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Finance Major: Is it hard? Finance Major: Is it hard?

05-01-2009 , 05:28 PM
Hello everyone. I am a junior/senior in Political Science and have many more credits because I started off with IT then Nursing and nursing was just not my thing once I got in the program.

I do somewhat enjoy political science, but as time went on I think I got burned out as I was the president of the debate team, the Model UN team, and a member of many other clubs (thus why I think I got burned out) at my university.

I recently started reading up on stocks and the market/economy and find it pretty interesting when I learn about what kind of stocks and what markets show potential of rebound in todays world (not sure I'm making sense here).

Anyways I'm wondering what is the overall difficulty of a bachelors in Finance/Accounting.

Is it very math intensive? Is it easier/harder than political science? Look forward to reading any responses.

Thanks.
05-01-2009 , 05:30 PM
about as hard as your femur
05-01-2009 , 06:31 PM
you should just be a model or a personal trainer
05-01-2009 , 06:35 PM
Pretty sure the math is pretty basic unless you are at a top tier school.

I'd imagine it's harder than a poli sci major, prob less work though.
05-01-2009 , 06:42 PM
accounting is much diff't than finance, but judging by your post stick to poli sci and just daytrade on the side
05-01-2009 , 11:58 PM
Harder than poli sci (but honestly, what isn't?) and the most quantitative of any b-school major.

On a difficulty scale of 0 (art history, marketing) to 10 (physics, engineering), I'd say finance is about a 7.

Like someone else said, it varies with the school. I went to a top-tier b-school where we had more exotic finance classes (probably 75% were joint-MBA/MSF/undergrad) so there weren't any boring commercial banking or insurance classes.

Last edited by Fusilli Jerry; 05-02-2009 at 12:17 AM.
05-02-2009 , 02:55 AM
Some of the classes can be very hard at top schools. My Debt Instruments class involved a good amount of math and financial theory too.
05-02-2009 , 02:57 AM
there are no difficult bschool majors at my school fwiw
05-02-2009 , 10:45 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Financier
Some of the classes can be very hard at top schools. My Debt Instruments class involved a good amount of math and financial theory too.
this is my experience as well. in most classes nothing was too bad but some of the upper-tier classes were joint MBA/grad classes and were very math intensive.

Quote:
21-370 Discrete-Time Finance

This course introduces the Black-Scholes option pricing formula, shows how the binomial model provides a discretization of this formula, and uses this connection to fit the binomial model to data. It then sets the stage for Continuous-Time Finance by discussing in the binomial model the mathematical technology of filtrations, martingales, Markov processes and risk-neutral measures. Additional topics are American options, expected utility maximization, the Fundamental Theorems of Asset Pricing in a multi-period setting, and term structure modeling, including the Heath-Jarrow-Morton model. 3 hours lecture.
Quote:
21-420 Continuous-Time Finance

This course begins with Brownian motion, stochastic integration,and Ito's formula from stochastic calculus. This theory is used to develop the Black-Scholes option pricing formula and the Black-Scholes partial differential equation. Additional topics may include models of credit risk, simulation, and expected utility maximization. 3 hours lecture.
05-02-2009 , 11:49 AM
Well, I don't necessarily think Polisci is the easiest like some people are saying because it takes a lot of reading and comprehension and the ability to grasp very abstract ideas/theories, but I will look more into this stuff.


As for daytrading on the side, I don't want to daytrade. Thats gambling.
05-02-2009 , 03:24 PM
Why would you allow difficulty to get in the way of something you may love doing?
05-02-2009 , 05:21 PM
Cuz I'm lazy duh, I play poker.
05-02-2009 , 11:34 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pokers Hard
As for daytrading on the side, I don't want to daytrade. Thats gambling.
Daytrading is gambling? Poker is all a game of luck. Stick to poli sci and invest in index funds if you aren't open to learning about theories and then trying to apply them yourself you won't get anything out of the classes.

I'm graduating with a BS in finance and accounting, accounting is very diffrent then finance. There is nothing really complicated math wise in finance because most of the formulas are straight forward. It's really understanding the theory behind the formulas, garbage in is garbage out, you can use the right formula but people that don't understand the formulas make mistakes all the time when it comes to using the right inputs.

Take an intro to finance course and see if you like it, everything expands on the topics you discuss in your intro course. If you don't find that interesting you won't like your upper level courses, finance is more then just studying the market and looking at stocks on the move.
05-03-2009 , 03:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skinz
Daytrading is gambling? Poker is all a game of luck. Stick to poli sci and invest in index funds if you aren't open to learning about theories and then trying to apply them yourself you won't get anything out of the classes.

I'm graduating with a BS in finance and accounting, accounting is very diffrent then finance. There is nothing really complicated math wise in finance because most of the formulas are straight forward. It's really understanding the theory behind the formulas, garbage in is garbage out, you can use the right formula but people that don't understand the formulas make mistakes all the time when it comes to using the right inputs.

Take an intro to finance course and see if you like it, everything expands on the topics you discuss in your intro course. If you don't find that interesting you won't like your upper level courses, finance is more then just studying the market and looking at stocks on the move.
I never said I don't like theories. Your quote is me just not liking gambling...

      
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