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Which major should i chose for a career in Investment Banking

I am currently in the state of war within me can anyone please help them sign a peace treaty. My aim is to go to Oxford in MSC to complete computational finance but want to explore investment banking. There are two courses 1)financial mathematics, 2) maths with economics can you please tell that which cou4rse will give me an edge in acquiring the position in investment banker and what will be the following entry-level position to the following major.
Neither will be better or worse as far as the career of investment banking goes, and you don't need to do a highly mathematical degree at al for that sector - IBanking doesn't involve much maths beyond GCSE level, that kind of stuff is done by quants, not IBanking analysts.

As far as Oxford goes, the computational finance course is based in the mathematics department and so will be extremely mathematical and will realistically require a first degree in maths (or primarily in maths). They will probably assume fluency with abstract linear algebra and real analysis at the least. You can see that the course includes PDEs and stochastic calculus in the first term.

So look at the course structures for each undergrad degree you are considering and make a decision on that basis. I imagine either would be suitable at most universities but some universities offering "financial mathematics" may focus too much on statistics and applicable mathematics and not enough "core" pure mathematics.

However as above all that maths is way overkill and you will realistically never use it as an analyst in a bulge bracket bank. Most of what analysts do is just "advanced MS excel" and arguing about fonts. It's really not a mathematical field, if the mathematical side is what you are interested in you may want to angle for quant roles rather. Note that to become a quant would probably require a PhD, although that masters course and a PhD in a related form to it would be very relevant for that I think.
Reply 2
Original post by artful_lounger
Neither will be better or worse as far as the career of investment banking goes, and you don't need to do a highly mathematical degree at al for that sector - IBanking doesn't involve much maths beyond GCSE level, that kind of stuff is done by quants, not IBanking analysts.

As far as Oxford goes, the computational finance course is based in the mathematics department and so will be extremely mathematical and will realistically require a first degree in maths (or primarily in maths). They will probably assume fluency with abstract linear algebra and real analysis at the least. You can see that the course includes PDEs and stochastic calculus in the first term.

So look at the course structures for each undergrad degree you are considering and make a decision on that basis. I imagine either would be suitable at most universities but some universities offering "financial mathematics" may focus too much on statistics and applicable mathematics and not enough "core" pure mathematics.

However as above all that maths is way overkill and you will realistically never use it as an analyst in a bulge bracket bank. Most of what analysts do is just "advanced MS excel" and arguing about fonts. It's really not a mathematical field, if the mathematical side is what you are interested in you may want to angle for quant roles rather. Note that to become a quant would probably require a PhD, although that masters course and a PhD in a related form to it would be very relevant for that I think.

Thank you,i am actually planning to be a quant and yes i have checked the course structure but can you please tell me the entry level position or the feild that I could attain a position at and their respective salary at entry level thank you
Reply 3
Original post by artful_lounger
Neither will be better or worse as far as the career of investment banking goes, and you don't need to do a highly mathematical degree at al for that sector - IBanking doesn't involve much maths beyond GCSE level, that kind of stuff is done by quants, not IBanking analysts.

As far as Oxford goes, the computational finance course is based in the mathematics department and so will be extremely mathematical and will realistically require a first degree in maths (or primarily in maths). They will probably assume fluency with abstract linear algebra and real analysis at the least. You can see that the course includes PDEs and stochastic calculus in the first term.

So look at the course structures for each undergrad degree you are considering and make a decision on that basis. I imagine either would be suitable at most universities but some universities offering "financial mathematics" may focus too much on statistics and applicable mathematics and not enough "core" pure mathematics.

However as above all that maths is way overkill and you will realistically never use it as an analyst in a bulge bracket bank. Most of what analysts do is just "advanced MS excel" and arguing about fonts. It's really not a mathematical field, if the mathematical side is what you are interested in you may want to angle for quant roles rather. Note that to become a quant would probably require a PhD, although that masters course and a PhD in a related form to it would be very relevant for that I think.

Thank you,i am actually planning to be a quant and yes i have checked the course structure but can you please tell me the entry level position or the feild that I could attain a position at and their respective salary at entry level thank you
Original post by AZZANZAHID
Thank you,i am actually planning to be a quant and yes i have checked the course structure but can you please tell me the entry level position or the feild that I could attain a position at and their respective salary at entry level thank you


Don't know on either count now really, back when I vaguely looked into it previously several years ago it was usually something people went into with PhD in hand, having done a mathematical undergrad and then a PhD (and/or masters) with a significant computational content/approaches. Things may have changed now though. As for salary, I don't know, suffice it to say it will be enough to live on comfortably I expect.
Original post by AZZANZAHID
I am currently in the state of war within me can anyone please help them sign a peace treaty. My aim is to go to Oxford in MSC to complete computational finance but want to explore investment banking. There are two courses 1)financial mathematics, 2) maths with economics can you please tell that which cou4rse will give me an edge in acquiring the position in investment banker and what will be the following entry-level position to the following major.


If you want to work in traditional IB work (M&A, IPO, sales etc.) my understanding it doesn't really matter what subject you studied.

For the MSc in Computational finance look at the entry requirements but I rater suspect a highly analytical undergrad.

For other areas of finance like quants then an MSc or PhD in mathematics/comp sci similar is probably the way to go.
Original post by AZZANZAHID
Thank you,i am actually planning to be a quant and yes i have checked the course structure but can you please tell me the entry level position or the feild that I could attain a position at and their respective salary at entry level thank you

If you want to be a quant: Maths with Econ > Financial Economics

Entry level roles: quant trader or quant research at a prop trading shop, IB quant. Entry-level respective salary at top prop: £200k-400k all-in, BB: £70-90k all-in
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 7
I would say not Management lol. Noone wants to hire managers without work experience.
Try Maths. All my friends in maths got offers first

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