What is your Major/Area of study?
I am very interested to see what kind of educational backgrounds this site holds, I am engineering.
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Everyone here is mostly Finance/Econ/Statistic/Computer Science/Mathematics related field very few engineers.
Going into CS + Business
B.S. in Business Administration B.A. in Modern Languages (Spanish) Minor in East Asian Studies (Chinese)
jeez you were one of those kids?
yup yup
but also, was elected to the Honor Court, earned Business Honors (Beta Gamma Sigma), Spanish Honors (Sigma Delta Pi), and also graduated from the Honors Program
I didn't really sleep that much.
and studied abroad twice - through UVA to Valencia, Spain and through Columbia U to Beijing, China
all in 4 years
Female Anatomy
majored in creativity and discovery - just trying to find myself ya know
I did Mechanical Engineering, never once interned/worked in engineering
Why are you in finance then?
Because I want to fit in.
Biology and I regret it to the fullest, had family pressure to go into medicine but now I work a more business oriented role which I love.
Wish I had majored in Finance or Economics instead.
story of my life.... did biochem and then biotechnology to try and pivot
No offence to you but I don't get this. If my parents told me what to do in university or even in high school I would have told them to go fuck themselves and I'm living my own life. My parents were reasonable but I dont get why you wouldn't do what you really want.
its easier to do that when you are raised independent but when your parents have been overbearing day one and taken on that enforcer role to make sure you don't become brave and break free, it becomes a lot more difficult
I majored in alchemy with a minor in fletching. I brew potions and soothsay in my spare time. While I'm on the topic, beware the ides of march DickFuld
What was your major as an undergrad? (Originally Posted: 12/17/2016)
I am guessing that most of the people on this forum studied economics but I was wondering if there are any outliers.
What is this sorcery?
I majored in boobies and got double Ds in every class
So how long have you been playing RuneScape?
pre falador massacre days
Runescape? What are you, a peasant? I played WOW like civilized folk.
Hilarious.
Mathematics and statistics and computer science.
Stick with finance/accounting unless your goal is to enter academia. What you'll find is that the people who usually encourage others to study technical disciplines are those who did not study a technical discipline themselves. Anecdotally, every single engineer I have become acquainted with is working in a role that requires 0 technical knowledge and significant finance, accounting, and/or sales knowledge. If you're a hard-working individual, on average, you will achieve significantly more success as a finance/accounting major.
This sounds deceiving, but I cannot emphasise it enough: if you are hard-working and have any aptitude and interest for business, do not bother pursuing technical disciplines. You will have significantly superior employability and earnings potential by doing well as a finance/accounting major.
I'd like to echo SOME of what QGKZ said but certainly not all of it. I do think a lot of people are encouraged to into engineering/technical disciplines when they may not have the aptitude or interest to succeed in them. However, if you do have the aptitude/interest in math/computer science, it is definitely worth it. My friends working at Microsoft, Google, etc. doing software engineering and data science make six figures and work 40 hours per week (often less than 40). Learning finance/accounting, as I'm sure GQKZ would agree, is just not all that hard.
While a lot of engineers do end up in roles that don't specifically require an engineering background, I think people undervalue the systems thinking that an engineering education provides. I also came from a Stats/CS background and was pretty nervous about learning the finance aspects of my job but I found that to be the easiest part.
If you are at Wharton, sticking w/ a pure finance major might be the best call. But if you're at a non-target public school, being a finance major is not going to make you stand out. There's a reason so many people in the top investment banking groups (GS TMT, etc.) have engineering degrees. In fact, almost every person I know from my alma mater (semi target) who now works in IBD studied either math or engineering (or both). Yes, they aren't directly applying their academic background to their jobs but employers still see a lot of value in hiring engineers for non-engineering roles. The same thinking applies for why f500 companies like to hire ex bankers. The work ethic you develop being an engineering major, similar to the work ethic you develop as a banker, is transcendent and employers recognize this.
Of course, if you have no interest in engineering, stay away. It will only destroy your GPA and college experience in general. If you do have an interest (and an aptitude. The aptitude is important) I would not discourage you from pursuing an engineering degree.
I might hijack this thread whilst I can. What is a more desirable major for AM/HFs in terms of recruiting (very small I know)? Economics or Finance or Accounting? I understand not every fund is the same and the different strategies employed by each of the funds can also very the desired major
What type of strategies are you interested in?
