<p>i dont usually do this and directly disparage other posters, but read ramaswami’s posts with a bit of skepticism. she has a very definite and rigid view of things that are perhaps less well defined - its never good to impose hard rules on things that are much more flexible.</p>
<p>you absolutely do not need to major in math, econ, CS, physics or finance to go into I-banking.</p>
<p>you can major in whatever you want, I-banking is more about communication skills and basic qualitative analysis skills, you do not need extensive training in economics, math, cs etc… to work in finance after college - you can speak with any recruiter for any major firm and they will tell you this - I have heard this firsthand from recruiters at Goldman, Citi and Merrill and I am sure it is the same for other firms. </p>
<p>Of course, there are quantitative finance positions for which you do need extensive training in mathermatics, but these are only a few positions, the application and interview process for these positions is completely different from the general I-Banking interview. You will see that most banks have a “quantitative” department, and then a whole bunch of other departments, I-Banking, FICC, Investment Research, and nowadays Private Equity, among others, the only one for which you need substantial training in math, econ and/or CS is the quant dept.</p>
<p>hedge funds do tend to be more on the quantitative side but landing a job with a hedge fund right out of college, though possible, is much more difficult than working at an I-Bank, even coming from a top school. hedge funds nowadays prefer to recruit people who have finished graduate school or who already have a few years of experience working at an I-Bank.</p>
<p>what ramaswami said about top schools is indeed almost always true. it is possible to get positions at top firms coming from a lesser known college, but it is much harder - firms really do give preference to applications from the 50 or so top schools that they recruit, so you really have to stand out if you are applying from a non-recruited school.</p>
<p>naturally, there are no GPA cutoffs in any case, it all depends on what else you have done, the connections you have, how well your interview goes, but of course, the higher your GPA is, the more competitive your application, I would go further than Ramaswami and say that in this case you probably want to shoot for a GPA of 3.8+, 3.5 wouldn’t cut in in most cases unless you had some other very exceptional qualities.</p>
<p>all in all, major in what you want, and do very well, even people with degrees in art history have gone on to I-banking.</p>
<p>the first 8 - 10 weeks on the job are all training, the company teaches you the skillset you need, which is basic accounting and fundamental analysis. they are not looking for people who already have the knowledge, rather, they are looking for people with good communication and analytical skills who can learn quickly and work well in groups - they’ll teach you all the math you need to know when you get there.</p>