> These are kids really really smart, socially adjusted (enough to be accepted by Ivy League), and hard working. If they entered science/medicine/engineering/etc, they would've added great positive impact.
I agree that students may be able to have a stronger impact as a doctor, scientist, etc. But this is more a criticism of K-12 education, not the wall street industry! I've never heard of a high schooler thinking "should I grow up and be a doctor, or should I be an investment banker?" What I have heard is "I'm smart but not very good at math, so I'll major in business." We do NOT have many students choosing investment banking over STEM during their junior year of college in the midst of recruiting. These decisions are being made during senior year of high school when they're thinking about what to major in.
> And now they are abandoning these vital industries that actually produce something for an industry that is basically pushing papers around and printing money in the process.
Basically pushing papers around and printing money? Are you kidding me? If investment banks are so useless, why would essentially all large corporations (including Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, etc.) hire investment banks to assist in raising debt and equity or to facilitate mergers and acquisitions? By suggesting that investment banks are "printing money," you've shown that you aren't well-informed on the industry.
If your criticism is coming from the recent financial crisis, then sure, the investment banks due deserve some of the blame. But anybody who says investment banks are exclusively responsible and refuses to point out the mistakes by credit rating agencies, insurance companies, the federal government, and even US citizens needs to find an objective source and study the events leading up to the crisis.
> I know we live in free economy society and all that but I think we need to find a way to 'regulate' how the wall street recruits.
Is someone being harmed? Given that the students entering investment banks are fairly intelligent and coming out of prestigious universities, they are also intelligent enough to find another job if they don't like working at the bank. All of these banks also have well-structured internship programs, giving the students an opportunity to test the experience. Yes, the lifestyle can be very difficult for two years. But it's a trade-off; students work very hard in exchange for a high salary and great exit opportunities.
> Lastly, I believe the ratio of liberal-arts majors entering Wall Street is way lower than the article seems to suggest. From what I hear, overwhleming majority of the graduates entering Wall Street after graduation are science/math/engineering majors.
That is certainly not the case. STEM may be a majority of the graduates entering fields like high-frequency trading, but STEM is a very small minority of the students entering investment banks. And investment banks are much larger (in terms of # employees) than HFT. I'm not defending high-frequency trading -- I agree it's billions of dollars being spent on something that's socially unproductive. But it's inaccurate to make a blanket statement about "wall street" and apply it to any finance-related career.