Financial engineer

<p>Have u ever heard of this type of engineer? What major should i pick if i want to become one cuz i think that there is not a major called financial engineer? Plz help</p>

<p>To become a financial engineer you will most likely require a Masters (or PHD) in a heavily quantitative subject (Math, engineering, physics, etc). I'd undergrad in one of those, but know what your getting into.</p>

<p>is it hard to become one</p>

<p>Well, I'd say most people who do are extremely good at mathematics. I think you really have to be to survive a PHD, particularly from a good school. Its a very tough path. Are you still in HS?</p>

<p>it is pretty hard
gotta be mad smart
i was looking at the people in my school (nyu/courant institute) which is top 10 for this stuff
all of them had like a 4.0 or some ridiculous gpa from schools like MIT, peking, indian school of management alot of them had like a phd. or at least 2 masters</p>

<p>columbia has an undergraduate financial engineering major and princeton has a quant heavy finance major</p>

<p>now there are alot of specialized masters programs</p>

<p>the best ones are
uchicago
berkely
nyu
mit
cmu
etc.</p>

<p>Given recent results and the fact that much of the meltdown was due to faulty fin.eng models I think the future for this field is very much in doubt. It is very hard to model human behavior.</p>

<p>I would disagree, I don't think the field is going to stop. Many shops use exclusively quant models for trading, and they have faired quite well. Most of the missteps were in mortgages, in which the assumptions were faulty, wasn't only quants that screwed the pooch on that one.</p>

<p>You don't need to be quants to know subprime loan is risky... I think it's the non-quants that were directing that! Those CEOs aren't quants; they are just good at BS-ing (part of their leadership skills).</p>

<p>OP,</p>

<p>Check out MMSS and Kellogg undergrad cert at Northwestern:</p>

<p>Kellogg</a> School Certificate Program for Undergraduates - Kellogg School of Management - Northwestern University
[url=<a href="http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/%5DMMSS"&gt;http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/]MMSS&lt;/a>, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Northwestern University<a href="check%20out%20%22Current%20Recruiters%22%20page%20for%20fall%202008;%20they%20include%20McKinsey,%20LEK%20Consulting,%20JP%20Morgan,%20Bank%20of%20America,%20and%20National%20Bureau%20of%20Economic%20Research">/url</a></p>

<p>i am still a senior in high school</p>

<p>Also, check out industrial engineering and management sciences departments in different schools. Northwestern</a> University - Courses lists the courses offered at Northwestern and two of them are called "financial engineering".</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28melt.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28melt.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Children should not major in a difficult subject like financial engineering, especially since such a major does not exist. If it does, then it is certain that it will not have the rigour required to train one to become a financial engineer.</p>

<p>You kidding me? Maybe not in canada bud.....</p>

<p>The</a> Top 10 Quant Schools, According to the Street by Advanced Trading</p>

<p>MIT is tops in quant skills bar none</p>

<p>MFE programs are not undergraduate degrees, so you still can't "major in FE". Undergraduates are not well equipped to do quantitative analysis. Structured programs in financial engineering at the masters level is another story.</p>

<p>melon,</p>

<p>The link you posted talks about master programs. Your link just reinforces what steevee was saying.</p>

<p>Sorry about that, kinda speed read through...</p>

<p>Binghamton has a pretty solid business school and an undergraduate FInancial Engineering program. Placement isnt bad either.</p>

<p>It's all just marketing. They're all elementary courses in mathematics and basic courses in finance. It is at best a major in financial analysis (even BBA grads can do it). I don't know how these courses can make a candidate competitive enough to apply to masters/PhD level positions.</p>

<p>^I just checked out Binghamton program and it's really not much more than a typical finance major. The only differences I see are just a course in intro to econometrics and a course in programming. </p>

<p>I just checked out Princeton's operation research and financial engineering major and compared it with the curriculum of Northwestern's industrial engineering and management sciences major. The only difference is Princeton curriculm requires an "intro to financial engineering" whereas at Northwestern, that course is an elective for those who choose "econ and finance" concentration. Most of these so-called FE programs is really not much different from IEMS or IEOR majors at the undergrad level. If you want true FE, you need to do master.</p>

<p>And Northwestern's IEMS major + the Kellogg cert in financial economics for which you take 4 intense MBA-finance courses (see the link in post #9) is gonna beat most, if not all, of these so-called "FE majors" as far as preparing you to become the "quants".</p>