Is a CS minor useful?

Cool thank you for your input. Do you think it's possible the CS minor will have any benefit for a business/management role, especially one where the product is technology/computer based?

I guess I could double major, it's just that by taking that many CS classes my GPA would most likely be utter shit.

Pretty sure you would be considered medium since comp sci isn't your actual major. Whether or not having the comp sci minor gives you a leg up in recruiting is another question

I'd recommend double majoring rather than copping out with a CS minor unless you are absolutely certain you want to do BB IBD, because you'll have a lot more options if you do a full degree in CS. That is assuming, of course, you have sufficient time as a varsity athlete.

blows my mind that some people have such rigid thinking

I can either do econ major + comp sci minor OR econ and stats double major

Why do you care if your major is considered hard or not? Go smoke a bowl man.

All else equal, I would rather look better on paper than not.

Given your initial post, wouldn't you look just as good with an "easier" major and higher GPA to compensate?

Don't get into a major because you think it's hard. If you have a genuine interest in CS then do it.

Isn't it up to you whether or not your GPA drops?

Are you attending a real target?

If your CS minor consists of OOP, systems programming, and algorithms and data structures, you NEED to do it.

You can thank me later.

Yeah, I can't recommend this course of action enough. The CS minor will be gold, especially if it's something you truly enjoy.

go for it! you may need to work a little extra but its worth it.

CS it is then.. screw accounting

Thanks again everyone

You're asking WSO if you would drop to a 3.5 GPA..?

How the hell would we know? There are people who get 3.9+ in CS. Just try your hardest and don't worry about what a bunch of strangers on a forum think you can or cannot do.

Almost everything you do nowadays requires a programmer behind it. It's the future, and it's certainly valuable knowledge to have. When programmers and machines take over the world, you will have a better chance of being deemed valuable enough to obtain a job offer.

I think it's a brilliant idea, but you better ace it. Don't drop your GPA on behalf of CS. And yeah, some people (lots of people actually) ace 3.9s in CS.

It's a technical world - get a technical degree.

I just posted in another thread advocating taking CS classes, but really it's up to what you want (careerwise). It might not help you as much in, say, institutional sales as it would in many types of trading (or even IBD, to a lesser extent). If your end goal is IBD though, I wouldn't place CS above accounting.

I wouldn't worry about the minor if you are interested in other classes. The comp sci skills are really only applicable in the world of finance when you earn a Ph.D. and decide to become a quant.

Just remove the minor from your resume as soon as you decide. You can always mention somewhere that you have taken various comp sci classes.

I actually did something very similar in undergrad. Similar major, attempted a similar minor. Upper division CS classes kicked my ass so I switched to Pass/Fail. I had it on my resume as long as I was in a CS class and took it off after. I don't think the Pass/Fail option matters unless you've taken a ton of Pass/Fail classes already.

The downside of not finishing this is that you sometimes don't get recognized for having survived all the CS classes. My GPA wasn't as high as it could have been since I was spending a ton of time programming, but because I wasn't an engineer/CS major, I felt like people sometimes ignored that I took those classes. I think I got the short end of the stick on that through job recruiting and subsequently when I was applying for b-school.

masters degree then recruit again.

What do you mean doesn't matter? For my school if you P/F a class you will not receive the minor.

We've already established that you won't get the minor if you go P/F. My point was that I don't think companies will write you off if you've had one P/F class on your transcript. Isn't that what you're asking about?

No, I'm talking about the minor in general. Do you think it is worthwhile to get in regards to interviewing to show my ability with computers and technology?

Honestly I don't know that the CS minor really helps as much as we think it does. I kind of regret ever trying because in my experience, most people focus on the major and it took much more time and effort than it was worth and I ended up not getting it.

Having said that, I feel like you're really close (closer than I was) so that it may be worthwhile to suck it up and finish it. Even if you get a C+ in one of the classes (so long as that's the lowest grade you think you can get), your GPA won't move as much if you have a 3.0 overall with the rest of your classes. Once you have the minor, it might be more apparent as to how your grades got to what they are. If you don't get it, you're stuck with a 3.0 GPA as an econ major and might never get that interview to explain it away.

