What is Finance like during undergrad and B-School?

Speaking from my experience, it's really easy. It's an interesting subject for me, so learning the material isn't hard. I have plenty of free time to still get the whole "college experience" while keeping a great GPA, networking, working a job, and being involved on campus.

I'm still studying finance but with people I talk to in my school it's easy if your dedicated. Just don't do engineering, that's hard ahahahaha

It depends on your habits in high school

One of the easiest non-liberal arts majors.

I majored in Finance in UG and am now completing business school. Work is easy, much easier than Engineering as mentioned above.

B-school is just a repeat of everything you already learned as a Business/Finance major, maybe diving a little deeper into profession specific topics based on which electives you take, but even those don't go too far. I recommend participating in an applied portfolio analysis course if you can, creates a habit of keeping up on the markets.

I find it relatively easy, because so much of finance is the same basic concepts with a new twist. YMMV though.

Easiest semi-quantitative subject you can take.

you will f**k up in your derivatives class, i guarantee it

My experience:

There's a number of VERY easy classes in b-school that aren't worth your time (intro to equities).

There's a number of very easy but group-project dependent classes that can fuck you (mgmt / marketing).

There's a few hard classes that are often hard because of the professor that will end up taking up the majority of your study time (advanced macro / micro or intermediate accounting / corporate finance / derivs / econometrics).

At my school we also had to take engineering calc 1 & 2. And some easier liberal arts stuff of course. Finance was also usually part of a double major (with econ and accounting most common).

Overall - a lot of it isn't really valuable (though a lot certainly is) vs. the stuff you do in your spare time (interview prep / investing club / work experience).

I would dismiss those who say it's "easy" though. Really depends on the school.

speaking for undergrad, you might find your school is a little slow with the pace of subjects (what I mean by this is that years 1 --> 2.5 might be all liberal arts classes / core) which means during interviews you may have less finance exposure than competing peers. so, figure that on top of classes for your finance major you may be self-motivated enough to get finance exposure on your own. there's a few companies out there that produce that kind of material

You will HATE Inter/Advanced Accounting. You will LOVE not having to do non-stat based math past Calc 1. You WILL learn how to drink watered down beer as a way to cope with said Accounting class. All in all UG is a good time, learn to balance your schedule early and it will pay dividends by the time you are a senior. Get to know your professors (Corp Fin/Derivatives/Capital Markets/Etc.), they've more than likely worked in the industry and are probably your first "non-family" connection to landing an internship/job.

Kind of already mentioned. Compared to other real majors like STEM programs its easy but it is harder than Gender Studies or whatever fake degree programs colleges are pushing these days. Also, accounting will make you want to reconsider your career path.

If you are into it then you will enjoy studying it. It is not too difficult, however, it is going to require effort. Take your accounting, econ and math courses seriously. It is fun watching the non-finance majors (management/marketing) struggle in the intro courses. Also, remember it is never to early to start studying.

It can be slightly difficult at first, especially in the intro finance class, because you are seeing the material for the first time. Add that on top of the fact that you just finished your first accounting class that you barely understood and things can get a little complex. My school had free tutors for the core business classes that everyone had to take, so I would check to see if your school offers anything like that. Also, I would join the investment club at your school, as most of the juniors/seniors in the club will be the TAs for the finance classes, and can help you in case you are struggling. There is also investopedia, which will come in handle when your brain is doing gymnastics trying to understand the relationship between NPV and IRR.

After understanding the basic concepts in the intro/intermediate classes, the theoretical stuff is very easy, the information becomes more qualitative, and the math never goes beyond basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.

My experience went as follow:

-Don't open books for first month and a half. -Spend 16 hours a day at library for two weeks doing practice tests and cramming for midterms -Don't open books for about a month. -Spend 16 hours a day at library for two and a half to three weeks doing practice tests and cramming for finals.

Managed to get decent grades with this formula.

stuuuuuuuuuuupid. I studied a lot of stuff in college.. Finance was the most useless stuff I learned and I work at a hedge fund. Evaluate the faculty of the department and decide if they are the people you want managing your money. If they all hold 50% index funds, some mutual funds, cash, and a little gold... they probably don't know shit about anything.

finance is easy, espcecially if you seek internships that increase your interest in the subject ... my uni required data analysis classes to get the finance major and that was very very painful. I can literally cry on command when thinking of the struggle

Finance can mean a lot of different things.

In undergrad, the finance courses at a typical state school like UIUC are fairly straightforward.

In a research PhD or MFE, finance can be incredibly complicated, at least by the standards of a state school engineer. Many Finance PhDs or MFEs are STEM undergrads.

Are you learning how to use a financial calculator, or are you learning how to derive black-scholes? NPV is easy, the Girsanov Theorem is hard.

As others have pointed out calculus and accounting are the only really hard classes. You're expected to use the extra time attaining leadership positions in various student organizations or doing part time internships during the school year.