What you have to understand is you will be working 60 and 70 hours a week for your first year or two to build up clientele. It’s one of those jobs where you bust your ass in the beginning, pick up a high-net worth client or two then your set. If you are anywhere near successful you can very easily be making 100K+ by the time you are in your late 20’s (especially for our age group because of the boomers.)</p>
<p>But it is a sales and commission job but I would say it is one of the easier ones strictly because of the fact that you do good for a couple people then they send you a couple more etc. etc. But the money is not guaranteed, you have to work for it. If you want a more secure job and are fine with $60-80K a year then maybe you should look at the financial analyst route.</p>
<p>So there is some info for ya.</p>
<p>Yea i also meant other name brand schools like cream said. uxley.2 thanks for the info, helped me a lot. I also read up [Careers-in-Finance.com:</a> Your Guide to Finance Jobs](<a href=“http://www.careers-in-finance.com/]Careers-in-Finance.com:”>http://www.careers-in-finance.com/) and it looks like finance is a lot more fun vs accounting. </p>
<p>However i just checked out all the finance classes i must take, the 300/400 level classes. I found that all the finance classes are easy, according to ratemyprofessor. I know its an unreliable resource but it is true sometimes. Is this a bad sign to major in finance at my school. The course load for the finance major is not that intense, only 4 to 5 classes max per semester compared to accounting with 6. </p>
<p>What is the difficulty of finance in OSU or other name brand universities. I am afraid that the major is not challenging enough to satisfy me.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Why does the major have to be challenging?</p>
<p>If you want challenging I think most people would agree business wouldn’t be for you. Perhaps engineering or computer science. If you think the finance classes are easy then that is a good thing. High GPA, etc. If you want a challenge get a job at a bank such as a teller and work 20 or 30 hours in addition to the school to have work experience.</p>
<p>Probably 90% of the classes you take in college are useless anyway. Like I am taking Earth Science and a History of Film class to knock off two requirements. It’s not like I am going to be helped by taking these classes in my career other than the fact that I get a degree because them.</p>
<p>Some of the business math, economics, and finance classes are all that is really going to help you. And even then that is marginal at best. </p>
<p>I guess the moral of the story is you already have a higher up GPA, don’t try and get cute and mess it up. Focus on all the bs classes, focus even more on the Finance and get out of college.</p>
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<p>LMAO silly Buffalo Bulls…</p>
<p>^^a little harsh…but hes in the right direction. suny buffalo wont get you a 55k+ job. try internships?</p>