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I'm an economics major at a top LAC and my final round a BB-like bank was highly technical (entirely finance technicals). I spent a couple days preparing, but I was a junior and had never taken any finance courses before so of course I failed. They tried to hold my hand through the interview, but I ultimately wasn't given the offer. They said, "you can't just try to teach yourself this, you have to take an actual corporate finance class," which of course wasn't an option for me. In my experience, only consulting firms have grilled me on economic concepts.

Banking is not major-discriminatory during interviews. I was an Econ major and have never been asked anything economically related. I would focus your study on actual banking concepts. Know all three major valuation methods. Know your accounting. Know why you want to do banking (esp at that particular bank). The important questions will be the same regardless if you're an Nordic Studies or an Accounting major. Besides, you will not be using any economic concepts in your SA position, sorry to break it to you.

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I am an Econ major at a liberal arts college, as well. My interviews have not been very different, if at all, than an business student's. If anything, I would say that my interviews have been moderately to very technical. Granted, I do have previous banking experience. You will be expected to know the basics regardless of your major. Technicals like the valuation methods and accounting rules can be found in any of the study guides and they are fairly easy to teach yourself (I did). I don't think you should expect to be pushed to the same limits as a candidate from a business school, however, they expect you to have done your homework when it comes to technical preparation. Recruiting is so competitive now that every candidate, regardless of major, must know their stuff.

I've only seen it in in trading never IB

I know valuation and accounting are important, and have been working on those.

How about other topics? --Knowing esoteric accounting such as incorporating LIFO/FIFO into a question and its effects --Advanced valuation such as "mid-convention DCF" or dividend discount model (advanced for an inexperienced student, not for those in banking) --Knowing accretion vs dilution in M&A --Knowing about debt, bonds and seniority --Credit ratings --formula for unlevering BETA --Current ratio, interest coverage ration, leverage ratio, etc --options and derivatives

Would you all say understanding these topics is more important or rather just spending more time on fit? (Once you know DCF model, accounting cold)