<p>I think there’s a lot of (harsh) truth to @bernie12 ‘s views. I have close family in Finance, and from what I’m told, the guys that get ahead almost always (aside from the golden boys via wealthy families and Ivy-type pedigree) have superior analytical skills, as well as good communication and networking skills. You just won’t find the necessary quantitative rigour in most (if not all) BBA curricula to shore up those quant skills. One could argue that the communication and networking skills are improved more in a BBA, but I don’t think this is necessarily true. If you practice these things a bit in undergrad and find ways to improve them, you’ll be fine. The bottom line is that the absolute advantage that you’re getting on the quantitative side (from a quantitative major) trumps the theoretical advantage on the communication/soft skill side (from a BBA). Probably even at Penn and Berkeley.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the rigour in the Econ dept at Emory. @aluminum_boat says it is terrible. That’s probably an exaggeration, with all due respect as he is closer to the dep’t than I am. Be that as it may, most employers very likely don’t care that much and don’t have time to grade academic departments at particular schools, so I think you’d be alright majoring in Econ from a reputational point of view (i.e. Emory overall is a great school). If the department lacks rigour, it’s another thing from the point of view of your educational experience, and what you want out of it. It sounds to me, however, that @Joel96 isn’t really considering another track other than Econ or BBA. That’s fine. He’s had a lot of opinions to take in here and I’m not sure if it’s wise for him to change direction entirely and start seriously thinking about, say, an Applied Math major with an Econ and English double minor. </p>
<p>If you can parlay a Math/Applied Math/CompSci/Physics major in there (without pulverizing your GPA) with either a BA Econ or BBA, I think you’d be happy with what you’re graduating with. Take a CompSci course or three, if not majoring in it. Learn how to write and speak and network. That’s essentially what you want out of an undergrad degree when your aim is to find your way into Finance. Personally, I’d lean toward the BA Econ over the BBA, simply because I feel that BBA curricula (generally) tend to not get into sufficient depth to provide a student with top quality analytical skills. Econ does a better job of that. Probably even at Emory, even though @aluminum_boat doesn’t think so, but I’m sure he can elaborate on that.</p>
<p>By the way, the reason that you see a lot of Econ grads in gov’t, Joel, is because many of those jobs center on Policy, which Econ grads typically have a handle on. This doesn’t mean that Econ grads are somehow steered toward gov’t. If anything, it gives them more options. Also, yes, there are plenty of finance jobs in banking and wealth man’t outside of the main hubs. You shouldn’t be afraid to go wherever you have to upon graduation, however, to get the requisite experience so that you can move closer to where you really want to be, one day.</p>