Investment Banking Question?

If I decided to take courses in University to prepare for becoming an investment banker, would I have to give up calculus? I wouldn't like to give up math. Could I take calculus each year still?

You can study calculus, and should. You won't often find it useful for investment banking -- economics and accounting are more important -- but it is good to understand the concepts.

Math is a requirement for Business Majors regardless of the specialty so you wouldn't have to give up Calc.

investment banking is a numbers game. putting value on companys. its all math

yeah your can its you would take it as an elective. there is no such thing as an investment banker major. what your would do is either major in finance, or math.

what calculas are u going to take up too. i took about 6 classes and let me tell you some of them are a lot harder then others. IE advanced claculus 1, its the proof writing version of clac 1, where you have to actually go back and prove all those rules you learned about.

You can study whatever you want in University. Investment banks merely want to see that you can think; they fully expect to train you in banking themselves. But taking lots of math courses is a good idea. D

I was asked to explain a Taylor Expansion during one of my interviews with a bulge bracket investment bank. My friend was asked to prove whether the square root of 2 is rational or not. Those questions were out of the ordinary. Normally you will have to answer questions regarding how to value a company.

To become an investment banker, you would probably want to major in Economics, Finance, or Business Administration at a target school. Target schools are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UPenn, Berkeley, MIT, etc. You'll need to take calculus to get into those majors. Make sure you take plenty of finance and accounting courses by your junior year, which is when you'll begin interviewing for internships. Granted that you're smart, you should have plenty of time to take math courses on the side.

If you are really interested in math, you may want to consider going into quantitative analysis. With a Master in Financial Engineering degree, you would earn much more than your investment banking buddies out of college. You will need tons of math courses to get accepted into a good MFE program. Berkeley has the claim to having the #1 MFE program. You should check out their website.

Either way, it is essential that you maintain a high GPA. You'll have a pretty difficult time getting an offer with anything below a 3.7 GPA. It would also help a lot to join Phi Beta Kappa, but you have to be in the top 10% of your class to be admitted. You'll also need some luck so that the economy isn't horrible on the year you graduate, like it was for me.

Good luck!