<p>Here is my question: Is Financial Engineering a unique major which is only at Columbia? Becuase no other schools list financial engineering in their engineering majors. Or is it just something almost all universities have but not name it as "financial engineering"?</p>
<p>Hi,
Financial Engineering is not unique to Columbia.Financial Engineering/Computational Finance/Financial Mathematics/Quant/Management Science (MIT,Stanford) are some of the common name for several universities. Generally in undergrad level they called as ORIE ( Operation Research & Indust.Engineering),ORFE (Operation Research- Financial Engg concentration) at Columbia & Princeton.
This concept is the brainchild of carnegie mellon U.</p>
<p>Current CU folks: with the recession and collapse of Wall Street, is FE as popular as it was when it first started?</p>
<p>Also, is it wise to continue pursuing this major despite the threat of increased regulation and downsizing of the industry?</p>
<p>Financial Engineering is not a unique major at the undergraduate level to Columbia only. Princeton and other schools have the major, sometimes in the Operations Research department, in the engineering school, or in the business school.</p>
<p>As for Columbia2002, Financial Engineering is still popular among students pursuing finance. Since consulting recruiting is almost non-existent at Columbia and students want to enter a lucrative field but don’t have the science background (medicine) or want to do law, then yes, FE is still popular among those students in finance. It doesn’t solely prepare you for jobs in the derivatives market, but also for roles in front office roles in Investment Banking, Equity Research, etc. It’s supposedly good training. </p>
<p>Wall Street recruitment is still alive and well in school. It’s just gotten more competitive.</p>
<p>Why is consulting recruiting bad at Columbia?</p>
<p>^It isn’t as good as HYP, wharton, but if you look at the range of consulting firms who recruit at Columbia (esp for full time) we are one of the best. We certainly beat NYU Stern which is one of the best B-schools in the country and Brown and Cornell as well. BCG does not recruit at Columbia but I still know people who applied on their own and work for BCG now (not through connections). As a senior I have a ton of friends who are working in consulting, I’d say most who wanted it have been able to break into the industry, but recruiting certainly could be better for Consulting and it isn’t quite as good as our finance recruiting (i-banking, sales & trading, asset management). I’m not even sure beard tax has been through recruiting yet, I’ve been through recruiting for both summer and full time and the opportunities to interview are definitely there. Pretty mediocre students on paper landed interviews, and I know more than a few students working / going to be working for top 10 consulting firms with above average to average GPAs. Honestly, once you land an interview, it is entirely up to you to get the offer. A firm is rigid about how many they interview from each school. After that it’s just competitive, so if they like a lot of people from one school, they’ll hire many people from that school in a given year, and if they do not, they will not. Summer jobs in 2009 were really bad for consulting, but consulting jobs have since bounced back - it is one of the most cyclical industries to work in.</p>
<p>If you apply for OR:FE in the soph year, how would a transfer student join?</p>