I have an offer to study material science and engineering at Imperial College London.
Would this degree allow me to pursue jobs in PE/IB and hedge funds? Does it give me a leg up?
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As a bachelor or master degree?
Bachelor
my sister just got her offer too
I've met plenty of Brits who went to Imperial. No idea if it gives you a "leg up" but it certainly won't hurt!
Yes absolutely.
Oxbridge and LSE will be the top tier for UK university recruitment, but ICL would follow closely behind. You absolutely need to focus when you arrive, as your chance to actually get a role in those career paths depends to a significant degree on what you do when there.
STEM at Imperial shows that you are clearly smart, very strong degree, just need to prepare for the finance stuff since you won't learn it directly. You won't be able to waltz into a role
Quant/trading: big leg up
IB/PE: about the same as other good schools
L/S HF: not got the best placement but still very attainable
does it matter about the degree
Background: I have hired a number of people through the years into London IB roles, from Imperial as well as other UK unis. I think the key point is that the degree includes "Science .. and Engineering" (having kept an eye on Imperial the last few years I even think not too long ago the degree was just called Materials Science, without the Engineering, so helpful for you!). This clearly says STEM so that is great. The other thing that is great, if I understand your post correctly is that you have not yet started your degree yet. This will give you plenty of time to do lots of relevant stuff outside your degree, like societies etc. Two other recommendations: make sure you can code well (at least Python, with Numpy, Pandas etc Data Science and Machine Learning stuff) and take full advantage of the fact that you are in London! Imperial organises lots of stuff and lots of companies come to give talks so use this to your advantage. In summary: the degree is fine just add lots of relevant stuff on your CV to give yourself the best chance
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