<p>If I were to go to a school like JMU, high point, or even UCSB for mathematical economics/finance would I be able to go to Columbia or CMU for the masters of financial engineering? or it's impossible due to the name of my school?</p>
<p>Yeess, this question needs to be answered</p>
<p>Yes, the reputation of your undergraduate school … along with a number of other, more important factors … may have some bearing on admission to a top graduate school. </p>
<p>No, attending JMU, High Point U., or UCSB will not make it impossible to be admitted to a masters degree program at a top school like Columbia or CMU.</p>
<p>Even the most prestigious medical schools, law schools, PhD programs, MS programs, etc., admit students from a wide variety of undergraduate schools. Here for example is a list of undergraduate colleges represented in a recent 1L class at Harvard Law School:
<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html</a></p>
<p>For PhD programs in a few fields (like pure math), the reputation of your undergraduate program probably will have a strong bearing. For other kinds of graduate programs in other fields, other factors will matter much more. Those factors are likely to include your undergraduate GPA, GRE scores, research or work experience, and how well your interests align with the target program’s orientation. For a Master’s program in a field like financial engineering, many students would not be entering directly from college. They would have a year or more of work experience. That may be at least as important a factor as the reputation of your college. </p>
<p>I went to Pitt undergrad for ChE.
5 yrs after graduation I went to Columbia for my MBA.
I was ranked 20 of 105 at Pitt ChE, had 5 yrs work experience and living in CA all of which worked to my advantage. They probably thought I would go back to CA after graduation. They want their grads all over the US and not concentrated in the NE. I don’t think I would have been accepted right out of Pitt. Lots of ivy’s were my classmates.
btw I was rejected by Harvard and Wharton. Also accepted by my safety NYU.
Moral of the story, you will need a high gpa and high test score and come from a fairly reputable school.</p>
<p>Thank you when you say work you include internship? @tk21769</p>
<p>Thanks…is sorry is chE chemical engineering? @tomsriverparent</p>
<p>UCSB is in a different class than High Point in terms of what it can offer students going onto graduate programs in highly quantatative fields. </p>
<p>Yes. ChE is Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you when you say work you include internship? @tk21769</p>
<p>would drexel compare to UCSB @whenhen</p>
<p>The reputation of your undergrad school is might play a small role in the graduate school application process, but it is not the most significant factor, and it should not determine where you choose to go to undergrad. (I think this is particularly true for PhD programs.) All of the schools your are looking at are good universities and will be able to get you where you want to go. What’s most important is what you do while at your university: internships, grades, courses you take, relationships you develop with professors, (research, if you’re going into that side of things), etc.</p>
<p>I looked at UCSB specifically for law school and saw that they were included in the list of colleges from which graduates matriculated to Harvard Law School in 2013. Yes, I think there is a level of school where the grades might not be credible as straight As for example, but the ones you mention don’t remotely hit that level. I also think the top few schools probably send more than their share to the top grad programs, but not by a lot. The grad schools want diversity, too.</p>
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<p>From what I understand, PhD programs are more likely to care about the quality of the department in terms of whether it produces students considered suitable for success at PhD work. Such “ratings” and “rankings” are not necessarily the same at each PhD program (since they may be based on small samples of successful or unsuccessful students), are not publicly available, and do not necessarily have anything to do with general rankings or prestige of the school.</p>
<p>Of course, the availability and quality of the course work and research opportunities in the major at the undergraduate school is important. Since faculty recommendations are important in PhD program admissions, how well respected the faculty in that department are by those in PhD programs matters, but that information is also not necessarily easy to find.</p>
<p>thank you @collegevetting</p>
<p>im talking for the case of a masters program and thank you @ucbalumnus</p>
<p>It is perfectly fine to contact the undergraduate program(s) you are interested in, and ask where their recent graduates have gone for grad school. </p>
<p>through email or phone? @happymomof1</p>
<p>From what I know of UCSB, it should have all the offerings and resources and reputation that would allow you entry if you did their mathematical econ program. Be sure to check prospective grad school pages for prerequisites you might want to be sure you have taken. I don’t know so much about the other ones. I think UCSB is the strongest you mention. No one would be shut out of any program based on name alone with UCSB. It will depend on performance and resume. But I do know Big 4 recruits for econ/accounting and I’ve seen reports of Morgan-Stanley for math/econ.</p>
<p>@brownparent Im interested in financial mathematics for UCSB but for drexel and high point offer mathematical economics. I’m interested in both programs but am really interested in James Madison’s quantitative finance program because that’s what I want to do in grad school and in life</p>
<p>Its not impossible. I dnt believe that where u went for undergrad matters much while applying to a grad school. What they c is mainly how much work experience u have had, and what qualities u have that would make u seem better than others.
Btw, r u sure u want to do a masters of financial engineering? I donot want to discourage but I think you should look at the pros and cons of getting this degree. You can google it easily. I was interested in financial engineering myself but after doing some research I felt that its not really worth paying so much money. That market is more or less saturated and is unlikely to help you in climbing the career ladder. What this degree does best is helps u to make a lot of good contacts. U mi8 want to consider getting an MBA instead. Rest is up to u.</p>