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Based on the most helpful WSO content, your choice of major can have a tangible impact on recruitment, especially in fields like finance or consulting. Here's a breakdown:
Government/Economics: This combination is more traditional and aligns well with consulting and finance roles. Economics is considered semi-quantitative and directly relevant to business, making it a safer choice for recruiting. It signals to employers that you have a foundational understanding of markets, finance, and analytical thinking.
Government/Statistics or Government/Math: While these combinations might seem "quirky," they can actually be highly valuable, especially if you’re targeting roles that require strong quantitative skills. Statistics and Math are in-demand skills in areas like data analysis, quantitative finance, and even consulting, where firms increasingly value technical expertise. However, these majors are often more rigorous, so maintaining a high GPA is crucial.
Recruitment Considerations:
Advice: If you’re passionate about Stats or Math and can maintain a competitive GPA, it could be a differentiator in recruiting. However, if you’re unsure about the rigor or your ability to excel, Government/Economics might be a safer and more traditional path.
Ultimately, your major matters less than how you position your skills, experiences, and interests during recruiting.
Sources: Why you should consider Notre Dame for undergrad, Williams College: Econ/Pysch Major or Econ/Math Major, Need Help - College student with some major problems, Deciding on quantitive majors/career path?, Target vs. Non-Target
If I could go back in time I'd do as much stats and math as possible. Unless you're adamant about it consider dropping gov. Not necessarily for IB recruiting (You never knpw how your interests could shift), more just for building a more quantitative tool kit that lends itself to more roles that vary in how quantitative they are or can be.
Ranking options you shared: (1) Gov/Stats, (2) Gov/Maths, (3) Gov/Econ
Other rankings: No Gov/Same order or some mix of the majors behind the forward slash.
You know maybe Gov can give you a unique "expertise", but unless you're super passionate about Politics from an Academic POV, you might as well just read books around topics that you're interested in and consume the news. I did one of the dual-majors you listed and aside from Political Theory (which I found very interesting) the rest of it (Political Science) felt like a waste of time.
Be careful listening to disaffected strangers on the internet, but yeah, those are my two cents.
Thank you, I appreciate the advice. I'm personally really interested in Gov, and I definitely think I'm stronger in that field than a much more quantitative heavy field although I'm not terrible either. My worry about just stats or math is that I don't want my GPA to get cooked, and both are rather rigorous at my school and I am slightly behind on the ideal track for both since I too more gov classes freshman year, meaning I would have to take harder classes sophomore year during recruitment. Do you think there is a deep applicability for non applied quantitative majors like stats/math (although stats is considerably more applied), because CS is hypothetically a major I'm on track for too?
Accounting/Finance/Econ related majors are the most common but plenty of people do things like Math and get offers. Those are the safest plays, but I’ve seen plenty of people major in something like history (from targets) and get offers that way too.
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