Econ vs Finance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the school.

Economics majors at the vast majority of universities is terrible. It's basically a major for students that cannot excel in any other subject and want something vaguely "technical" for jobs.

For schools with an undergrad business school that requires applying to get into, always go with Finance, and only Economics if Economics is also within the business school (i.e. at Wharton, not the liberal arts college at Penn). At these schools, Economics majors are basically kids who couldn't get into STEM or the business school.

At the Ivies without business schools, generally the Economics major is chosen by kids that would've otherwise done finance. But
even at Harvard and MIT, the Economics majors are relatively bad compared to other majors.

It's a cash cow program, basically.

Very bias view of the Ivies... really bad advice. Econ majors from Ivy League and top Liberal Arts colleges get first dibs at most undergraduate finance, tech and business jobs. They make a lot of $$$ and more than most finance majors coming out of undergrad business schools. Check out feeder schools and majors at Poets & Quants.

No they don't, Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors get first dibs at finance jobs and Engineering/CS/Math/Physics grads get first dibs at tech jobs (why would Economics majors get looked at for tech jobs...?)

What is true is that many Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors don't plan to work for Finance/Business, the firms hire the few who do and the rest falls to Econ grads, because students interested in finance/business do Econ in those schools.

The reason that Ivy Econ grads make more than Finance undergrad B-school grads is because of the Ivy branding, not the Econ degree. Ivy grads could do History and make as much doing management consulting

Depends on the applicant’s other qualities... if it’s I-banking, the first crack is going to go to the varsity athlete who majored in Econ or Government.

...That's entirely untrue. Why would Government majors be sought for investment banking? Unless its for government relations, or for management consulting jobs.

Because assuming they are at Harvard or similar, they would rather have a varsity athlete that did government for i-banking. It's not rocket science.

Your argument makes no sense. The only reason that an investment bank would hire a varsity athlete that majored in Government is if that student had family connections - not because they did Government. A upper-middle/middle class kid that does varsity sports and majors in Government won't get hired for doing Government, they don't have any connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the school.

Economics majors at the vast majority of universities is terrible. It's basically a major for students that cannot excel in any other subject and want something vaguely "technical" for jobs.

For schools with an undergrad business school that requires applying to get into, always go with Finance, and only Economics if Economics is also within the business school (i.e. at Wharton, not the liberal arts college at Penn). At these schools, Economics majors are basically kids who couldn't get into STEM or the business school.

At the Ivies without business schools, generally the Economics major is chosen by kids that would've otherwise done finance. But
even at Harvard and MIT, the Economics majors are relatively bad compared to other majors.

It's a cash cow program, basically.

Hi, Math 55 mom!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law vs. MBA are pretty different long-term career paths. What is it about Econ that got your kid excited? That matters a lot to which school and major to pick. Not to mention, most kids change their minds at least somewhat after being exposed to a breadth of subjects in college.

I agree. I did both and in retrospect, see the difference in career paths and in what skill sets it takes to be a success in law vs. business. If the kid really wants a social science degree, and to not delve into heavy numbers, etc., then go econ. It's mainly theoretical stuff but has limited, different career paths outside of a PHd or Masters. Econ and policy work well together, and usually in larger urban cities or think tanks. Think DC based everything.

Finance gives you broader exposure to the corporation and entire corporate function. You crunch numbers, evaluate assets, can delve into investments and of course, lots of cross-over into accounting. Think spreadsheets, projections, budgets, reporting. That can be done at any company or organization. For specialty fields like banking, you have even greater options.

All depends on what the kid really wants and their talents.

OP here.. I agree that DC might change his mind over the 4 years in college. Right now, he's thinking of majoring in CS/math and a minor in econ (or a dual degree or the other way around). He's done well in CS courses and likes it a lot. He also likes econ and has done well but has no exposure to econ beyond AP Macro/Micro. Not sure if it's a passing fancy. However, based on my assessment of his personality, I don't see him being a programmer or be deep-in-IT for too long. While he loves programming, he is also active in debate club/SGA so I am encouraging him to explore both sides of the coin - quantitative and qualitative - when it comes to education and see where that takes him..

[Anonymous]

PP Econ is not very qualitative. It's more made-up magic math.

Respectable qualitative majors at a good university would be History and Philosophy. Those very much help with research and argumentative skills.

For MBA, he should work more towards business/leadership/finance extracurriculars rather than Econ, but basic Econ classes can be a good idea.

[Anonymous]

I started Econ but switched to finance to get some real skills. I feel like I Learned a lot to manage my finances and do analysis. The major switch to finance was to get a “real” job. In reality, you need a masters of finance or come from a top tier school to do really well in a finale major (vs some consulting , general management job). I switched to Tech/ development a few years out of school and it was pretty easy. Making money in tech is So much easier. I continue to do well (average career) making pretty decent money greater than >$200k. I have little hope to make that in finance unless I wanted to do sales and I do not like sales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law vs. MBA are pretty different long-term career paths. What is it about Econ that got your kid excited? That matters a lot to which school and major to pick. Not to mention, most kids change their minds at least somewhat after being exposed to a breadth of subjects in college.

I agree. I did both and in retrospect, see the difference in career paths and in what skill sets it takes to be a success in law vs. business. If the kid really wants a social science degree, and to not delve into heavy numbers, etc., then go econ. It's mainly theoretical stuff but has limited, different career paths outside of a PHd or Masters. Econ and policy work well together, and usually in larger urban cities or think tanks. Think DC based everything.

Finance gives you broader exposure to the corporation and entire corporate function. You crunch numbers, evaluate assets, can delve into investments and of course, lots of cross-over into accounting. Think spreadsheets, projections, budgets, reporting. That can be done at any company or organization. For specialty fields like banking, you have even greater options.

