Computer Engineering vs Finance

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

Hello everyone,

    I would like to get some expert advice from this forum. I am a high school senior. I have taken all IB and AP classes my entire high school career. I have a 4.0. My ACT and SAT scores 30 in Math-31 in reading-28 in science and 620 in both Math/CR. I don't this the test scores are good reflection of my academic abilities because I have taken all high aptitude classes along with AP Calculus AB and AP Physics Mechanics and got a 4 on both of them,last year. Right now, I am taking AP Calc BC and  AP Physics C:E&M, IB Chemistry SL and IB Biology HL. I would have I have a very good grasp on all these subjects but I am not a very good standardized test taker as I panic and make silly mistakes that I would not have made in normal school environemnt. 

    Everything said, my dilemma is as follows all my life I have been a science student. I like everything about science. The main fact is that my father have never limited me to a particular field's peculiarities rather he took time and showed me the amazing world of science in all the different branched of science and how they are inter-connected: Phy, Chem and Bio. 

    Therefore, it was hard for me to choose a particular field but later I realized that I connect more with Phy than Bio and that I kind of loved the subject of Physics. When I was young I would try to break the parental lock on my network and I discovered many things and that would fuel mu intelligence like: cookies, c:/ root, registry entry. I loved mystery and the amazing feeling you get when you break a lock or find a hidden glitch in the system. Recent incident: My home laptop had Windows 7 in it but it would not get the Windows X installer. So, I had to manually rewrite registry and change it so that it would download the installer and run it. I even posted it in a forum and got many likes for my methodology. I am very good in finding solutions and learning as I work my way out. 

      So, in my start of my Senior year I have decided that I would major in Comp Engg or Finance. Why I choose, Finance could be seem off but I choose Finance because people told me that smart people can make a lot of money in that field. But, the problem is that I don't see myself getting up every morning so that I can check balance sheet. Rather,my interest lies in the Fraud Dept. in banking system and I even did a job shadowing at a local bank and have a pretty good idea of what those people do. To be honest, I loved the job. People have told me Finance is a medium stress job but has a higher pay than Comp Engg in the long run.

     Another concern is that people have told me that Computer Engg have to do a lot of hard Calculus and Probability math that those concepts are really hard to understand. I am confident with the Calc part but not so sure about Advance Probability and computation math as I have never done those.  But, I love the computer engg's cyber security sector. I want to get a masters in Computer Cyber security and be a cyber security expert.

  Now, that I have gotten admission to my dream colleges and they are giving me good scholarship , I think its time to decide what I want to do in my life. I am looking for expert advice in which line should I choose Comp Engg or Finance or should I choose comp Engg as major and Finance as minor or do a Comp. Engg major and do MBA finance?

Please give me suggestions and thank you for your help and guidance.

2

You can work in the financial field with a Computer Engineering degree. My second son has done exactly this and has a very nice, well-paid career developing software for a trading firm. The engineering degree will give you all sorts of flexibility. As an aside, the same kinds of professions are available with a physics degree if you find that engineering is not your cup of tea. Good luck!

3

@xraymancs please correct me if I am wrong, your second son has a engineering major and he did his masters in finance/business-related subject?

I saw in my college’s computer engg curriculum that they need one year logic mechanis and one Discrete Mathematics in two semesters. I think I can work hard and get the degree as I agree with you that Engg degree will give me flexibility that I wont get in Finance major. Thank you for your help.

4

This really isn’t the case. On average (the median) engineers make more money. The standard deviation for finance majors though is higher and a few of them make LOTS of money. The hours are typically long, the stress is not low, and the fruits don’t typically fall to those who can’t understand “hard probability and calculus.” Otherwise, we’d all be rich financiers.

The caveat is if your dream school that you were admitted to is Harvard or Princeton. The network is tight for finance, and really is a completely different game than having a finance degree from most other schools.

Good luck!

5

@eyemgh I have not taken higher probability classes and I never said I dont understand calculus. But thanks for your info.

6

If you’ve taken it and you understand it, you’re good to go. If you haven’t taken it, you’re not supposed to understand it. Based on what you’ve posted about your previous performance, I’m not sure what the origin of the concern should be.

