do I have to take extra classes to prove quant skills?

Hi all,

Here's a brief rundown of my profile: I graduated from UC Berkeley with a 3.8 GPA in Political Science. I took the GMAT and got a 730 (47Q, 44V). I've worked at IBM for three and a half years as a marketing professional, and have been promoted twice. My ECs include being on the board of an education tech nonprofit.

At UC Berkeley, it is mandatory for Pol Sci undergrads to take a course called "Political Science 3 - Introduction to Empirical Analysis and Quantitative Methods." Basically, it is straight up statistics applied to political science, and my professor taught straight out of a standard stats book that our normal "Intro to Stats" also used. I got an A. However, this course shows up on my transcript only as "Pol Sci 3 - Empirical Analysis," so I'm not sure if adcomms will immediately recognize that as essentially stats course.

I also took a lot of courses within Pol Sci that were heavy on micro and macro econ (I passed out of the 101 Econ course in the Econ department through AP credits). That said, I didn't take calculus in college.

Is it necessary for me to take an extra statistics and/or calculus class at a community college or extension program in order for my application to be competitive? My concern is that adcomms may "doubt" my quant skills otherwise. Is this a valid concern, or am I overthinking?

I'm aiming for a corporate marketing career post-MBA at a top 500 firm, and am aiming for M7 and t15 programs.

Thanks!

1 Comments
 

Repudiandae sed et consequatur voluptatibus et consequuntur harum dignissimos. Consequuntur nemo doloribus incidunt. Laudantium sunt dolorem vero qui accusamus facilis vero. Iure accusantium est quis mollitia facilis iure. Mollitia fugit et quaerat autem repellat.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (66) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”