Best Colleges or Universities to Go to if I Want to Major in Art and Minor in Computer Science

Many loftier-school and academy students with an interest in finance naturally want to know, "What'due south the all-time higher major for investment banking?"

The answer to this question has changed over the years. And these changes have made your university major both less important and more important.

Allow me explain…

Investment Cyberbanking Majors: Assumptions and Constraints

In this article, I am making a few important assumptions:

1. You accept to pay for your degree, either upfront or by borrowing money.
2. You are attention a relatively expensive school that will cost at to the lowest degree tens of thousands of dollars in total.
3. University degrees volition continue to be required for jobs in finance, specially in the most competitive fields, such every bit investment banking and private equity.
4. You are interested in a finance career, but you lot also want a expert "Plan B" in case you graduate during a market crash or recession, or yous decide against finance.
5. You are a practical, logical person who wants to achieve a decent ROI on the time and money y'all spend on the degree.

Some of these assumptions may not be truthful for you.

For example, maybe you lot accept wealthy parents who are paying for your degree, or you lot're in a country where higher education is costless or very cheap.

Or, y'all accept a philosophical objection to this concept because you believe that a university didactics should offer "learning for the sake of learning."

Or, you believe that the unabridged university system volition collapse, so official degrees will no longer be required, and trade schools volition take over, similar to what'south already happening in software.

If that's you, delight stop reading right hither. You lot might be right, simply this article is not for you.

Instead, nosotros're going to focus on the average person'southward reality:

Why Does Your University Major Matter At All?

Back in 2005 or 2010, your university major mattered because:

1. undergraduate-level recruiting took place afterward, then more of your grades came from your major, and
2. there were fewer ways to learn accounting and financial modeling independently.

Only as of today, both of those – and more! – have changed.

The IB recruiting timeline is now hyper-accelerated, there are far more self-written report options, and careers in "loftier finance" have get less unique compared with ones in technology, sales, or even real estate.

And even if you start early on and do everything right, the randomness and timing of the recruiting procedure mean that you might cease upward without an IB offer.

And then, your major matters for 3 reasons in the brusk term:

1. You need to earn a good GPA – at least a iii.5, and ideally over three.7 if you're at a lesser-known schoolhouse – to have the best shot at winning interviews. A depression GPA is the virtually hard weakness to overcome in interviews, so you don't want to pick something that makes your grades plummet.
2. You want to signal that you lot're competent and intelligent, and a major that'due south at to the lowest degree moderately difficult will requite this impression.
3. Your major is at present more important for "Programme B" options in case y'all graduate into a market crash or recession, or you decide against finance.

A few other important points include:

• If you're an international student studying in the U.S., you lot desire a degree that qualifies as STEM and so you can stay in the country and work for 36 months after graduation. Many degrees count as Stalk (Google it), including some that are a fleck of a stretch.
• Regardless of your official major, you should take classes where you learn applied skills that you can apply straight to high-paying jobs.
• Finally, you don't want a major that crowds out your time for other activities, such every bit networking, internships, and student groups.

Based on all of that…

Hither'southward my recommendation for the Best Investment Banking Major" (or "Study Programme"):

• Major: Accounting/finance (or, if your academy doesn't take these specific majors, something that has coursework in these areas).
• Pocket-sized: Computer science, math, or statistics.
• You should also consider taking at least i-two writing or communication-intensive classes considering plenty of students are expert with numbers, but many of them cannot communicate with other humans.
• If you're an international student, you lot may take to flip the order so your major qualifies every bit "STEM."

Why This Major/Small Combination?

This combination is special because it:

• gives you the skills required for finance careers
• makes you lot seem competent/intelligent, and
• gives you good "Programme B" options in case you determine against finance.

It should not be overly hard to earn a decent GPA, and if you run low on free fourth dimension, you can drop the official small-scale and make information technology a few extra classes instead.

Also, y'all can front-load the easier classes in your first 1-ii years to boost your GPA by the time you apply for internships.

If you want to be a quant, you tin flip the order and selection math or CS for your major and accounting/finance for your minor.

