<p>You don’t need a finance degree to get into investment banking. Also, unless your son attends a school like Wharton that has a very strong finance program, most of what you need to know to get the job you will have to self study outside of class. There are plenty of interview/job guides for that. </p>
<p>Programming classes are not useful for investment banking, but would be for more quantitative trading firms. International and legal classes are also not relevant for most finance jobs. The math classes are good to have on your resume, even though you usually only need basic algebra. </p>
<p>That being said, your son should still take a wide variety of classes and learn things that interest him. </p>
<p>People in finance usually don’t get an MBA to learn new things. It’s more about just having the degree on your resume. Most PE firms/investment banks/consulting firms will prefer candidates with an MBA, so an MBA may be unavoidable regardless of what you’ve learned in your undergrad.</p>