I majored in both economics and finance. At my college a finance major included several accounting papers, so I feel I've learned enough to at least be fluent in the major financial statements. My final year was focused almost completely on independent research in econometrics, which got me pretty comfortable with Stata, Eviews and Matlab. All in all I'm pretty happy with what I took.
While Econ/Finance/Accounting seems to be the traditional route for any role in finance, I know a lot of people who got IB roles with engineering, law, and math backgrounds. Hell, I know someone who got into GS with a pharmacy degree (internship, they then got a grad offer conditional on them doing a few finance papers in their final year). Honestly, I doubt you directly apply the skills from any degree in most jobs; if you can demonstrate that you're a smart, hard worker and you hustle hard I don't think it really matters what you take.
Fuck off OP
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Biology.
Forced into it by overbearing parents who wanted me to be a doctor and then tried to get me to stay in it because "its STEM and you can find a job with that degree". Tried to reason with them, did not listen, and I had a miserable college experience due to taking stressful upper level science classes and barely getting by. Ended up graduating with a GPA in the low 2s because of it and had a rough time finding a job after college. TBH, I barely even studied that much as a biology major, never liked the sciences in school.
If I had choice, I would have picked finance or economics as my major. I really feel like my passion for those subjects would have got me a great GPA and a much better career path after college.
I also studied Biology. What you study in undergrad really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
I took Engineering in Information Technology.
ISYE from Gatech.
Agricultural Business and Art History. I actually think it helped me because I had a nice little story and I think it made people remember me (granted I was targeting boutiques/MM not BB/EB).
Finance and Supply Chain Management
Mathematics, Statistics, and Quantitative Economics. I ditto what others said about avoiding STEM majors if you want to break into a field that doesn't require it (i.e. banking, etc.).
Math/Econ. Really happy I took math as it helped me be more structured and logical. Plus, good results in math look great for practically any job.
Shit degree from a shit CC and will be at a shit state college
What was your undergerad major and why (Originally Posted: 03/11/2012)
I'm transferring to the undergrad business school at my university, and was curious on what some of you guys did during your college years major wise? From trolling the forums nowadays I see a lot of people saying engineering is the way to go, but are most people on here finance/ accounting majors or something along those lines? What made you pick that major? Thanks for the help guys, I'm just mulling stuff over in my brain.
Sounds like a B.S.
I know that feeling
Finance, because it teaches fundamental and technical analysis and looks good on the resume
Economics, because it is the most prestigious social science degree you can get
Math/Engineering/Computer Science are for those who want to do trading
Chose Finance because it was the only thing that interested me. I loved the markets, financial analysis, equities and everything related. Plus, I was told that it was practical.
Exactly what TraderDaily said ^^^^ I'm from a non-target which also makes it more practical.
Economics at a semi-target. It's academic as well as practical. Can't beat it. Plus, medium difficulty majors >> hard majors. Just ask M&I.
Accounting at a top 20- you can learn all the finance you need for IB in a couple classes. What really has helped me in recruiting and on the job is having a deep working knowledge of the accounting impact M&A/debt/equity transactions will have. I feel like finance majors are a dime a dozen on wall street - unless you go through a top shelf program like Wharton it really isn't that impressive.
Economics undergrad + MSF...it was always the plan. Economics gives the bigger picture and Finance is ballin. Plus my dad's a PHd in Economics so I wanted to make him proud. Turns out he isn't....
I think if I could go back I would have done economics.
I majored in Econ at a low Ivy.
One thing I noticed on this board is that some posters seem to have a disdain towards Econ/ finance majors. They only think engineering/ math majors are noteworthy majors, and look down on people who majored in Econ/ finance/ whatever.
All I will say is that what you major in matters for certain careers, but for consulting or banking (which many on this site are interested in pursuing), what you major in doesn't matter much at all. What matters is 1) where you go to school, 2) your GPA, and 3) your interviewing skills.
Agreed...I majored in English lol, took very few classes in Econ, Acct or Fin and have acquired a lot of the knowledge by self study and learning on the job....Networking and interviewing are the key skills, if you can talk to people and make them relate to your background/story anything is possible.
I have two frames of mind on the subject.
