<p>I’m a first-year planning to major in finance and obtain a job in the investment banking industry. I have to take up to 30 credits of electives to complete a degree so I’d thought instead of taking random courses (school only stipulates them to be non-commerce related), why not take courses in one field and get a minor? </p>
<p>What would be a useful minor for finance that may give me an edge over other applicants? </p>
<li><p>Math? I’m interested in financial modelling and derivatives. </p></li>
<li><p>Economics? Maybe understanding macroeconomic indicators may help. </p></li>
<li><p>Statistics? Might be easier than pure math but also helpful with modelling and risk management. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Why not accounting? As an analyst in the M&A department, you’re not going to use your macro-economic forecasting skills when doing grunt work for your superiors, whereas if you had a solid accounting background, you’ll be able to do things better than other analysts, which will score you brownie points with the MDs.</p>
<p>However, if you are not into M&A, but rather something like equity research, then Economics would be a good minor to pursue, as you can actually use the skill when determining stocks to recommend using the top-down approach. But I seriously don’t think the amount of Econ classes you can take will benefit you in this respect, since they hire seasoned Economics PhD’s to do the forecasts and determine target industries.</p>
<p>If you’re into derivatives, then math would be a good minor. It would probably be beneficial to take some computer sciences classes as well.</p>
<p>IB has recruited people from many various majors such as history, philosophy, political science as well as finance, accounting. The most important issue here is are you attending a target school?</p>
<p>As cbreeze pointed out in his post, IBs HAVE recruited people from various non-business majors, but I’d imagine that whenever conditions get tough (such as a recession like the one we’re in today), the non-business majors get booted out of the recruiting process more than business majors.</p>
<p>However, if you don’t want the extra security, then go for something like history or philosophy. But if you want to maximize your chance at getting into an IB though, stick with something like accounting. Just my 2 cents.</p>