All depends on what the kid really wants and their talents.

OP here.. I agree that DC might change his mind over the 4 years in college. Right now, he's thinking of majoring in CS/math and a minor in econ (or a dual degree or the other way around). He's done well in CS courses and likes it a lot. He also likes econ and has done well but has no exposure to econ beyond AP Macro/Micro. Not sure if it's a passing fancy. However, based on my assessment of his personality, I don't see him being a programmer or be deep-in-IT for too long. While he loves programming, he is also active in debate club/SGA so I am encouraging him to explore both sides of the coin - quantitative and qualitative - when it comes to education and see where that takes him..

He seems well suited to tech management or consulting

[Anonymous]

OP the geekish socially inept CS major doesn't exist much anymore. Being socially adept means better chance of rising through the ranks in a tech company, not a negative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the school.

Economics majors at the vast majority of universities is terrible. It's basically a major for students that cannot excel in any other subject and want something vaguely "technical" for jobs.

For schools with an undergrad business school that requires applying to get into, always go with Finance, and only Economics if Economics is also within the business school (i.e. at Wharton, not the liberal arts college at Penn). At these schools, Economics majors are basically kids who couldn't get into STEM or the business school.

At the Ivies without business schools, generally the Economics major is chosen by kids that would've otherwise done finance. But
even at Harvard and MIT, the Economics majors are relatively bad compared to other majors.

It's a cash cow program, basically.

Very bias view of the Ivies... really bad advice. Econ majors from Ivy League and top Liberal Arts colleges get first dibs at most undergraduate finance, tech and business jobs. They make a lot of $$$ and more than most finance majors coming out of undergrad business schools. Check out feeder schools and majors at Poets & Quants.

No they don't, Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors get first dibs at finance jobs and Engineering/CS/Math/Physics grads get first dibs at tech jobs (why would Economics majors get looked at for tech jobs...?)

What is true is that many Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors don't plan to work for Finance/Business, the firms hire the few who do and the rest falls to Econ grads, because students interested in finance/business do Econ in those schools.

The reason that Ivy Econ grads make more than Finance undergrad B-school grads is because of the Ivy branding, not the Econ degree. Ivy grads could do History and make as much doing management consulting

Depends on the applicant’s other qualities... if it’s I-banking, the first crack is going to go to the varsity athlete who majored in Econ or Government.

...That's entirely untrue. Why would Government majors be sought for investment banking? Unless its for government relations, or for management consulting jobs.

Because assuming they are at Harvard or similar, they would rather have a varsity athlete that did government for i-banking. It's not rocket science.

Your argument makes no sense. The only reason that an investment bank would hire a varsity athlete that majored in Government is if that student had family connections - not because they did Government. A upper-middle/middle class kid that does varsity sports and majors in Government won't get hired for doing Government, they don't have any connections.

It doesn’t have to make sense to you. No connections UMC kid at a top 25 non-Ivy who got i-banking analyst offers with an anthro major. Took extra math and stats, but nothing near a math or finance major. Didn’t take a single biz class.

[Anonymous]

PP the exception does not prove the rule. The vast majority of offers of IB at top 25 aka UVA and Michigan is going to business school/finance majors, not anthro majors.

It also doesn't prove why you think Ivy Government varsity athletes with no connections are targetted by IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the school.

Economics majors at the vast majority of universities is terrible. It's basically a major for students that cannot excel in any other subject and want something vaguely "technical" for jobs.

For schools with an undergrad business school that requires applying to get into, always go with Finance, and only Economics if Economics is also within the business school (i.e. at Wharton, not the liberal arts college at Penn). At these schools, Economics majors are basically kids who couldn't get into STEM or the business school.

At the Ivies without business schools, generally the Economics major is chosen by kids that would've otherwise done finance. But
even at Harvard and MIT, the Economics majors are relatively bad compared to other majors.

It's a cash cow program, basically.

Then why do people major in business, Econ, or finance? Why not just major in math? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m genuinely curious if people are concerning about maximizing employability.

Very bias view of the Ivies... really bad advice. Econ majors from Ivy League and top Liberal Arts colleges get first dibs at most undergraduate finance, tech and business jobs. They make a lot of $$$ and more than most finance majors coming out of undergrad business schools. Check out feeder schools and majors at Poets & Quants.

No they don't, Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors get first dibs at finance jobs and Engineering/CS/Math/Physics grads get first dibs at tech jobs (why would Economics majors get looked at for tech jobs...?)

What is true is that many Math/Physics/Engineering/CS majors don't plan to work for Finance/Business, the firms hire the few who do and the rest falls to Econ grads, because students interested in finance/business do Econ in those schools.

The reason that Ivy Econ grads make more than Finance undergrad B-school grads is because of the Ivy branding, not the Econ degree. Ivy grads could do History and make as much doing management consulting

Depends on the applicant’s other qualities... if it’s I-banking, the first crack is going to go to the varsity athlete who majored in Econ or Government.

...That's entirely untrue. Why would Government majors be sought for investment banking? Unless its for government relations, or for management consulting jobs.

Because assuming they are at Harvard or similar, they would rather have a varsity athlete that did government for i-banking. It's not rocket science.

Your argument makes no sense. The only reason that an investment bank would hire a varsity athlete that majored in Government is if that student had family connections - not because they did Government. A upper-middle/middle class kid that does varsity sports and majors in Government won't get hired for doing Government, they don't have any connections.

It doesn’t have to make sense to you. No connections UMC kid at a top 25 non-Ivy who got i-banking analyst offers with an anthro major. Took extra math and stats, but nothing near a math or finance major. Didn’t take a single biz class.