<p>I'm thinking of majoring in finance/economics, and since USC Marshall doesn't have a finance concentration, if I went there I'd go with economics. My career goal is to do something along the lines of investment banking, so my question is would a degree in eco from USC help with that goal, and if not what careers should an economics major from USC expect? (I know that schools like Columbia/NYU would be great for investment banking, but if I could get a chance with USC, the location/campus/sports dwarfs the northeast schools.)</p>
<p>Ah thanks, for some reason I had it in my head that Marshall didn't have Finance. Though, any thoughts on whether Econ at USC/Marshall would be good for wall street/investment banking? Thanks.</p>
<p>So there are two primary routes you can take into investment banking from USC: </p>
<p>1) Major in Economics (this is not at Marshall, its through the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences)</p>
<p>2) Major in Business and concentrate in Finance or Business Economics (this is through Marshall)</p>
<p>Both work; I know people who have gone into investment banking out of both programs. </p>
<p>Marshall classes are more applied, however, and will better prepare you for the type of work youll be doing in investment banking. The flip-side is that the economics program has relatively few requirements, allowing you a lot of flexibility in your schedule, whereas Marshall has a lot of core requirements, some of which can be tedious.</p>
<p>For banking and private equity, its really good to have a firm background in financial accounting, valuation, etc. Marshall will provide this. Economics, on the other hand, will provide a more theoretical background that is less applicable to these fields, but somewhat more intellectually interesting. </p>
<p>Another consideration to keep in mind is that Marshall provides a lot more networking opportunities. These are still available to you as an economics major, but you need to seek them out more proactively.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks a lot for the insight. Personally, I'm all about finance and economics, and I do not want to go into business administration or accounting, which is why I'm wavering on the business major as a whole as these classes are generally featured. However, I just looked at the class of 2008 Marshall job placement survey and I can see that goldman sachs, morgan stanley, citigroup, lehman bros, and jp morgan all hired multiple business grads from Marshall. And as I mentioned in my first post, if I can go into the i-bank route without the cold weather schools that are probably way more competitive, and harder to get into, than USC, I'll take it.</p>
<p>Also, if I were to major in economics and minor in finance or business (taking classes at Marshall), would I still benefit from the networking opportunities of Marshall that you alluded to in your previous post?</p>
<p>Yeah, USC always sends a good number into investment banking. Id caveat that with a prediction that this years placements in banking will be down dramatically, but thats obviously a nation-wide phenomenon. </p>
<p>Im personally not a big fan of the business minor. It requires some of the most pointless classes at Marshall (Organizational Behavior, Marketing), without providing exposure to the best classes at Marshall, the concentration classes. </p>
<p>As for the networking: some programs (e.g. CAP, Marshalls mentorship program) give preference to majors, but allow business minors to join the waitlist. Other networking events are usually open to anyone; as a non-major, youll just have to be more proactive about seeking them out, because they wont be advertised to you as much. </p>
<p>If youd rather major in economics, you should do that. But if youre interested in banking, Id suggest supplementing that with some Marshall classes, specifically, financial accounting, financial analysis and valuation, and corporate finance, because your interviews will focus heavily on these topics. I think youre allowed to take up to five Marshall classes as a non-major. </p>
<p>No need to decide before your freshmen year. Youll get a feel for it once youre here.</p>
<p>Whatever your major, I definitely recommend USC; the experience is unparalleled.</p>