Does Mathematics major and econ minor get the job done for i-banking? finance needed?

collegeguy2007 · 04-11-2008, 10:36 PM

I'm debating whether to major in finance & math, with minor in economics or would it make no difference to do just math major and economics minor?

Trying to get into I-Banking or Hedge Funds.....not at a "target" school.

dell123 · 04-11-2008, 11:18 PM

Finance is the heart of business. If you want I-Banking -- which is already tough to break into -- your going to need strong finance skills.

collegeguy2007 · 04-13-2008, 04:27 PM

bump this up

Wegmanstuna · 04-14-2008, 07:53 AM

I disagree, I think every other average Joe is majoring in finance and you need something to differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd. With that said, I think a mathematics major looks very attractive to I-Banking recruiters. I know because I am a math & econ major and I got multiple interviews at several bulge-bracket banks. I did not get any offers for this summer, but that's another story as I had poor interview performances. But I definitely feel that my math major helped me get my first foot in the door; plus, any top notch I-Bank will teach you everything you need to know about finance before you even start to work on live deals. If you have a math major and a good GPA in that major, it shows recruiters that you can handle (a) massive amounts of technical work and (b) difficult concepts (because after all let's face it unless you become a quant and specialize in financial calculus, the analytical concepts in I-Banking will not be nearly as hard as say the group theory that you will learn in your major).

Jay1020 · 04-14-2008, 05:04 PM

Completely wrong dell123; I've been recruited at Goldman Sachs and plan on changing my major to philosophy or legal just because they interest me. It's not so much what you learn, but the skills that you develop as a result of the material being covered. Math and Econ are both solid academic backgrounds and are perfectly fine. BEing that you're comming from a non-target I think this might hurt you because you won't be able to network with other finance majors considering you're not taking classes with them. At a target, you can stand on your own two feet and study what you want because of the recruiting.

Wegmanstuna's advice is correct as well.