What's more important Computer skills or math? (help me) :)

Finance + Math. I feel like interviewers don't want to know what FSOS is, and they get hardons for math.

Do programming and math + finance

what about major in finance minor in math and computer sci ?

They don't have a CS program in my school, but they do offer specific courses, I could however major in finance, minor in maths and take some CS electives which isn't actually a bad plan now that I think of it lol. Hmm gonna have to think about this too...

The FSOS program is the closest thing to a major or minor in CS. The thing is that the classes are more specific to financial analysis and data collection. Only differences is I take 3 less Finance classes than in an actual finance major. It is said to be the most rigorous business major in the school.

Again, if anybody would want to take a more in depth look at my schools programs for FSOS or another major and tell me what they think is best between my choices I'll gladly send a link via PM.

Math > CS

Much easier to pick up programming on your own than math.

Xptboy:

Anyways, here are my 3 choices. 1. Finance + FSOS double major (very little math skills, only calc1) 2. FSOS + a minor in math 3. Finance + a minor in math (only extremely basic computer skills)

Note the way you yourself have posed the choices: the second one does not have the weaknesses of the other 2.

Also, if your double major is "finance and finance with..." it can sound like you are very obviously double-counting to have 2 majors.

thanks guys.

I've decided to go with majoring in finance, minoring in maths and taking some relevant coursework in CS that I can show on my resume.

is it really that necessary to learn high level math/programming skills for IBD? ive heard that most of the stuff you learn is pretty basic, and that only trading requires some advanced programming/math

For traditional groups in IBD like IPOs and M&A, math is usually less important. In the markets groups like trading, risk management, and analytics, though, stuff can get really technical. Research (actually trading and IBD, too) can vary a great deal but is generally somewhere in-between.

Programming is usually less important, but you'll find that it comes into play in a lot of groups where you wouldn't expect it- and it can get you a ticket into banking as a niche hire sometimes. My first two years in the financial industry were spent in a group called "Analytics" where we basically priced and calculated various measurements on different corporate bonds. We developed the models for figuring out the credit spreads on callable bonds- and guess what? The firm wanted us to be able to reprice and re-risk 500,000 bonds in 10 minutes. Bring in the distributed systems, caching strategies, multithreading, algorithms, network infrastructure, and everything else. A quick book in VBA or imperative programming can teach you how to program for Excel, but for anything that requires speed or scale (IE: algorithmic trading or risk management at a larger firm), you need something a lot more robust. A few algorithms and data structures courses will give you the foundation you need if you want to work on that kind of stuff.

I did a combined major in Finance & MIS and a minor in math, and I regret it. The MIS portion was complete BS, the finance could have been taught to a math audience in 2-3 courses, and the math was interesting. In retrospect, I would definetely do a math major and take a few CS classes if you can't do a minor in it. The finance can be picked up along the way. Take stochastic processes if your non-target has it, and make sure to at least take the right courses to be suitable for MFE if you decide to go down that road in the future- so differential equations, calc 3, linear alg, probability, and all the statistics you can find. Also, use accounting courses to boost your GPA, and also because you will need it at some point.