CFA® questions, should I complement with an MBA

I ll Talk at Ya:

I haven't given it much thought, honestly, I've wanted to major in Political Science for a very long time. I figure that the minor in Economics will benefit me. I plan on going into a graduate program and I know if I do well in my classes, I will be successful. I am just concerned that I may not be eligible for financial internships while in undergrad. What are your opinions on that? As long as I do well in my classes, will they look at me seriously? Thanks again

There are actually a lot of issues at play here, so I will try to address them all, and hopefully some of my rambling will be useful to you. :) Again, you may want to keep in mind that I majored in econ, and am therefore biased. You also may want to keep in mind that I'm an econ graduate student, not a finance professional (although I hope to be within a few years), and therefore you should probably get additional opinions on these things.

First, there's the issue of majoring in something you like. If you dislike a subject, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to major in it because you'll be miserable, probably won't do well academically, and are potentially more likely to wind up in a job you don't like. Therefore, you should be asking yourself, how passionate am I about economics? How passionate am I about political science?

A second issue is, what can I more easily learn on my own? Just because you find a subject interesting, doesn't necessarily mean you should major in it. For example, if someone was interested in history and economics, I would imagine they could learn more history on their own than economics, so maybe it makes more sense to major in econ and study history as a hobby, or maybe it makes more sense to major in econ and minor in history or maybe double major (for career reasons, I would argue that these last two options would be better than majoring in history and minoring in econ).

I would argue that economics is more flexible than political science (and a lot of other degrees for that matter). Not only do econ majors wind up in a wide variety of careers, but econ also allows one to go into many different grad programs. It's not uncommon for econ majors to get into MPP and PhD political science programs, but in econ PhD (and maybe masters) programs you will rarely find political science majors (unless they paired it with econ or math). The same is true of business masters programs and business PhD programs. I read a compelling graduation speech recently, where the speaker said that students shouldn't expect to know what they want to do with their lives, and therefore they should choose majors that they enjoy and that keep the most options open. He argued, if one was debating between majoring in math and economics, they should choose math because it keeps more options open. A math major can do economics at the next level, but an econ major cannot do math at the next level, therefore, majoring in math will keep more options open down the road. I wish I would have considered this more as an undergrad, I would have saved a lot of time.

Lastly, there's practicality. I used to think I should choose majors based solely off passion, and everything else would follow. I now realize that's silly, since one will be in college for a much shorter period than the work force. Some majors open more doors career wise, and this should definitely be considered when deciding between majors. Majoring in something you love, but getting stuck in a career you hate doesn't make any sense; you're essentially trading 4 - 5 enjoyable years for 30 - 40 miserable years. That's why it blows my mind when I hear about people who majored in English or history working as baristas, and I wonder if they weren't thinking long-term about what their degree could do for them career wise. (As an aside, it also seems that econ would be more practical from a financial internship perspective.)

Since you are on this board, I'm assuming you want to work in IB, PE, HF, AM, or something along those lines. It seems to me that economics will put you in a better position to accomplish these career goals (someone let me know if I'm wrong). That's not to say you should give up on political science. If you're passionate about it, you could minor, double major, study it in your spare time, etc.

What exactly are your goals, plans, etc? What graduate degree(s) are you considering? I've been making a lot of presumptions so far, and maybe my advice doesn't apply to your particular situation.