Undergrad: Mechanical Engineering vs Economics

<p>Although I'm fairly set on pursuing a career as an investment banker, I still have an interest in Mechanical Engineering. Two of the schools that I'm applying to (MIT and Stanford) are leaders in both economics and engineering. I've read that engineers can get into ibanking as well, but would there be any significant advantage in choosing one undergraduate major over the other? Also, if I were to major in engineering, I would still pursue an MBA. These are the four paths I'm looking into:</p>

<p>MIT
• Mechanical Engineering -> Sloan (MBA)
• SB in Management Science (concentration in Finance) -> Sloan (MBA)</p>

<p>Stanford
• Mechanical Engineering -> Graduate School of Business (MBA)
• Economics -> Graduate School of Business (MBA)</p>

<p>Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>how about you get accepted first</p>

<p>Well seeing as part of the application is telling your major of interest, that’s not possible. I know I could always change majors, but I’d like to at least apply with a major in mind.</p>

<p>I would advise you against it. Engineering would not give you a significant advantage. To the contrary, majoring in engineering would subject you to a tougher grading curve (yes, even tougher than econ), which means you would have to work harder than the the econ major and a lot harder than the history major for that investment banking job. There are a lot of engineers in finance, but a lot of them (usually just the top ones because only they have GPA’s attractive enough) decided they want to go into finance for the thrill and the money after studying engineering for two/three years in college, at a point when it would be unwise for them to give up pursuing an engineering degree.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input! Looks like I would be better off in economics since I already know I want to go into Finance.</p>