Inside The University of Melbourne

Finance

“Because I want to be an Investment Banker”

So, in this entry we add to the series on Commerce majors.

Finance is quite a popular major amongst Commerce students. I’d say for most, it’s more of an infatuation with what they believe to be realistic outcomes of the Finance major rather than an admiration towards the content which is taught within it. Finance is also a huge hit with the FOBs.

The super-serious students undertaking the Finance majors are often some of the most pretentious, and irritating students you could ever be exposed to. Often carrying unrealistic expectations such as thinking they have a shot of getting in to a top-tier Investment Bank. In reality, most have no chance, especially in this current economic climate. So in order to compensate, they will be rocking up to just about every career event that is held at university and try to get an “edge” over their peers (ie. They are Career Kids)

Ultimately, most students do Finance with concurrent majors in Accounting or Economics, but I have heard of some students undertaking it along with side joke majors such as Marketing or Management (Oh what a useful combination!)

Basically, the three level-3 subjects which make up the major are as follows:

Corporate Finance: Quite a lame subject, it’s easy to get H1 in Corporate Finance, but not as easy to get 90+ on. The subject really feels like an extension to Business Finance and is quite easy to understand but some of the theory can be a bit annoying. Expect a few vague questions thrown in to assessments to lower your chances of getting a huge mark in it.

Investments: Difficulty-wise, the subject is alright, it’s still a subject you can smash a 90+ on if you have a solid understanding of the content since the exam isn’t ratty. Calculations aren’t difficult and usually the exam doesn’t change much from year to year so you’ll have a strong idea of how you’re going based on doing past papers. However, the mid-sem can be a bit of a pain, I’ve heard in some semesters it’s been rather difficult.

Derivative Securities: What most students call the hardest subject in the major. I still think it’s pretty straightforward and really easy to get quite high on. Definitely a subject you can get 90+ on if you have a solid understanding of it. The calculations are pretty easy and the theory usually makes sense, so I’m not exactly sure how people can do too poorly in Derivative Securities. Sure there’s some fancy terms and graphs but don’t be put off by those, they are pretty understandable once you properly gain a grip of the subject.

I can’t be bothered delving into the specifics (Stuff like topics etc.) of the above subjects because 1. I can’t remember and 2. It’s not too hard to Google the subject names and find out.

There are other subjects in 3rd year some students do like International Finance, Asian Capital Markets or Intermediate Personal Finance but since they aren’t core subjects, they have substantially lower enrollment. Plus the students that take those subjects them are probably complete losers trying to convince themselves that doing more than the required amount of level-3 Finance subjects will lead to them getting an awesome Finance gig after finishing uni, even though they are barely struggling to maintain a H2A average.
The finance major is almost impossible to fail, the exams aren’t hurdles and the subjects still have enough easy content so that even the brain-dead students can easily pass.

The major isn’t too difficult since most of the time you’re plugging in numbers, doing some basic maths, and writing some garbage theory. The real problem with the major is the cohort. Comprising of FOBs, self-entitled career kids, and hugely worrying whingers you really would not want to be too close with the people who study this major, especially nearing exams and during recruitment season.

One thing to remember, you probably won’t be working at an Investment Bank, or a Hedge Fund, or a Private Equity firm.

Sorry to end the dream.

—

Remember to follow the blog on Twitter @MelbUniBlog