<p>My school allows students to create a major as long as he can come up with a good combination of courses from different departments. By far, it offers computational finance or Financial Engineering only to gradschool students, and that's what I want to change.</p>
<p>I want to submit a request form consisting of at least 20 courses related to the field. Can you guys tell me what core courses are for financial engineering at undergrad-level?</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Here are some that I would take, I don't know what kind of background you've already had. I'm also going to forget a lot but its a start.</p>
<p>Calc I, II, III
Real Analysis I & II
Linear Algebra
Ordinary Differential Equations
Partial Differential Equations
Computational Finance / Financial Engineering / Financial Mathematics (if available)
Calculus based Statistics (particularly if they use SAS/Mathematica/Matlab)
Econometrics
Derivatives
Measure Theory (or Stochastic Calculus/ Processes, as offered)
Computer Science (C++, JAVA, Algorithms)
Maybe some sort of Symbolic Logic Class (not really necessary but may be helpful)
Maybe Abstract Algebra and Complex Variables</p>
<p>I'm in the same situation, by the way, creating a Finance/Math hybrid major.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. you are of great help!! I'm going to start looking for those courses in my college's curricula.</p>
<p>Or, you can look for programs that have computational finance as a major. Check out CMU and James Madison University. Princeton University grad school is also very good.</p>
<p>Sure man, if you have any questions or want to just talk about it just PM me. Its unconventional and takes a little bit of finagling most places so I completely understand.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University basically has the best Comp Finance program available.</p>
<p>I'm sure he knows that, but he is already in school and is just trying to design his own program. It is probably a good idea to look at the curriculum for, say, the Carnegie Mellon UG Comp Finance major.</p>
<p>Since we are all giving input, I would ask that you re-think what you are trying to achieve. </p>
<p>Professionally, someone who did pure CS, EE, CompE, Physics, Math, Finance or MechE at the PhD level would just as easily get a job for computational finance/financial engineering provided he/she was young enough. These days, a MFE can a lot of the time get you the same job.</p>
<p>Since a MFE has no required degree, you could major in anything more marketable and just satisfy the course requirements. That is to say, if you end up changing your career goals or graduating during bad economic times you have something to fall on -or not be pigeonholed- because financial engineering is a very small field. </p>
<p>FE/CF also rely far more on math than they do on econ/finance. IMO a math + econ/finance major has more credibility at the undergrad level. </p>
<p>You can still go ahead but I'm fairly confident no bank would ever hire someone with less than a Master's to do such work. </p>
<p>I am also a student so take my advice with a grain of sand.</p>
<p>^
I agree. I don't think many people straight out of undergrad would have a shot at landing a quant-type job especially when competing with people with a relevant PhD or masters (sometimes more than one). Math, finance, compsci - you have to be knowledgable with all three although I'd say much moreso the math and just a bit less with CS (maybe just OOD/generic programming) but being a CS star couldn't hurt. As for the finance, I would imagine that this comes the easiest (but still, you have to know it well). Anyway, try asking quants themselves [url=<a href="http://www.wilmott.com/index.cfm?NoCookies=Yes&forumid=1%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.wilmott.com/index.cfm?NoCookies=Yes&forumid=1]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>As for the above list, I would also add a series of Numerical Analysis as well.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I'm not planning on trying to land a quant job out of UG, I am actually more interested in trading. The curriculum is what is most interesting to me, and I'm sure the blend is nice if I want to continue it in a masters or PhD.</p>