How to get the best out of my Econ degree?
Hello I am a finance major and I am also thinking about majoring in economics, because I need the quantitative skills. The problem is that my school is heavily focused around governmental and policy economics around Washington DC. I want to study economics that will prepare me for a financial analyst job for a middle market or a boutique i-bank.
What types of economics classes do you suggest I should take that will benefit me most or what field in economics should I focus on. It seems to me that all economics majors in my school are libertarian/academic oriented and I don't think diving into that will help to where I want to go.
Will an Econ Major Prepare Me for Investment Banking?
If you want to get a job at a middle market or boutique investment bank, then taking finance courses is probably the best way to get the skills you need. If you’re worried about quantitative skills, you could:
- Add a math minor
- Complete an econ minor, focusing on econometrics courses
- Sign up for WSO / Wall Street Prep Financial Modeling Course
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To get the MOST out of your degree I would suggest taking courses relevant to finance. Accounting, corporate finance, etc etc etc.
So you're saying you need to add an econ degree so you can get the quantitative skills needed for banking?
Or you could just buy the wso guide for $20.
Do you go to American?
I'm in the same predicament .. can't decide between a BBA in Finance or a BA in Econ. I'm leaning towards econ since I can just take some finance/accounting classes and still get the "well-rounded" knowledge from Econ classes. My school isn't overly prestigious so I don't know how it'll look to prospective employers. Subbed.
Lol his name is George Mason Student you kidding me do you go to American. Also getting quantitative skills from an econ degree??? What a joke. Econ is not a quant degree. Try Math, physics, CS, engineering.
LMAO. Economics isn't a quantitative degree? That's interesting to know, becuase I am graduating with my degree in Economics and I have completed (with As) through Calculus 3 , advanced statistics as well as Econometrics. Idk what planet you have been living on, but anyone who is seriously studying Economics deals with quanititative data constantly.
EVERY Economics graduate program REQUIRES at least Calculus 2. Calculus 2 is the bare minimum.
I'm from George Mason and am a solid Finance major. But I also want to double degree with Econ because it gives me some good Calc and econometrics classes. I just have to be very picky as to what econ classes I take because the econ dept is all about academia and writing papers. It seems crazy, I feel like all the economics students are strongly politically affiliated academics here. I don't want to be doing research and lobbing the government for a libertarian foundation. I just want the quantitative and analytical skills that will make me competitive for an investment banking job.
If you want to do banking you do finance. Pretty simple.
But pretty much all the stuff you learn for banking, you can learn on the job. The only reason studying finance makes sense for the OP is because he/she is targeting boutique firms that may not have the resources to have extensive training programs.
IMO, this site inflates the value of business "technical" skills for out of college jobs. I mean if you were doing something like CS or Engineering where you really gotta know your shit, then learning technical skills in college makes sense. I mean if you enjoy studying finance, more power to you. If you want more more quantitative and analytical skills, I don't see anything wrong with taking more econ courses.
I'm an econ major at GMU and I would agree that it's a more policy and academically oriented environment here. What you should remember though is that economics is first and foremost a way of thinking. Some classes that you wouldn't expect to have much utility in terms of practical application can help you view problems in a way that's useful. A lot of undergrad econ classes are survey type classes anyway where you get an overview of the field, the basics, and maybe a bit more if you're lucky.
In regards to your interests, I would probably go for the minor. Beyond the intro classes which you've probably taken, you take intermediate micro and four electives. The electives that seem to most fit what you want are money and banking (310), intermediate macro (311), intro to econometrics (345) - which has intermediate micro and macro as a prereq, and possibly something like international money and finance (420). There's also a special topics class called financial economics, which I believe is offered every spring semester. This saves you from having to take an extra four of these electives required for the major, which as you said are more policy-oriented.
Instead of those electives, take more math for the quant skills. There's a math minor for school of mgmt. students that has you take the calc sequence, linear algebra, calc-based probability, and an elective like stats or financial math. There's no proof-based class required for this minor, unlike the regular math minor. Those classes also make up the bulk of math used in econ and would give you the required credentials for grad programs in econ or finance.
lots of libertarians on the buy-side
Create a credit bearing independent study course based off Wall Street Prep premium + crash in account + crash in excel :)
Econ is a waste of time.
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