Geography for a career in finance

I'm planning on studying Geography at a top London University such as KCL, UCL and LSE and I am thinking of applying to Durham too. If I were to get into one of these universities to study Geography what would be the likelihood of success in pursuing a career in Investment Banking or Management Consultancy?
I understand a Geography and Economics or a pure Economics degree would be more suited however I do not want to take Maths next year for A - Level purely because of the risk of not getting an A whereas I am confident of getting A*/A's in my other subjects.
Also, how would I strengthen my chances of getting a job in the financial sector? Are there any past or current students who study Geography and have been successful in this line of work? Could you give me any advice to improve my job application? Obviously reading related magazines/articles etc. but is there anything that would really make me stand out from the rest? Eg, certain projects/ courses/ societies.

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Reply 1

username638250

7

LSE > UCL (maybe equal) >>>> KCL, Durham (semi-targets) for IB
for top MC firms I.e. MBB
LSE >>>UCL >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everywhere else

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Reply 2

Max9708

OP

1

Would a geography degree be sufficient for sales trading for example if done at LSE/UCL, obviously with extra curricular and interest shown etc.

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Reply 3

username638250

7

Original post by Max9708

Would a geography degree be sufficient for sales trading for example if done at LSE/UCL, obviously with extra curricular and interest shown etc.

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I don't see why not.

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Reply 4

Max9708

OP

1

Thanks for the info! (Y)

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Reply 5

p.formanko

14

hey - I'm in the same situation (almost). I'm aiming to apply for Geography BA (3 or 4 year course) at UCL in the hope that, once I finish, I'll be able to go into either sports marketing or journalism - I've been told (by my school and companies themselves) that if you show a passion for what you want to do (eg co-curricular stuff) and have a reasonably suitable degree to accompany it (geography teaches you teamwork, IT skills, managerial skills, ie transferable skills which all employers appreciate) then you have an equal chance of getting in as someone with a more suitable degree - hope this helped :smile:

Reply 6

Max9708

OP

1

Original post by p.formanko

hey - I'm in the same situation (almost). I'm aiming to apply for Geography BA (3 or 4 year course) at UCL in the hope that, once I finish, I'll be able to go into either sports marketing or journalism - I've been told (by my school and companies themselves) that if you show a passion for what you want to do (eg co-curricular stuff) and have a reasonably suitable degree to accompany it (geography teaches you teamwork, IT skills, managerial skills, ie transferable skills which all employers appreciate) then you have an equal chance of getting in as someone with a more suitable degree - hope this helped :smile:

Great! Cheers for the information! From what I've gathered I think doing a Geography degree is highly likely to be beneficial.
It's getting to the time for planning personal statements now :s What work experience/ if any are you going to put down? I've organised a week with an energy company so I'm going to try and manipulate it to seem like I was interested in renewables and new approaches to energy provision such as fracking (I really applied to go into the finance area of the firm).
It'd be nice to see what a fellow applicant is planning on putting down

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Reply 7

Max9708

OP

1

I'm also going to do some extra reading about energy when my exams have finished to make that my main topic in my personal statement

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Reply 8

p.formanko

14

Original post by Max9708

Great! Cheers for the information! From what I've gathered I think doing a Geography degree is highly likely to be beneficial.
It's getting to the time for planning personal statements now :s What work experience/ if any are you going to put down? I've organised a week with an energy company so I'm going to try and manipulate it to seem like I was interested in renewables and new approaches to energy provision such as fracking (I really applied to go into the finance area of the firm).
It'd be nice to see what a fellow applicant is planning on putting down

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Hi again - I haven't done any work experience directly related to geography as such. over the summer I'm doing a small amount of work for a triathlon clothing company (which I can just say was work experience in marketing) and also sent my work out to a few newspapers to see if they can publish/post some of it in their newspapers, to prove that I'm trying to be proactive about what I want to do :smile:

The most I directly have to do with geography is a subscription to national geographic, a few geography society meetings at my school and in London, and a bike ride I did across Europe last summer. Since I'm hoping for a career not directly linked to geography, I'm sure they'll be a bit more lenient about the co-curricular stuff I've done (which I have done a fair amount of! :biggrin:

)

edit: forgot to mention, since I'm aiming to do the "human geography" degree (BA) it's more to do with globalisation and the actions and movements of people - so I'm reading books on topical issues like North Korea (communist regime, lack of access to internet, no freedom of speech) and if I have time I'll try to take out some more books on globalisation

(edited 9 years ago)

Geography for a career in finance

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