Hedge fund majors
I am going to be a freshman at Suffolk University this coming fall; I have been accepted into the business school. I am not sure what to major in because I hope to one day manage a hedge fund firm. I am contemplating a double major in accounting and finance; as well as contemplating the idea of triple majoring and adding sociology or psychology.
I may be completly off of my choices and my attempts to contact with anyone in the IB business has generally ended in failure.
If you have any personal experience in HFs I would really enjoy hearing your opinions and personal experiences.
I hate to say this, but your first order of business should be to transfer to another school. Carroll at BC/Babson/Bentley are all way better if you want to major in accounting and finance. With a lot of elbow grease, you could get a job in IB coming out of those schools or Big 4 as a backup. With some experience you might be able to make the jump to a L/S shop or a value focused place.
I completly understand that, I was actually accepted to University of Texas, BC, and even USMA(Westpoint). But I decided to go to Suffolk for undergraduate due to the Scholarship money I am receiving as well as lack of money to pay for the others. I plan on going to an upper tier school for graduate, either BC or maybe, if god permits, Harvard or MIT.
Perhaps others could weigh in, but my biggest piece of advice in that case would be to make sure you get as close to a 4.0 as possible while you're in undergrad. Also, do consider economics. It's tougher than accounting and finance but it's a whole lot more interesting.
I find all business classes fairly interesting, but to a business school, would a double major in perhaps economics and finance be good?
Also, that school you mentioned earlier, Bently, I haven't heard of it; is it on the same level for undergraduate as BC or Babson?
dual major in business and economics. within business, dual concentrate in finance & accounting.
Bentley (in Waltham I think) is mostly known as an accounting school but it virtually guarantees you a spot in the Big 4 and places better in IB than Suffolk does. If you're planning on going to grad school, BC and Babson are better bets however.
Oh boy... you turned down BC because Suffolk gave you money? Ouch. I would advise you to transfer ASAP. BC undergrad will give you a decent chance of getting on the right track for eventually making it into a HF, as will Babson and Bentley. I would say those 3 schools are comparable, except as you pointed out, Bentley is not as well-known. They all have strong alumni networks in Boston, and BC more so outside of Boston.
Take out loans and go to the best school you can - they will pay off if you intend to go into IB/HF.
Yes, I plan on going to grad school. In making connections, is it important to make them in undergraduate, or would it greatly benefit me to perhaps switch my sophmore year?
Another question about graduate school: From what I have seen, the best grad school seems to be Harvard; is this a misconception? When you are talking about BC, Babson and Bentley being the best, are you talking about undergraduate only or both under grad and grad school?
Ya, Joe and Good Bread have it right. First thing's first, get out of Suffolk. I see those kids hanging out downtown after their classes and they are morons. If you have to stay there, get a 4.0 in economics. Try to transfer to BC or even BU after 1 year. BU is on the up and up.
Ever hear the expression you have to crawl before you can walk? Well, you don't even know how to crawl and you are asking how to become an Olympic triple jumper.
The prerequisite for managing money/trading (especially on the magnitude of a hedge fund) is having the stomach for volatility. This statement doesn't merely address market volatility but the stress and pressure of managing other people's money.
The first thing you ought to do is to start trading your own money in even the most miniscule amounts. Learn how actual trading works. Lose some of your own money and see how it feels. See if you have the stomach for it.
As for everything else that has been mentioned, the financial industry is about prestige prostitution. No matter how much it costs up front, paying for the name brand school will generally pay off in the long run... and then some. But don't be fooled by fairy tales, actual money management takes skill,knowledge, heart, balls, brains and connections that are a function of the work you put in. Fund managers know their way around principles of accounting, economics, finance and in an increasing number of cases, advanced mathematics.
The advice you've received in this thread should be the beginning steps, by no means a guarantee of anything. Just remember to trade as often as possible if you plan on managing money in the future. Simply keeping up with the markets is not enough.
Midas you are completely right.
deleted my comment as you covered it
For grad school, BC is the only one that will give you a solid shot at IBD recruiting, and even then it won't be easy. Babson and Bentley are most helpful at the undergrad level. As far as Harvard being the best, HBS is obviously a great place to career-switch but good luck getting solid enough experience coming out of Suffolk, even with a 4.0.
I actually have been trading for the last 4 years, not much money, but it has taught me quite a bit from where I started.
Do you mind explaining what you mean by "a great place to career-switch."
Would it really be the death of my HF career if I were to stay at Suffolk for one year, make a 4.0 and be top of the class with the majors forementioned, and then move to another school?
My question of Harvard being the best is due to research I had done looking at the top hedge fund managers and they all seemed to have gone to HBS.
"A great place to career-switch" - HBS is a great place to do just about anything, including switch to the HF industry. However, as someone mentioned above, to get in, you need to have accomplished some pretty incredible things in your personal and/or professional life. While anyone can do these incredible things, coming out of a good school you are much more likely to find yourself in a place where your work matters, allowing you to do these incredible things if you are smart, hard-working, and lucky.
It would not be the death of your HF career if you stay at Suffolk for one year and transfer to a good school. But do you still have a choice? If you do, then beg BC to take you. If not, then stop thinking about it. If you transfer from Suffolk after 1 year, you will be behind your peers, but its not the end of the world. As you can learn from browsing the forums, the traditional path to FT IB seems to be PWM after freshman year, leverage into MO internship after sophomore year, which helps get IB SA for after junior year, without which it is difficult to get FT IB upon graduation. Coming from Suffolk, I would be surprised if you could get a PWM internship after freshman year, so you are already behind, and might have difficulty getting a good internship after sophomore year.
I hope you guys dont mind answering all of these questions, but thank you. When you say "incredible things" I'm guessing you mean great financial things, like a great personal portfolio or good internships. I might have a chance to get into BC. If I must go to Suffolk however, I will be entering as a Sophmore because of my AP tests. I know it would be difficult to transfer sophmore year, but perhaps that would make it easier. And perhaps I could also have many BC/Bentley freshman classes my freshman year as well?
Cosign everything Dr. Joe said. You could probably substitute PWM with a small accounting firm or something along those lines.
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