Incoming SA Changing Major, Taking Gap Semester & Deferring Graduation
Hey Monkeys,
I’m an incoming BB IBD SA who wishes to change major. My current majors are actuarial & finance but I believe finance & economics are way more useful (every interviewer asked me why not insurance with actuarial major), and I just don’t enjoy the actuarial subjects, so I want to switch my actuarial to economics.
If I change the major, due to class structure, I will have to take a gap semester and defer my graduation from Dec 2020 to Jun 2021, and I know all of my class except for me will graduate in Jun 2021 anyway.
I plan to self study some advanced modeling during my gap semester to get myself ready for more technical content in summer to win return offer. I could do another off cycle PE internship before the summer (I have one at a median sized regional PE already), but I’m not comfortable putting “Incoming SA” on resume and afraid I may not have time to learn modeling & intern at the same time. There’re not many big PEs recruiting around so (I think) maybe not worth it.
So should I inform the HR about my thinking (I wanna change major and will have to defer graduation)? Is there anything that I should be concerned about in terms of return offer or HR’s view of my decision? And should I do an internship at probably a small PE?
Sincerely appreciate any comment.
If you intern this summer and get a return offer you won’t start until July 2021 anyway. If you’re absolutely sure you can graduate in June 2021 I wouldn’t say anything because it won’t matter unless you were planning on starting early (after you graduated in Dec 2020).
Thanks for your comment.
I actually will have to take a gap semester (and therefore defer graduation). Instead of doing nothing, I plan to self study some more modeling to impress my shop in summer to maximize my chance to win return. Do you think it’s ok? Will HR and my firm care what I will do in the gap?
I could do an off cycle PE internship as well, but am afraid I might not have time to do both internship and modeling study, and not many reputable PEs are recruiting around. I have one PE internship already. So not sure if it’s worthwhile finding another one at a small shop.
Thanks again for your help.
why not just drop the actuarial major and graduate with only a finance major?
Thanks for the comment.
It’s doable. But generally speaking, my school allows us to do at most double majors to get the credits to graduate. And if I just do single major, I still have to do subjects in other areas that I’m not interested in, like marketing and management. So it could be a bit waste of time.
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