7

@eyemgh I was saying that a senior at my highschool told me that computer engg has a probabilty related math that only math genius understand. That’s why I was a little scared. But, I have taken some steps after I posted this comment…that I contacted the Univ and fixed a meeting with the Math Dept. head so that I can get a feel for the subject I am about to undertake.

8

You are getting pretty far ahead of yourself, you do not need to pick a major today …

Also college courses are really different than high school, the whole experience is different from high school. While it is scary to realize there are things you do not know, in college you realize there are more things you do not know than things you know … and that that is perfectly fine … you study what you are interested in and let others do other things.

Future salary

Since you are taking Calc BC, that is actually Calc 1 and 2 in college, so 2/3 of the way through. Calc 3 is hard, but you will be introduced to some of the material in HS and you are likely a smart guy. Probability related math, you can take that class and with the right prerequisites, you will likely pick it up quickly.

Also consider that your love of science could be more served by a major other than comp sci or finance. For example, mechanical engineering and engineering physics are very physics based, EE can also be pretty sciencey (comp engineering is a bit more focused on computers, but there are likely some people working on very high end physics to keep shrinking those computer parts too ).

Actually for someone who is digging deep into machine level or at least operating system level for fun on their home computer, computer engineering may be fantastic for you. There is lots of finance in the computer industry and lots of computers in finance … and if you can do both … you can find a great niche.

It is good to talk to people, but on the other hand, enjoy the freedom of freshman year exploration at your dream school. I am sure they have good science and math instruction as well as business. Calculus is part of some high level finance and statistics concepts so keep going with that. If you love science, take physics and chem in college, if you get too much IB/AP credit, take one or two semesters at a higher level, especially if you do well GPA wise.

Having some science and engineering background could only help you in finance too … same as the comp sci, programming background …

9

Sounds like the proclamations of an under informed math phobe to me. All engineering math is challenging as are it’s applied variants like mechanics, but there’s no “geniuses only need apply” anywhere in undergraduate engineering engineering. If you get through the first three Calcs with a solid understanding, it won’t be easy, but you’ll be fine.

10

@PickOne1 Thanks for the in-dept knowledge. I will surely talk about it with the Math Professor and after these discussion I think I will follow Computer Engg major and do masters in Cyber security.

@eyemgh Thanks for the information.

11

My son does not have any academic training in finance but may eventually seek an MBA. He has been in the field for 6 years and is satisfied with what he is currently doing.

12

The “elite” finance jobs that have very high pay also have a reputation of being very stressful.

13

@ucbalumnus that is very true. When the dollars are that high the competition is very intense and you only tend to hear about the winners.

14

A lot of finance jobs are pretty stressful by virtue of the fact that milliseconds can make millions of dollars worth of difference on Wall Street, so every moment counts and a very frantic office is necessary. If this sounds like an awful pain to work in, now you know why people are heavily compensated to put up with that kind of environment. Most people stay a few years to earn a solid amount of money and prestige points, and leave elsewhere. Not all jobs are like this in finance but this is the “analyst” position that most people think of when they talk about the finance sector.

Another factor is that salaries are not especially high but (year-end) bonuses can be multiples of the salary. If someone wants to leave finance for example, they can say that they make a $500k salary (150k base + 350k bonuses that they “optimistically” believe they will earn) and so they should be compensated accordingly. They probably wouldn’t get that high of a bonus when all is said and done, but the company wouldn’t necessarily contradict them because they’re not technically lying (just being optimistic about how high the bonus will be) and finance companies benefit from the perception of massive salaries.

15

@NeoDymium thank you giving me clear understanding of what the finance sector looks like,. I had a presumptuous vision of how the jobs look like but it feels i had the wrong impression all along.

Thanks to all the members for giving me a good comprehensive understanding of the different field. I have decided(i think) that I will major in computer engg and masters in cyber security because that’s where my interest lies and I would also have a option to masters in finance if I choose differently. Lets see what my future holds.

16

I will tell you something @boneh3ad would tell you were he here right now, planning for graduate school before you’ve set foot in college can be tricky. I’m not saying you don’t want to do that right now, but LOTS of things change in UG. You may change your major, get burned out, decide cyber security wasn’t all that after all or that you can do everything you want with just an UG. So, long story short, plan your undergraduate route now and the future will get clearer the closer you get to it. Good luck! (BTW, I think based on what you posted, you made a good choice).

17

@eyemgh Thank you, really appreciate it.