I am a multi-interested student,who is interested in both chemistry and finance, and I am searching for a school that could feed my passion for both fields, and give me the resources to obtain a dual degree or double major. With both of these interests, I am highly interested in having multiple internships at top companies, and conduct undergraduate research. This has led me to look at a variety of large research institutions.
Because of my interests, I would like to be located within 30 minutes of a major metropolitan area, yet also attend a school that would give me a typical college experience (football games and the like).
As a rising senior, I am having trouble putting schools aside from their rankings. I hope to apply to a MBA program, and would like to increase my chances of acceptance at top schools.
Most schools I have looked at are good in one discipline, but not the other, or are too large to offer me meaningful internships or research as an underclassmen.
I want to go somewhere that will embrace my abnormal combination of majors, and give me the chance to excel in both fields. Any advice on programs to check out would be appreciated. Thank you!
Chemistry and finance isn’t really an abnormal combination. Lots of college students (and people in general) have lots of seemingly disparate interests.
Here are some places that have both finance and chemistry, are near or in metro areas, and have decent college sports:
Boston College
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
Tulane
University of Miami
Case Western (banking and finance minor)
Of course, football is not the only way to enjoy a college experience, so consider some universities that maybe don’t have big sports. For example, Carnegie Mellon has finance and chemistry, and is in a major metro area, but isn’t really known for big sports. Other examples are Boston University and George Washington (it’s a concentration of the business program).
If you consider expanding your major set to things that are very closely related to finance and places where you can explore business, that may give you more options. For example, Northwestern is about 35 miles away from Chicago and has big sports. They have a chemistry major. There’s no finance major, but there is a major in industrial engineering and management science, which will cover financial engineering and analytics that would be useful in a finance career. Rice University - located in Houston - has mathematical economic analysis. Stanford has management science and engineering, which is somewhat similar to the Northwestern program. Georgetown doesn’t have a finance major per se, but it does have business; I’m sure you can explore finance there and it has your other prereqs.
Also, a large school doesn’t mean you can have meaningful internships or research. Lots of college students get one or both of those things at large universities.
I think that this is actually quite a reasonable combination. However, without GPA, test scores, and some sense where you live and what you can afford it seems futile to suggest where you might look.
One thing you might consider is that at some schools chemistry is in the school of arts and sciences and finance is in the business school. Two different colleges, two sets of requirements. At my college, this would have required 150 credits rather than ~120 for one school/major. Absolutely possible to take all the requirements for the ‘other’ major and just not get the second degree (in my case, it would have been a B.A from arts and sciences, a B.S. from business).
The first thing to put in the college list equation is cost and ability to pay. If one needs financial aid, then need, merit, endowment of school, etc., come into play. Not saying you’re doing this, but too many people choose their perfect schools and then discover they can’t possibly afford them…not a perfect school after all.
There’s nothing “unconventional” about finance and chemistry. Plenty of STEM people go into finance each year. Most schools that offer both fields will allow you to double major in finance and chemistry.
There are probably lots of large universities that are near major metro areas, with big-time college sports, that offer chemistry degrees in the College of Arts & Sciences and finance degrees in the College of Business. The problem with these schools (as noted in post #3 above) is that the two colleges will have separate, non-overlapping degree requirements. Furthermore, it is unlikely that they will cooperate on things like class scheduling. The bottom line is you probably won’t be able to graduate with both degrees in four years; you should plan for five.
If you go to a large university, the odds of finishing in four years would be better if you majored in economics (which is probably in the College of Arts & Sciences, the same as chemistry), rather than finance (which is probably in the College of Business). However, an economics degree from the College of Arts & Sciences will probably be more theoretical, because the College of Business will probably have a monopoly on more applied degree programs.
You might want to consider liberal arts colleges, which are particularly good at accommodating weird double majors. A LAC probably won’t have a major in finance specifically, but many have very strong economics departments that are known for feeding students to Wall Street. Colgate would be an example: it would be quite feasible to graduate in four years with a double major in, say, chemistry and mathematical economics. However, LACs typically aren’t located near major metro areas and don’t have big-time college sports, so they may be too “unconventional” for you in these regards.
If you are interested in obtaining an MBA later on, perhaps you should focus on Chemistry as an undergraduate. Many companies and Business schools love seeing candidates with strong Science backgrounds. It’s easier to pick up Accounting and Finance later on than it is to get Chemistry/Natural Sciences.
You might consider Washington University in St. Louis, assuming your stats would make you competitive for admission there. At WashU, you have to apply for admission to either the business school or the college of arts and sciences, and whichever you are admitted to would determine whether your first major would be finance or chemistry, and would also determine which set of gen ed requirements (the business school’s or the arts and science school’s) you would have to satisfy. But you could have a second major in the other school without having to satisfy a second set of gen ed requirements. It seems to check off a lot of your other boxes. Undergrads do meaningful research at WashU. St. Louis is a fairly large city with lots of opportunities for internships, etc. And there is a typical college experience there, including some Greek life if you’re interested in that and a decent sports program, although at the Division III level. Good luck!
I recommend looking at Rice. It’s a research institution whose unofficial motto is “unconventional wisdom.” It’s in the middle of Houston (4th largest city in the US) and several Fortune 500 companies and other financial centers are located here - great for internships and research. Rice has the Jones Graduate School of Business on campus, and undergrads can pursue a business minor with our MBA business faculty. Chemistry is a popular major, and you could also major in managerial studies or economics. Rice has an undergrad population of about 3,900 - larger than the grad student population, so it’s a small enough university that still offers lots of opportunities for undergrads to do research and gain hands-on experience both with professors and beyond the campus borders in Houston.
I’ll second @Srabookworm’s suggestion of Rice. It has an excellent Chemistry department, and the school’s flexible curricular requirements make double-majoring easier than it is at many other universities.
Hence you could add a second major in Economics or one in Managerial Studies (which is really a loose interdisciplinary program that is probably aimed more at consulting or operations than at finance). I would suggest, however, the increasingly popular Business minor, a 6-course sequence taught by business school professors within the Jones Graduate School of Business (i.e., Rice’s MBA-granting division). This minor gives good preparation for breaking into banking or corporate finance, without requiring you to get bogged down in the theoretical or methodological complexities of studying Economics per se.
Finance recruiting at Rice focuses on two industries: Oil & Gas (or, more broadly, “Energy”) and Banking.
Houston is the hub of the global energy industry, and all the major players recruit at Rice for various corporate finance positions; some companies–notably, Phillips 66 and BP–also recruit specifically for energy trading. These energy firms really like to hire people with a STEM background, even for “finance” positions. Having a BS in Chemistry would be big plus on your resume.
Rice is now a target school for the Houston offices of many investment banks. Fall 2017 on-campus recruiting, for example, features all of the bulge-bracket banks, plus many middle market and boutique outfits (e.g., Evercore, Lazard). The Houston offices of these banks deal largely in the energy industry, so–once again–your Chemistry background would be a nice plus. If you want to work on Wall Street in the most literal sense (i.e., in NYC), that will be tougher coming from Rice than from, for example, Cornell or Penn. If, on the other hand, you are willing to work in Houston for a Wall Street firm, making Wall Street pay while enjoying a much lower cost of living, then Rice is a great option.