Finance

The first 2 years teach you the fundamentals via all the core classes in finance and accounting. The last two years you can DIY based on your interests, or more likely your future interest will emerge from the courses you choose out of serendipity.

Best advise would be to take the first two years very seriously because these fundamentals can last decades with you. For the junior/ senior course try to avoid those “popular-by-name” courses but instead go for the professor. This is a field where real experience far outweighs theories, and a good professor who knows what he/ she is talking about from past live experience can make a night/ day difference.

Unlike Accounting or Business Analytics, Finance is a broad major that doesn’t equip students with highly specialized skills for any particular industry. While it does teach essential fundamentals such as financial statement analysis, DCF modeling, and portfolio optimization, the finance industry today has significantly raised the bar for job candidates. As a result, strong grades are now considered a basic requirement rather than a distinguishing factor in recruitment. Therefore, students should aim to get involved in student organizations, network with industry professionals, conduct research with professors, engage in online learning (e.g., certification programs), and, most importantly, cultivate an interest in a specific area of finance, such as investment banking, portfolio management, quantitative trading, equity research, wealth management, private equity, or commercial banking, early on.

Don’t choose this major simply based on other’s recommendations such as “IB really makes a lot”. Try it if you are interested in the market or in the practice of managing money and capital. You’ll be learning about financial accounting, valuation, financial management, PE methods, VCs, and derivatives. Should definitely try.

Well I realized I wanted to be in the finance industry and thought that getting a technical major might help me standout, but it wasn't worth the time commitment. CS took up so much time that I couldn't do as many clubs, internships, and projects that I wanted to. Ultimately, it was these things that helped me land the finance internships I wanted. I still code, but the finance degree was better especially given the timing with AI coding agents.

Finance at NYU specifically has opened a lot of doors to high finance roles such as investment banking which I am most interested in, consulting, management roles, etc. There are dozen's of resources here on campus including PDCE, student clubs, etc that help you find community and learn from upperclassmen and professionals in the space. What’s made the coursework less enjoyable is the pressure from the Stern Curve to be in the top 35% of a class which can lead to a toxic environment for some.

The coursework and content itself is easy, however, with recruiting timelines for high finance roles pushed up so early, a lot of stress can build up. Recruitment builds up a lot of tension and students also start to compare themselves with others and feel behind. However, while this is indeed a stressful experience, having the right mentors and people by your side is very helpful.

Truly exceptional professors with decades of experience, passion for what they teach, and a desire to help their students wherever possible. It can get easy to get swept up in the recruiting timelines and disproportionate focus on investment banking and consulting, but you'll also make some lifelong friends and really talented people, maybe even your cofounder.

Finance at USC has been a lot of fun and very holistic. The core classes are super helpful with understating everything business related and helps you prepare for getting a job.

Finance is interesting in certain way that there is no correct answer for the question, as long as you can find the ground to support your argument. However it is connection-heavy and require resources outside school.

I wish I had paid more attention to how I liked to learn before choosing a major. Being interested in a subject is a good start, but the everyday work matters too. Look at whether the courses involve reading, writing, problem-solving, group work, or independent projects, and consider which activities you enjoy. Ask current students what a typical week looks like, especially in upper-level classes. Also, find people you can study with and ask questions around. You do not have to learn everything alone, and you do not have to enjoy every course for a major to suit you.

I hope to do investment banking post-grad and being a finance major at NYU Stern has helped me a lot with recruiting through the classes, clubs, networking, etc.

It’s an interesting field for sure. However, as an engineering major you receive more rigorous and rewarding schooling, as well as the optionality to pursue either engineering OR business. Whereas finance majors are pigeonholed into business related fields, while developing less tangible skills like coding in undergrad.

There’s a lot of work you can do in finance for people who have more soft or technical skills. The pay is usually pretty good and even if you don’t have a high enough salary starting off there is a lot of fast career progression within the industry. I do wish I’d known how important networking and getting a head start was

I hope to go into data driven investing. NYU offers data driven classes, finance math classes, statistics classes.

How early the recruiting cycle starts it’s very competitive. And you have to take networking very seriously and learn it at an easy stage