Necessity of Math?

Investment banking does not require any Math beyond the basic classes everyone takes in HS.

Kelley,

GREAT choice of schools (I'm biased of course). I would think you can contact a counselor or look in on the IU website to find graduation requirements.

If you don't have to take any math - congrats - you can take some of the other amazing classes that IU has to offer.

My friends from BUS ugrads don't have to take anything past CALC I/II.

In banking you need to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I would take some finance and accounting classes to complement the math courses already taken.

Take as many mathematics courses as you can if you want to be a trader. They love physics, comp. sci., math, and engineering majors.

Have to be able to do it in a calculator when you show your model to an officer...

Thanks good to hear that...well taking as many math classes isnt that good an idea....because i have to draw a limit since i am a CS major not a math major...but yeah i am taking like 4 Finance courses which cover pretty much everything that you need, to be on track at UG level..Then I am taking Management accounting and have taken Macroeconomics (might throw in micro too)...I just need to ask Should I also take Financial Accounting as a complete course...I mean i know quite a bit since i am doing management accounting....but should i really bother for a whole course if i dont want to be an accountant.

ok, you need to figure out what the hell you wanna do...."working in the Financial Industry" covers a ridiculously broad and varied spectrum of jobs. if you wanna do i-banking, the FIRST class you should've taken should've been financial accounting. if you wanna be a credit swaps trader, fuck the accounting and keep studying comp sci and euclidean algorithms and whatnot.

well now that i have taken my classes..i cant go back and make Fin Acc my first class....All I am asking is that if I know all the usual stuff...(quite a bit is used in Management Accounting)...and am getting a high A in Man. Acc. ... should i still bother about taking the class....coz i mean if its just a matter of having it on the transcript i might take it..but if its a strictly informational motive then i can skip it...

"should have been the first class you should've taken" was an expression. obviously it doesn't matter which order you take them in. jeeze.

and you MISSED my point anyway: do you seriously have any f-ing idea what kind of job you want other than just 'finance'? finance is a broad field, and accounting is useless if your goal is to work at DE Shaw.

I know that I want to do something in Ibanking (M&A), or Investment Management..(Not sure which)...and after that i want to go into Hedge Funds...

Hold your horses for a second. First thing you need to do is to actually figure out where you want to be. I banking and Investment Management are vastly different in what they do and require different skill sets. May I suggest doing some research on the careers before deciding on what you want to do.Also why do you want to be in Finance in the first place and also what exactly banking, trading, IM and whatever else entails.

OK having said that, I am guessing you are either a Freshman or Sophomore in college. I am not sure why your school offers a separate mgmt. accounting course( do the accounting majors take this in your school or is this a thing for other majors who want to learn some accounting). In any case, here is what I recommend in terms of courses.: 1. Accounting 1 and 2( the ones that accounting majors in your school take).Yes trust me it helps. 2.The first corp fin course offered by your school 3. Possibly a course in Financial markets (not sure what your school offers). I don't know if you can take anymore with the workload you will have.

From the courses youve taken it sounds like you are tailored to work in trading, banks love that quantitative skillset, having a comp sci background helps to since im assuming you can program in multiple programming languages.

If you want to do banking definately accounting is a must since you are gonna be dealing with alot of financial statements. If you want to do trading its less of an issue.

Also i dont think you need a vast finance background coming out of school, youve already done all that quantitative stuff so if your grades are good then its obvious you already have a brain and they can teach you finance.

I had this douchebag banker at an interview tell me that "doing quick math in your head is really important" in M&A, he then proceeded to ask me "12*24" and said that "clients will test you all the time on things like that." I actually laughed a little in his face. It was awesome.

"To Know Me Is To Love Me"-Jebus Price

Thanks for the great advice guys....

Takingacrack--I know the 2 fields are different..but at this point I am not sure which one i want to do... The management accounting course is actually a general course offered at many universities (eg. Stanford), and the thing about the course is its about analysis of financial statements and not their preparation...and i am guessing that bankers have to deal with analysis and not preparation..

In my schedule I am taking a course in Financial Management, Investment and securities analysis, personal finance and financial systems of united states... I am a freshman right now but like 1 semester ahead of my year because of credits...

doing well in math is going to show you're smart and analytical, but higher level math (i.e. claculus beyond) is not important to investment banking. High GPA is always most important for IB to get past the first resume screen. If you decide to minor in math and get your gpa wrecked, you better start networking.

If you get an A in Calc 1 and 2 this summer then I'd say you can consider adding the minor. If it isn't clicking for you then multivar, differential eqs and analysis probably aren't going to either. See how it goes and then reassess. Taking high level math classes will help you break down problems and solve them rigorously but that isn't really that necessary with what you want to do in life.

Kidflash is right. M&I has answered this question many times, as has this forum.

I have never actually used Calculus at work. I guess understanding the idea of derivatives/integrals helps somehow...but it is generally sub-Algebra 2 level math. Don't tank your GPA for it.

Is math helpful for work at a HF?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have gone through Calc 2 and am in Calc 3 right now. Need to make a decision since it is the last day to drop class and still get tuition back.

If you can get the minor without taking Real Analysis, ahaha, go ahead.