This is only based on my experience though, and this was a few years ago now...

I think you make a good point...I'm half way through. The minor is 4 courses, I've taken 2. I guess I'll stick it out and not take the easy way out and coast through my last semester (as appealing as that sounds). Any other advice would be appreciated.

The only other thing I have to say is that if you just want to enjoy your last college semester, then do that. I'm not sure if it's the right "career" advice but I remember long night programming in the computer lab and it sucks to have to do that before you graduate, esp. if you're not a CS major. You live once and (hopefully) go to undergrad once.

I decided to drop the CS minor. List my courses as relevant coursework and I am taking an advanced Futures, Options, and derivatives class instead.

Congrats. Enjoy the classes and the rest of your college career.

I'm in a similar situation and it's not easy. I was a summer analyst at JPM in equity research this past summer in nyc (didn't want to do it in the end - ib is more in line with my ideal career position). Anyhow, I had final round interviews at JPM, BAC and C and came out with nothing (not that they were really hiring anyway - Citi took the most and apparently the number was under 6 (my friend who's a first year IB analyst there told me).

I still have one more buyside interview left over winter break, but who knows what'll happen with that. I'm proficient in Mandarin and am trying to leverage that with finance to eventually do global IB or do emerging market/China investing with a US HF... right now just trying to get my foot in the door at these places, not too concerned about the position.

If nothing comes by early spring, I'm considering getting my MS at Columbia or heading over to China to get fluent and perhaps find an investment/consulting job over there. I'm not sure what would help me more in the end - the experience in China or a Masters here -- the thing is, I'm already in debt from my undergrad edu. and an additional two years would hurt.

So I feel where you're at... not an easy situation or decision. If you can afford to stay in school and get additional degrees, you might as well - doesn't look like things will be changing too soon. If you can't find a trading position at another firm, the MS in Financial Math sounds like the right path to me if you're only looking to accept a BB trading position.

Although I'm not looking to do much quant work in the future, if I did undergrad all over again I'd definitely add a minor in Math. I'd grab the Econ major if I were you. Best of luck!

i don't think you can get into a good financial math program without a stronger quantitative background than is provided in an undergrad finance/econ major; experience with differential equations is a prerequisite.

that said, by minoring in comp sci or math, you'll be a much stronger applicant. I'm considering financial math programs myself, and by minoring in math - taking a semester each of calc, stats, and linear algebra beyond what was required for an econ major at my school - my skills were up to par for the curricula, based on my discussions with profs.

MS in financial math is a good option for you if recruiting didn't go well - it's more academic than an MBA, so you have a better excuse for going directly to grad school (ie - you need to keep your math up to par).

depends on what field...

You can go into trading/trade logic type of role, or a developer. Totally depends. It wouldn't hurt for sure.

history

There is no definitive best minor, so take what you are most interested in. That being said, accounting is a great double, as depth of accounting knowledge makes IB technical interview questions far easier. Economics, if a choice, is also a good pairing, as it teaches the logical thinking skills that sometimes are ignored in more computation and knowledge focused finance curricula (i.e. those where individuals can calculate option values with Black Scholes but have no intuitive understanding of what they're doing).

Do something outside of the box. You already have finance so you'll be like every other kid they will be looking at -- take an interesting major instead of accounting.

Foreign Language

any advice?

What's your major?

Econ. Read the beginning.

anybody else have suggestions?

I don't think minor is enough, you need at least 2-3 years of CS classes in order to become good (IMO)... Do a double major.

I don't have time to do the whole major.......Would a comp sci minor increase my skillset significantly though? What if I wanted to do business tech or something along those lines?

bump any other input?

I've been thinking about this as well. Any more suggestions for this person?

Just do it if you enjoy it. Don't do it just to pad your resume. I've heard comp science involves lots of self learnings. i.e. you could get a job at a job at a bomb startup if you know how to code well, not necessarily if you graduated from stanford CS(although i'm sure you would also get the job if that is the case)