Cornell: AEM vs ORIE

I am planning to go into banking or generally the international finance industry. Which major AEM (double in Information Science) or ORIE would work best for my goals?

AFAIK:
AEM will give me a solid business and economics background, combined with Information Science to give me the math and CS skills necessary in the finance industry.

ORIE does a similar thing, but less economics and more math. I learn more about the workings of a firm/business.

Which do you suggest?

My industry experience is not current and I never recruited or sought employment in this industry at Cornell. So the following may be complete misinformation. Nevertheless here is my guess.

There are people destined for “front office” trading and investment banking. And other people destined to support front office.Incuded in the latter are highy skilled professionals such as “quants” who in some cases do things that are more complicated, that the front office people frankly can’t do,These are not “inferiors” they are just different, with an emphasis on different skill sets.Though it is usually the case that the front office people have more direct P&L responsibility.

Ultimately you cannot cheat The Great Sorting Hat. If you are not destined for front office by virtue of personal chracteristics (charisma, leadership, salesmanship, etc) or intellectual characteristics (do you talk well/ persuasively? think on your feet?) you will not wind up there. the interview process is too demanding.

On the other hand if you are not brilliant quantitiatively you will not make it there to be a quant. But there are other support positions that require lower degrees of brilliance.

If you think you may have what it takes for front office, AEM is a path to take you there.

ORIE would be a somewhat more logical step on the road towards becoming a quant… But it it is not so one-dimensional, people in my day went on from there and got MBAs and ran manufacturing companies, for example. Nowadays I imagine there are ORIE grads who get jobs similar to some Dyson grads.
Note that the engineering school has an arrangement where you can get a minor at Dyson

@monydad Would an economics major at most other schools do the same thing as AEM in terms of getting to front desk?

Let me be clearer. It is you who gets you to whatever desk. Provided you get to interview. Based on who you are, and how you fit.

And back when I was there, out of college people were hired as two-year analysts to whatever area, but this did not necessarily cast their entire future role in stone, since it was just a two-year stint.

I did have analysts from Wharton and Cornell AEM., But I also had Econ majors. And for that matter I had other majors too. Best one I remember was an anthropology major. It didn’t matter, we trained them.What mattered is they were smart. AEM would provide more obviously retelevant background information. Which may give you better background/framework for what you are doing initially. But what is necessary to do your particular job will mostly be learned on the job in any event.

The issue one may find is, when you start loading the analytics and computer stuff past a certain point, they might start thinking maybe this guy is a quant type, rather than a generalist in training. Which is fine, they need those people. But maybe that’s a different group to interview with. But if they interview you, they will see what else you’ve done. And then in the course of that they could find :“well this guy was interested in all that quant stuff, so he’s got great analytical skills, which is always a plus, but he’s delfinitely a generalist type”. If that’s the case.

Aside from subject matter, a particular advantage AEM has at Cornell is it currently has particularly selective admissions. I-banks like that,it sort of provides them with a “pre-screening” stamp. But my understanding is students in other colleges at Cornell get interviews, and job offers, too.

@monydad thank you! That was a perfect response.