<p>i have heard that firms look at a variety of majors, but is there any discernible advantage to majoring in finance? in terms of recruiting i realize that students of the business school probably have more access to on campus events, but i am at a semi-target anyway.</p>
<p>Depends on what job you are applying for.</p>
<p>If your school has a business school offering finance and a college of arts and sciences offering economics then yes, you would be at a disadvantage. If it only has economics then you would be at no disadvantage.</p>
<p>What type of firms are you looking at? </p>
<p>In a corporation (for example: P&G), a finance degree would get you started in the finance department, where as an economics degree is more broad and could get you looked at by different areas.</p>
<p>
Correct .</p>
<p>If your goal is a business major, and you want to work in finance, do as best as you can to get into a finance program. Although, I’m sure economics can get your foot in the door also- probably a B.S. more so than a B.A.</p>
<p>Just getting a degree in either Finance or Economics won’t get you a job in the first place; previous work experience, extra-curricular activities, your grades, and off-campus involvement play such a large role in it that I would recommend majoring in whichever you’re most interested in. Economics and Finance courses are in general pretty different (depending on the emphasis of the class of course, there is some overlap), and you’re more likely to do well in the courses that you enjoy than the ones that you’re taking because others told you that they would result in more job offers.</p>
<p>For example, a student who inherently does better at Economics and completes a major in Economics with a 3.8 GPA is more likely to get hired than that same student if he/she chose to major in Finance at the advice of others and received a 3.4 GPA.</p>
<p>Furthermore, that Economics student could get a banking/ finance internship or summer job and end up exactly as qualified, if not more qualified than the Finance major to do a Finance-related job. Same goes for a Finance major getting an Administration or Marketing internship and applying for an Administration or Marketing position.</p>
<p>Of course, if you major in either and graduate without any experience outside of the classroom then you don’t have anything to differentiate you from the tens of thousands of other Business-related graduates anyway, and you’ll have a tough time with job prospects with either major (unless you have an absolutely stellar GPA I suppose).</p>
<p>Good Luck! =)</p>