Well, here I am procrastinating for courses which I am extremely weak in.. However, I know next semester, (When I start my finance major), the classes will be extremely easy as I am good with numbers. So how many of you are actually good in finance? Because, I know a lot of people majoring in accounting/finance, but they are weak in terms of analytics. I admit I suck in the other classes (history, arts, english, etc..)! I did grade 11 math in grade 7 and always placed top 10% in math tests nationwide. And I always did good in math/statistics/economic courses.
how much math is really required to get a degree in finance though? i knew people who majored in accounting & finance and they didn't need to take advanced math/stats. by advanced, i mean the same upper division math/stat classes that math/stat majors take and the same classes that would be a pre-req for someone to get into a math graduate program. if you excel in math and analytics, you should consider engineering or computer science.
Yea, but I would think one who is good in math will also be good in finance. too late for switching degrees bro!!
I agree with blackjack. If I were you, I would actually switch to accounting. The prereqs may be the same, so it shouldn't be a difficult switch. Finance jobs are few and far between and seem to be conferred to those with math/engineering related degrees from top-schools. Based upon your major, I sincerely doubt you are currently attending an elite school because very few offer traditional finance or business degrees at the undergraduate level. Accounting will open more doors, and the math required is fairly simply. I passed the AP Calculus exam with a 5 and was only required to complete two additional stats courses as an accounting major.
my degree was finance/accounting. i have to warn you it is more than maths. i had to learn the whole of the financial standards off by heart. there are other things too. sure maths will help with the calculation side but what about the theory side when it clashes with economics. such as liquidity preference theory etc. it will also help with derivatives but you will find out the calculations are next to useless, that is why we are in such a mess. there is a lot of written analysis too. be warned. also the maths required can be done if you can computer program. this means the skills you develop or useless in the real world on some situations so the other skills are useful. you might have to write reposts. for example analyse the value of a company, i.e. the beta calculations etc and then write a report on the accounts then write report. this is hard the analysis has to be good. also you will have to explain international finance this is hard because you have to understand the monetary policy affects of finance. this is very difficult because you have to understand the economic schools that are around. good luck but don't think it is just maths.
Good post. The basic Business/Finance degree is minimal math. If you want to go Financial Engineering then more math is good, but at the same time these are the clowns with the theories who make money in the short run and blow up to the nth degree down the road. The guys who do well in the long run, may understand the math, but more importantly they understand the real world. The quants are on the whole a bunch of number crunching idiots, who don't see the big picture, or don't care. The hedge funds that live in the real world saw the opportunity in the real estate mania and rode it up, but started playing the other side before the bubble burst, and were positioned to clean up. The tech quants got their asses handed to them. For me it's like metorology, they have forecasting models, but the geniuses don't take into account the idea they have optimized a set of data. They think they have, but life is full of new variations of old problems that, in my belief, the mind can figure out better than a computer at this point. A realistic mind that is, not a theory mind. Anyway, I may fall into good at math, but I believe my gift lies in my realistic view as opposed to mania viewpoint.