I’m going to be an incoming transfer to Columbia University in the fall. I'm interested in investment banking/AM and have had some pretty decent internships throughout my first two years of college and am getting ready for some interviews. I already got an offer at a search fund and boutique investment bank for the fall and have been studying technicals pretty hard as of late. I’m okay at math and find it interesting but I really want the highest GPA possible and I know Econ at Columbia is tough. Also, it would take an extra semester to finish there and being that I'm paying for school of my own so I'd rather not stay an extra semester. I would be able to finish in 2 years as a political science major though — can anyone speak on the prospects of a political science major breaking into banking? Will firms look down on me for being a polysci major instead of econ? I've already taken some econ classes and will probably take a few more, but I really don't want to take an extra semester or possibly, an extra year due to the extra money and literal math major (Columbia econ is math heavy) I'd have to do as an econ major there. Through networking I've seen a ton of government, history, and even psych majors from top Ivies, but I just don't wanna end up with a bunch of debt and jobless. Any of you guys humanities majors?
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You're fine to be poly-sci. I'm at a similar (slightly worse probably) school rankings wise and tons of humanities kids end up in banking. Try to take as many econ classes as possible, as while as some math/other quantitative things, to show you aren't just a soft humanities kid that can't do STEM.
Make sure you are perfect on technicals, as I've heard that banks will test you more on that stuff as a humanities kid without much econ/finance courses. Also, make sure you have a good story for 'why IB', as you again will need to prove you have a genuine interest in finance/banking. I think if you have a good explanation as to why poli sci (explain your interest in the field + the circumstances that made studying econ difficult) and most people will understand.
Thanks for the response — some solid advice right there.
This isn’t gonna help you at all, I’m asking for myself but did you transfer in from a state school? Gpa? Letters of recommendation?
Transferred from a CC, from Westchester, 3.7 GOA, great letters of rec from my Econ professor and managing partner of the firm I interned at (she’s a CBS alum), and wrote a really good essay. Honestly just apply everywhere. I got rejected from school I thought I’d get into and accepted to those I didn’t it’s all a crapshoot tbh
Awesome thank you man that’s exactly what I wanted to hear. What was the essay about?
I was a Poli Sci major and still got to the buyside. You can spin it as a social science (ie more quantitative) if you need to, and it may be seen as an asset in markets with significant government influence (eg munis). Internship experience matters most, followed by school, followed by (somewhat distantly) major — a Classics guy from Columbia has a 10x better chance than an Econ guy from SUNY.
How did you break in personally? Did you go to a target?
Semi-target LAC. Same deal as anyone else -- networking and normal recruiting channels. I started in consulting instead of IB (and admittedly consultancies are more open-minded on major) but have a bunch of peers who got into banking with similar backgrounds and approaches
To echo off of Jdogg89's comment, I have also seen myself a good number of humanities majors successfully place themselves in banking, which should be another solid, positive indicator as I am also a Columbia grad.
However, I will point out that among my connections, there is a clear skew towards economics, business administration, or other harder sciences (statistics, applied math, etc). And takeaway what you want from this, but a good number of my polisci/philosophy/history friends ended up in management consulting instead.
Overall, focus on your technicals and show them that despite your relatively less relevant background, you have garnered enough interest to take studying of the industry and role into your own hands to come up as a truly well-rounded candidate.
Cheers.
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