Here's why each specific component in this plan matters:

• Significant Accounting Coursework: Accounting is, by far, the near of import "technical skill" for investment banking, private equity, and many hedge funds. And a lot of mid-level and senior bankers don't understand it that well!
• 1 or Ii Corporate Finance Classes: Most universities practice not offer courses that delve into the real "corporate finance" piece of work done in IB/PE roles (i.e., valuation and modeling transactions), so yous should cease with the nuts of corporate finance earlier getting into the weeds.
• Math/Statistics/Information science Background: You don't need to be an proficient, but these skills will be applicable in almost whatever field. You should understand basic programming concepts (control structures, data structures, recursion, memory, etc.) and math through calculus and linear algebra.
• One or Two Writing/Advice-Intensive Classes: You spend a lot of fourth dimension reading and writing documents, calling people, and conducting meetings in finance and likewise in sales, product management, and real estate.

Finally, if y'all decide against finance after completing a sequence of internships or an official IB internship, this programme volition requite yous other options:

• Tech Companies: Product management, sales, data science, or potentially even programming (only you may need a deeper background for the latter two).
• Finance-Related Areas: Fintech and real manor are always solid options. Possibly even consulting, if you experience like earning less and living in hotels. Then there are Big 4 firms and others in "professional services" that expect for similar skills.
• Non-Finance, Not-Tech Companies: You could as well join a normal company in a corporate finance, corporate strategy, or projection management role.

You won't be the ideal candidate to win the most technical jobs with this combination (e.g., working on Google'southward search algorithm), and you also won't be in the all-time position to win the nigh sales-y jobs (eastward.yard., enterprise sales at Oracle).

Only you will have a lot of flexibility for roles in betwixt those ii extremes.

"Merely Wait! I Want to Study Literature! Or History! Or Gender Studies!"

I hear you lot.

Even though I was a Estimator Scientific discipline major, I almost picked History or Literature, and I've been rereading all of Shakespeare's plays this twelvemonth (for fun).

But I don't think it's a great thought to choice something in the liberal arts or social sciences if your goal is a loftier-paying task immediately after graduation, and you don't desire to be "forced" into police force school or another caste.

If you're at an elite university (the Ivy League and like schools in the U.S.; Oxbridge in the U.One thousand., etc.), yous might be able to pull this off because your university'due south reputation is far more important than your major.

Simply if you're at even a moderately-bottom-known school, whether a "semi-target" or a consummate non-target for banks, it'due south a bad thought.

Bankers might be able to vouch for an English Literature major from Harvard, just they'd be a lot more than skeptical about a similar candidate from Podunk U.

Other Investment Cyberbanking Major Mistakes to Avert

Double and triple majors are bad ideas because they will drag down your GPA and reduce your free time.

Bankers will not exist impressed if you lot earned a iii.ane cumulative GPA and had lower grades because of a triple major – they'd rather hire someone who earned a 3.7 with one major and who also had adept internships.

Finally, Economics is not a good choice unless your school offers absolutely nothing else related to Bookkeeping or Finance.

Not merely is it questionable to call macroeconomics a "science," simply it has very niggling to practise with the daily work in IB, PE, or tech careers.

Maybe if yous are interested in nugget management or portfolio management or something broader, Economics could be more than applicable…

…simply it's yet more useful to know accounting and the fiscal statements similar the back of your mitt.

How To Combine Your Major With Activities And Internships

Nosotros have a few examples of how to combine your major with activities and internships in the article on how to prepare for investment cyberbanking summer internship recruiting.

In short, you need to win finance-related internships early (Year i and Year 2) then y'all can set yourself up for IB and related roles – or dominion them out quickly.

Yous don't demand to commit to a specific major in the starting time; you just need something by the fourth dimension recruiting for Twelvemonth 3 internships begins.

Investment Banking Majors: What Next?

Questions about the "best" major never go away, but most advice near this topic is somewhat off.

Banks indeed rent from all majors, and some majors are more than relevant to finance than others.

Only those points ignore the truthful importance of your major: allowing you to earn good grades while appearing competent and intelligent and gaining a useful skill set that gives you lot alternate career options.

But as I said in the beginning, if someone else is paying for your degree, your education is "complimentary," or yous don't care most practicality, feel free to practise what you want.

I hear the Gender Studies section is recruiting.

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Source: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-major/

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