Economics vs Industrial Engineering

Just wondering which major would be most useful towards getting into IB. IE seems more related to finance, plus the math helps. Economics seems very general and more public policy than IB. I am happy learning either, because both are interesting. Which one works best for IB?

More specifically, IE would be like ORIE at Cornell, IEMS at Northwestern, or BAOR at MIT, compared with economics from Harvard, Claremont McKenna College, or AEM at Cornell.

9 Comments
 

Most important thing is school and GPA. If you attend a target with a decent GPA, you'll get an interview regardless of major(assuming you have ECs to back it up). The work in IB isn't extremely quant heavy; an IE degree may help you stand out but if you can't make the cut GPA wise its more of a hindrance than anything.

 
Best Response

I'm a rising senior in high school, but I am choosing some of my schools based on major. If GPA and school name are the only important criteria that I can plan for right now, then I should just go for the targets and general economics?

On an unrelated note, what are careers people usually go into after leaving Investment Banking? After leaving consulting? I want to go into one of those for the experience and learning, but eventually go on to bank management, especially internationally.

 

After banking you can go anywhere, most sexy firms being Private Equity and Hedge Funds. After consulting... you remain a consultant because it really doesn't give you much skills/assets compared to banking (obviously with exceptions). Don't do banking management.

 

From my research so far, what you've said doesn't seem to be true. According to several websites in the first few google links, consulting gives you the opportunity to go into almost any industry because a consultant has the potential to work with any industry. IB, however, gives you the best skills to work in almost any financial line of work. That's what I've seen so far anyway. Can you provide reasons for what you've said?

Why do you say "Don't do banking management"?

 

Worry about your major first, you'll figure it out when you get to recruiting. Banking management is just not what you go for lol (sorry to any bank managers out there).

 

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