Hey all, Been reading many posts over the last while, trying to get a bearing of the CFA and its overall place in the world. I found out about it through auditing financial management classes at school, and the prof really recommended it. I have a degree in biology and wondering if I’ll get hammered by it, due to lack of financial areas. I’m thinking of trying out for the june 2008 exam and if its not my thing then…ok but I’ve always loved how the financial world worked and I thought this might be a great route. Any thoughts from people who don’t have a history in finance would be great or any thoughts would be MUCH appreciated as I’m days away I think from signing up. Thanks!
I have a degree in human biology with a minor in math and I earned my charter. Willy
From what I hear (I’ve got a finance background), it could take a good 400 hours of study for a person with a non-finance background to adequately prepare for L1. They usually recommend 250 hours for the typical candidate with a finance background. So when making your study budget, I’d say budget for about 400 hours. It’s definitely doable.
Bio major, art history minor Got first job for asset manager in SF Bay Area, years before attempting the L1 Passed all 3 levels, spending right around 300 hours at each level, with the most at L2 You’ll actually see a lot of things from bio in the quant analysis section of the exam (eg. chi-squared, t-tests, ANOVA). If you’re in the profession now, that can only help you. If you’re trying to break into investment management by getting those three magical letters behind your name, be prepared to work your tail off.
it can definitely be done. i think coming from a non-finance background is an advantage since you’re actually learning a lot of new things which make it very interesting. of course, you’ll have to adjust to a new way of thinking but that is all good.
I have a degree in Political Science with no finance coursework at all, except for basic intro Econ. classes. Basically, my last 3 years of university entailed writing with almost no coursework dealing with numbers. I just finished all 3 levels and my charter is pending now. So it is very doable. I took an intro Accting course at a local community college and an extension Financial Mathmatics course prior to taking level I to prepare and give me some background. I think FSA is going to be your biggest obstacle (as it is for many) since it makes up close to 40% if Level I. With your background, I agree with the previous post the quant should be cake for you. Also, don’t downplay your degree…it gave you the analytical framework that should work well for CFA program. Also, the challenge of LI is not the material itself but rather the volume of material and the ability to organize your studying. The material is not too deep at Level I. Its just going take you a few hours more than someone who has the finance background. Just make sure you allocate and effectively study the material.
You can also use your Biology degree to your advantage by breaking into pharmaceutical equity research. I’ve got a geology degree which gets attention from oil/gas and mining funds.
geology degree is very valuable.
verbats Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hey all, > Been reading many posts over the last while, > trying to get a bearing of the CFA and its overall > place in the world. I found out about it through > auditing financial management classes at school, > and the prof really recommended it. I have a > degree in biology and wondering if I’ll get > hammered by it, due to lack of financial areas. > I’m thinking of trying out for the june 2008 exam > and if its not my thing then…ok but I’ve > always loved how the financial world worked and I > thought this might be a great route. Any > thoughts from people who don’t have a history in > finance would be great or any thoughts would be > MUCH appreciated as I’m days away I think from > signing up. Thanks! i have a sociology degree and i just passed lvl 1, its definitely possible you just need to have some self discipline and loving the material helps.