UChicago: Econ major or Math/Econ Double Major?
I am interested in pursuing a career in investment banking, and am having a hard time deciding between two academic paths. I could major in Econ or I could double major and add Math to it. The latter option would look more impressive if I kept my grades up, but my GPA would likely be slightly lower if I went that route. I have a strong GPA as it is (3.7+), but majoring in math would have a risk of lowering it. Math at UChicago is very theoretical and wouldn't pertain to investment banking at all, but it's a more impressive major. I would describe my math ability as fairly strong but not so strong that I am confident in my ability to get As every math class.
Any light you guys could shed on this would be very helpful and much appreciated.
No reason to take risks in your GPA for something that doesn't offer enough benefit to offset them. Study something easy like ECON, get good grades, party as much as possible and get a job. Unless you want be a quant, you don't need math.
haha economics at UChicago is NOT easy at all. it's one of the most intellectually stimulating grounds for new development in economics.
any subject at uchicago is going to hard lol
any subject at uchicago is going to hard lol
Straight Econ and don't worry about the Math thing, you'll get plenty of it without the double major.
Due to UChicago's rigorous economics courses, this is the one school I would say to skip doing a double major. Good luck!
When I say 'easy', I am obvious speaking in relative terms, not in absolute terms. In my experience, once you understand mathematics and have the tools, then ECON is fair easy. I would imagine that theory of incomplete markets, or economic/financial time series would be difficult for those without math background.
On the other hand, for undergrad courses of most universities, you will not spend time on things like proof of Brouwer fixed point theorem to understand existence of general equilibrium in market economies.
As I said before, if you want to do IBD, stick with ECON and take accounting classes.
We get it dude
Neither econ nor math at UChi is going to be that directly relevant to ib, so unless you're a math genius, I would say go with just econ.
If you're a first year, make sure you get into CCIB as well, and if you're a girl, join RSO's like women in business, and actually use those org's to network your ass off. Seriously, networking (done properly- don't be the kid at info sessions who asks how many hours you work a week, whether you get to hit the gym or not, etc.) will get you far more interviews than anything else, short of a IBD internship. And even then it can't hurt because UChi undergrad isn't really a core school for a lot of banks.
You're also gonna have to take Financial Accounting like gekko said, so try to get into an undergrad section at the booth school.
Thanks everyone. Unfortunately I am not a girl, but I am in CCIB (second year) and will definitely be doing my best to network. And I'll be taking three courses at Booth, one of which will be financial accounting. Looks like just Econ, although I have one more question: What about an Econ-Public Policy double major? Public policy here is definitely easier than Econ or Math, and there is a lot of overlap so I would only have to take about 4 more classes than I'm already taking to have the Public Policy degree. Worth it?
Anything that helps your GPA is worth considering. Compare the marginal benefit and marginal cost, e.g. money, time, maybe you could have take more corporate finance classes... make your own decision.
Just make sure you don't push yourself too hard that you lose fun doing it.
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