<p>I am a finance major and still can't choose a school, but I want to focus on day trading/investing/stocks.</p>
<p>Here is a list of schools I came up with...of course there are schools like Wharton, but thats a little too hard for me.</p>
<p>Tulane Universituy*
Villanova University *
Northeastern University*
College of William and Mary/ Mason*
Bentley University
University of San Diego
NYU/Stern
University of Washington/Foster
San Diego State University.
UCLA
UC Berkley...if i can get in..</p>
<p>Anyway, you are right about Tulane at least (I don’t know much about the others). Here is a link to a post by Benetode, a Tulane alum and someone in that field.</p>
<p>If you are serious about getting into trading get a engineering degree or computer science degree. Or keep with finance but maintain a GPA above 3.8.</p>
<p>You don’t have a “major” if you’re not in college yet.</p>
<p>The investment banking industry gets its employees from “target schools” (Ivy league, top 20 national universities, and the elite liberal arts colleges). Go to the most prestigious school you can get into.</p>
<p>If you want to work in a bulge-bracket firm, you’ll need to attend a Wharton-caliber school, have a 3.7+ GPA, and have solid connections. It’s not happening any other way. Although a finance major at any of those schools would likely have access to less “prestigious” jobs in the banking industry.</p>
<p>Juggernaut is right except that ANY quantitative degree taken in conjuction with some finance courses will be good prepartation to be a trader. Math, statistics, economics, physics, or engineering will be your best choices.</p>
<p>Among the schools you listed, NYU-Stern (and then Haas at UCB) is the ideal choice with no other qualifiers other than a school has to have a strong finance program. Next would be Tulane and then Villanvoa.</p>
<p>My background: I have a BSM in Finance and a Master of Finance (MFin) from Tulane, have worked for a bulge bracket (MS) and now work for a botique firm (although I’ll be leaving that in August.) </p>
<p>Saying trading/stocks/investing is speaking in generalities but that’s certainly fine at your level of experience/education. I’m sure you haven’t yet defined what exactly the day to day job is at each of the wide variety of positions in the field. Again, that’s fine, and it’s something you’ll do at your own pace (and through an internship) while you’re in school. My main advice would be to do an internship as early as possible to help you decide your preferred field. NYU would obviously be the best for that but all of the schools I listed will be fine for finding one.</p>
<p>Michigan is also a strong school in the business as was suggested earlier. While I agree with Sligh that it’s a tough business to crack and prestigous education is almost a prerequisite, I think that’s a little incorrect (or rather incomplete). There are several ‘top schools’ that don’t have strong finance programs. In addition, schools that might otherwise be less than ideal can become very good options for particular fields when the school puts a huge emphasis ($$$) on it.</p>
<p>By the way, W&M is obviously a great school but I don’t see the number of alums in my business dealings and I don’t know that I’d say its known for finance in particular. So I don’t have the reference point for that university. Everyone I know from there is a physician or the like. </p>
<p>Also, if you want to work on the west coast or in chicago, you’ll get different answers about other schools. For instance, SD State might have a great rep on the west coast, I’m simply not familiar with it enough to comment on the strength of its finance program in particular. I’ve never been out there for work and no one I’ve worked with has ever brought it up. Best of luck!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the great insight, Benetode. But there are great top schools that don’t even have finance programs and still have many graduates in the investment banking industry. I attend a very highly ranked liberal arts college and all of my research partners last semester for a economics course either worked at Goldman Sachs or are there this summer. My college offers at most one or two finance courses a year (sometimes zero) and still has plenty of economics students interning in IB and/or working full-time in IB post-graduation.</p>
<p>Trading, investing, and equities are part of the discipline that the poster wishes to study (finance.) Economics is a separate discipline. Obviously one can use an education in economics to gain entrance into the business but it is an entirely different discipline. The discipline that combines the two is also a unique discipline called financial economics but that is almost exclusive to graduate study. My posts were in response to the original question. Hope this helps clarify my opinion. Finance and economics are very different fields and I think few outside of those that have studied each understand that.</p>
<p>If you want to learn to trade, manage project finance or valuation situations, or learn the basics of equity valuation and research then study finance. If you’d like to study the economy as a whole in an academic (idealized) world then study economics. Finance is the math of making and managing money. Economics is the study of the economy, policies, ect. Both are interesting but you’ll have a different experience and in my opinion, world view, based on each discipline.</p>
<p>Think of the difference between an english major and a journalism major and you’ll see how two seemingly connected disciplines can generate divergent viewpoints.</p>
<p>Juggernaut -I am not in this field at all, although I have taken 5 Econ courses and I do have an MBA. I think your statement
is likely true, but implies that getting an Econ degree somehow prepares you for a finance job. I think that is less true; I don’t know of anything I learned in my Econ courses that prepared me for a job in finance. Is it likely that the same person that has academic inclinations that leads them to enjoy Econ would also have a proclivity for and enjoy Finance in the workplace? I can see that, I suppose. But I also think that other than some minimally relevant preparation in how the overall economy works and exposure to the impact of changing interest rates and the money supply, a person with an Econ degree that gets a finance position will be learning the vast majority of what they need to know on the job.</p>
<p>Ben, do you agree with me based on what you have seen in academia and in the real world?</p>
<p>Even in the finance world as it is in any business situation your place of employment tends to train you for the relevant work skills needed for the job. I interned at an options firm a couple summers ago. As a Economics major specializing in quantitative economics, I had a extensive math and stats base. Out of the three interns only one was a finance student but he could not handle the math and computer skills needed for the position. I was better suited for it and the engineer student(the 3rd intern) was the best suited for the position. Trading is not just a finance major gig.</p>
<p>They will certainly train you for the specifics of that job, but they are expecting that the person comes in at least somewhat prepared in most cases. I find it hard to believe that finance majors come in less prepared for the jobs than majors not geared towards finance, and an internship position is probably not the most representative experience. An anecdotal story of one is hardly a basis for sweeping statements.</p>
<p>Of course I agree one could be a physics major and learn to do that job. In many cases it was physics majors that got us into so much trouble with these arcane financial instruments that collapsed, lol. Anyway, if I went by what you are saying I would never hire a finance major and only hire those other majors. That cannot be right.</p>
<p>I agree with juggernaut. An economics major with computer and math skills is in a terrific position in the job market. Plus there are upperclass banking and finance courses for economics majors if that’s the path they want to go.</p>
<p>I don’t know that that is the question though. Obviously one can get a job at an I-bank coming from an economics background and be trained to do the job fine. The point that Fallen has made, and I tend to agree with, is that a finance major PREPARES you for a trading position, a position structuring derivatives, equity research, or any quantitative finance specialty much better than an economics degree would. If you have more of a quantitative economics background or a background in econometrics though, that gap in preparation certainly does narrow. </p>
<p>The difference will still be there however as quant econ and econometrics tend to seek and to achieve slightly different objectives. They are much more descriptive in terms of their desired output. Finance and engineering majors are much more outcome driven. </p>
<p>Finance tends to be black and white. Economics tends to care why one group is one color and another is not. Some people think econ and finance seek the answer to the same question in different ways when in fact its a different question all together. If that makes any sense. </p>
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