Hi everyone, I'm an incoming freshman at UChicago. I was wondering how much harder club applications + actual recruiting would be majoring in something unrelated like psychology versus econ/biz econ. Thanks for the responses
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Based on the most helpful WSO content, majoring in psychology at UChicago for IB recruiting might present some additional challenges, but it’s not impossible. Here’s what you need to know:
Major Doesn't Define Success: While econ or business econ majors might have a more direct path due to the curriculum's alignment with finance, your major is not the sole determinant of your success in IB recruiting. Networking, preparation, and relevant experience matter more.
Club Applications: UChicago's finance-related clubs can be competitive, and many of the students applying are deeply immersed in finance. However, being a psychology major could make you stand out if you can articulate how your background brings a unique perspective to finance. Focus on demonstrating your interest in IB through extracurriculars, self-study, and networking.
Recruiting Challenges: UChicago is known for its intellectual rigor, but there’s a perception that some majors, like business econ, might be less challenging academically. This could mean that recruiters might not weigh your major as heavily as your overall profile, including GPA, internships, and networking efforts.
Action Plan:
Ultimately, your major might make the path slightly less conventional, but with the right strategy, you can absolutely break into IB from UChicago as a psychology major.
Sources: UMich Undergrad For IB Recruiting, UMich Undergrad For IB Recruiting, UChicago's true rank, prestige and value for IB, UChicago or Brown for undergrad?
Much harder. I would do a psych minor.
Most places have become major-agnostic nowadays. I've seen kids from Cornell majoring in hotel management get seats at EVR, js be ready with a good story. As for clubs I am pretty sure most clubs as well don't care, for UChicago the best one is TBC and their website says they don't care abt major - just focus on understanding finance which helps being an econ major, but most learning will come from experience at TBC.
Hotel Management is a business school and has many finance classes. It’s top target for all regal, m&t, and repe positions
I wasn't dissing it lol. Im just saying what was traditionally required to be a fin/acct/econ major way back whenever just doesn't exist anymore
TBC doesn’t care about major (source: I’m in TBC). Regardless, you don’t declare a major until the end of 2nd year. The most you’ll do in “committing” to a major is literally just communicating with your academic advisor which major(s) you want to pursue (there are literally no forms / documentation that you will fill out that’ll classify you as a certain major for university databases or department databases or anything like that).
The reason I’m telling you this is because it’s in your best interests to apply to finance clubs as an Econ + X major (in your case, Econ + Psych). Even if TBC doesn’t care about what you’re majoring in, there’s no point in taking the risk of coming off as a brick towards finance clubs by not being an Econ / STEM major, especially since your first-year “major” is completely arbitrary. You can apply to clubs as an Econ + Psych major and literally update your LinkedIn to Archaeology + Gender Studies the second after you get in, they wouldn’t gaf
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I'll keep econ + psych on my resume for now and see what I want to commit to later in college.
Is it cool if I dm asking a few other questions abt club apps/recruiting in general? I think you would have to come off of the anonymous mode
just dm'd you
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