(1) is my mathematical, pursuit of intellectual purity frame of mind, which says:
(A) If you can handle Math or Physics, you should study Math or Physics. This is the only way you're ever going to be able to speak directly to God without going crazy first.
(B) If you can't handle (or supremely dislike) (A) from a conceptual standpoint, but you're still hard-working and intellectual, then study Engineering or Applied Mathematics.
(C) At this point, I don't really care, but I'm not subsidizing your tuition if you're not studying at least Economics, the Life Sciences Ex-Zoology, or Business from a reputable program.
(2) is my more pragmatic frame of mind:
It's much simpler: Assuming you go to a Top 25 School, study whatever the fuck you want and nail as many girls as possible.
Both are good. Pick one.
EDIT: Mine is Mathematics. I must say, having a high GPA in Math made me super marketable for a variety of post-college options. Not necessarily because you know anything about anything, but because people respect the hell out of you.
I am a strong believer in (1). All-hail the one true hierarchy.
I started off as a computer science major, but then realized that I found the material very boring and that the last thing I wanted to end up in life is as the IT guy, so just to be safe I switched over to math. I chose math because 1. it was the only other thing I was decent at 2. it's very versatile (you can go into engineering, physics, econ, etc) and useful for learning other subjects 3. I thought it would make me smarter.
I'm graduating this Spring. This past year I've gotten so sick of math to the point where I decided that there's no chance in hell that I'm taking another math class this semester. To be fair, I'm sick of school in general so it might be unfair of me to single out math. But I definitely got everything out of the subject that I wanted and have no interest in pursuing the subject any further. I'm glad that I majored in math because like atomic said, having a high GPA as a math major makes you very marketable because people just assume you're smart as hell. But I can't comprehend why anyone without Asperger's would want to get a PHD in the subject because IMO it gets really abstract/boring.
Econ and more econ.
FEMINIST DANCE HISTORY
Going for a B.B.A. with a concentration in finance and a B.S. in Applied Economics.
Who's taking surveys on WSO? Trying to learn the secrets of finance guys eh?
Poli Sci/Econ in UG Real Estate Development in Grad
Mostly booze.
And something about RE Finance, I think, too.
They're in the same department
Mathematics and Computer Science major.
I once though of doing a PhD in math. Glad I didn't. No offence to those who did, in fact, I respect the ones who could think about ONE math problem for months. That just isn't me.
Finance and Marketing double major.
Everyone says marketing is pointless and dumb, but the amount of presentations you do easily makes it worth it for becoming comfortable and interpersonal in interviews. No matter what, you're always selling something, and the major teaches you high level strategic thought.
Management is much better to train both strategic thinking and presentation making, no offense, but the only way marketing is good for career in finance is improving gpa. Of course some marketing guys are really smart, but from my personal experience marketing attracts a bit less motivated/able people.
Can definitely be a good gpa booster, think you took it wrong for being good for finance... the major and paired psych classes are good for interviewing and presentation skills, that's it. and no offense taken, my personal thought is a person who is a management major isn't skilled enough to take on anything challenging and have zero creativity. the only ones I know are dumb as rocks and impossible to work with. But I'm sure there are smart people as well.
Finance with a CS minor
Finance & Comparative Literature. Perfect mix for the pretentious.
Political Science and History. Ended up in commercial real estate somehow.
History - I only study it because I go to a top 4 UK school so recruiting for Ibanking/Consulting isn't limited. But if I was going to a mid or low level university I would have definitely have studied a more marketable degree like Finance or Econ instead.
B.S. BA with majors in Marketing and Finance Currently enrolled in MS Finance Program
Math and econ double major, business minor
BA Philosophy (genuinely, not a troll)
Major: Psychology Minor: Spanish
econ. minor in intl relations
Finance and statistics; I'm one of those weirdos who actually enjoys starting at excel spreadsheets
Get used to it, you'll be doing it all day on the job.
Majored in broken dreams Minored in social drinking
And interned in psychiatry hospitals
Nope, just a millennial.
Physics and Philosophy
Majored in finance Minored in business
This website is full of betas trying to act alpha
It's difficult for me to hear those two terms used without irony.
Majoring in Chemistry at NYU. I enjoy studying it, but I want to wear a suit and grind, not sit in a lab coat and wait....
Music and switched to Econ. I sold out.
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