I know graduates of Stanford’s Management Science & Engineering and Penn’s The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology do very well, but is this combination a good idea at other colleges and universities?
I have read that engineering management is not a good undergraduate major, but I haven’t seen much on economics/engineering dual majors. Thanks for your thoughts.
Why not just take a few economics courses of interest alongside an engineering major?
I think programs like the one at Stanford and Penn lead to a wider range of opportunities. Do think a few economics courses or even a minor in economics would get you to the same place?
Do you want a career in engineering or economics?
It’s going to be tough, especially if you intend to do your degree in four years. In the end, you probably will only be using one of your degrees for your career, so it might not be worth it. Basically, you are unlikely to get any extra return from paying the extra tuition to do the dual degree.
If you are interested, just take classes that will interest you.
Caveat: All Engineers think Engineering majors/field>>>>Business major/fields
In general, most folks in this forum would not recommend a dual major with engineering. Engineering is viewed as the terminal degree (this is an engineering forum!), and the 2nd degree will have little effect (and could be viewed as a disadvantage, do you want to be an engineer or an economist?) when applying for entry level engineering roles. It also adds additional time to graduation (which adds additional cost).
For that reason, you may want to think about taking additional classes or even earning a minor and not the dual degree.
What is your child’s end goal?
Are they looking for a management program, with a strong technical background? Then think about getting an BS in Business Management and a minor in engineering (several schools offer minors in engineering/stem fields). Some schools (like Georgia Tech) offer a minor in “Engineering and Business”, that can be taken by engineering or business majors. Others will offer minors in selective engineering fields. The point being, they will be a business major, with a focus on STEM.
Are they looking for an engineering program, with a strong business/economics background? The most obvious choice is Industrial Engineering. Some ISE programs will include a focus on “financial engineering” (financial modeling). Earning a minor in business administration is common with ISE’s (a minor in Computer Science is even more common). At UF, for example, Micro, Macro and Engineering economics are all required courses in the ISE curriculum. Some ISE’s will choose to enter graduate school in finance or business, with the goal being a job in those fields (and not an entry level engineering job).
If they are not sure, then any school that’s flexible when it comes to switching majors would be a big plus! Keep in mind it’s often easier to switch from engineering back to business or economics. It’s worth researching what’s involved in switching majors, which programs are “impacted” at that school, etc.
Good Luck!
Being at Stanford or Penn may be the main advantage in terms of recruiting by school-elitist employers (e.g. management consulting). The major may not be as important in that case.
Thanks, that is what I suspected. It is those programs at those schools that could potentially get you a position that is a blend of both fields. Everyone else should pick one or the other.
Good ideas, thanks.
I am curious as to what positions you think that are out there that combine engineering and economics. Financial Engineering uses a lot of math, but it does not require either an engineering or economics background, just a LOT of math and decent programming skills. Oh, and a diploma with a “top” school name on it .
@cosmicfish I don’t think I understand your question. That you can’t combine economics with engineering? Or that “Financial Engineering” has nothing to do with engineering?
A lot of “things” can be called “Financial Engineering”. However, you can often find it’s used to describe a common area of focus for Industrial Engineering programs. As a rule, all of these ABET engineering programs will require several economics and finance classes.
At UIUC:
http://www.ise.illinois.edu/ise-research-areas/financial-engineering
At Georgia Tech the ISE program offers a concentration in Economics and Finance which requires several classes in economics and finance, as can be seen in it’s curriculum:
https://www.isye.gatech.edu/academics/bachelors/current-students/curriculum
Students can then pursue GT’s Master of Science degree program in Quantitative and Computational Finance (QCF), which is an interdisciplinary program between Georgia Tech’s College of Business, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, and the School of Mathematics.
Here’s the link to Northwestern’s ISE “financial engineering” program:
http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/industrial/research/research-areas/financial-engineering.html
It’s an interdisciplinary field, so you don’t need a BS in engineering to work in “Financial Engineering”, any more than you need a BS in CS to work as a programmer. However, it is something that many of the more established ISE programs support.
And yes, it also requires a lot of programming. 
I don’t really know, my kid has an internship in which she spends part of her time with the engineers and part of her time on the business side. I doubt if such a position exists in the real world, but if it did it would be a good fit for her. Maybe something like this
http://www.upenn.edu/fisher/ryan-marschang-mt-14
We are just exploring possible careers and majors.
Engineering management undergrad programs sound really good in concept(for example,
http://cidse.engineering.asu.edu/forstudent/prospective-students/engineering-management/), but based on my impressions from cc, they can’t or won’t deliver what they promise.
Usually, managers in technical groups start as technical individual contributors. Not sure why an employer would hire a new graduate as a manager of a technical group.
In the video, they mention corporate partners who hire their grads, so again it comes down to recruitment partnerships.
Econ/MMSS (math method for social sciences) dual major at Northwestern can be another good option. You can even add Kellogg certificate on top of it.
http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/employment-placements.html
@ucbalumnus These BS “engineering management” programs have little to do with directly supervising a team of engineers. Graduates compete with business majors (and to some degree industrial engineers/supply management majors) for positions, that typically involve technology, and not entry level engineering roles.
Here’s the list of career opportunities given as an example for the ASU program:
For example, they may be hired as a “client services” manager at a technology focused company, who’s job is to support several clients, sell the companies products/servers, help coordinate installs, and facilitate problem resolutions.
Another example: they may be hired into an entry level management position to manage a team of “technicians” who create/install/troubleshoot products.
If you like business and technology, and can handle the math, then these programs are an alternative to a BS in Business.
@Gator88NE, I was asking what fields out there combine engineering and economics, OP’s stated plan. I mentioned FE to see if that was what OP was thinking of, because it combines engineering principles with decidedly non-engineering business. I wanted to note that it does not require engineering and has little to do with *economics *.
@nw2this, there are many positions in industry that require some combination of engineering and business knowledge, but at the entry level just about everything is slanted hard one way or another. After a few years there are positions where you can find more of a mix, but they are usually obtained by starting with a technical degree and then adding experience and perhaps graduate business education on top.
Whenever you look at a non-traditional program (or ANYTHING with “management” in the title) you need to see not just where graduates are hired but also what jobs they are getting. A lot of these programs imply that they give you a head start when more often than not they offer worse career opportunities than a traditional engineering program.
And remember, economics is the most academic of business programs, and usually the least practical - combining economics with engineering would seem to be a tiny professional niche.
Engineering as a vocation is not for everyone. The coursework required for a first rate engineering degree doesn’t really leave room for another field of study at the same time. These composite programs let someone who may not be personally suited for hard core engineering work get trained up for a peripheral occupation that may be better suited for their personality and might even pay better in the long run
D will probably do an ABET EE program and an MBA later if she decides to switch over to Business. Trying to combine the two interests in undergrad doesn’t seem like it would work out.
@cosmicfish and everyone
Thanks for the helpful discussion.
@cosmicfish You and I will simply have to disagree. IMHO Industrial Engineering IS engineering, and these programs do leverage *economics/I.
From GT’s description of the Economic & Financial Systems (EFS) concentration in it’s Industrial Engineering program:
Northwestern’s description of FE: