I researched the Columbia SEAS website thoroughly and it says that students can double major within their college. I was wondering whether a double major in Financial Engineering and CS would be practical. I don’t think Computer Science and Financial Engineering have much overlap. Does any one have an opinion on this? I still want to have time to network, do internships and have a life, while studying the above majors.
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I hear double majoring in SEAS is near impossible
It’s very, very difficult to double major in SEAS. While it is possible, keep in mind that SEAS students need to complete a partial core (See here for details https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/learn/academiclife/engineering/curriculum), which as an engineering student takes up a lot more your time than comparable degrees at other institutions. Also keep in mind that Computer Science is the only major offered in both SEAS and CC, so you can keep both degrees within SEAS. With that said, yes you could hypothetically do it. But to do so while still having the other things you want in your life (networking, internships, having a life) and maintain a high GPA is going to be exceedingly difficult. You wouldn’t have room for any other classes outside of your two majors and the core and each semester would have to be rigorously planned ahead of time, leaving little flexibility (even if you don’t like when a class is offered/the professor isn’t great/etc.). I would consider adding a minor in computer science (half the credits at 15) to your major (see the requirements for the financial engineering major here: http://bulletin.engineering.columbia.edu/undergraduate-degree-tracks-6#orf1 and the computer science major here: http://bulletin.engineering.columbia.edu/undergraduate-degree-tracks-3) to compare the majors and overlap. Personally, I’m on the pre-PhD track in Columbia College, and even completing a single, normal-sized major, fulfilling the pre-med requirements, and completing CC core is tricky and requires planning.
Thanks for the info @neuromajor !
I think I will pursue a single major. I know Columbia’s financial engineering program is relatively new, do you think it is well respected by employers and wall street? CS can get you a job in pretty much any industry and that’s what I found appealing about it. I also wonder to what extent a CS minor would make up for a a CS major
Also, would a financial engineering major with multiple minors be practical? I would greatly appreciate any opinion or advice
I’m a sophomore in SEAS right now and that would be pretty much impossible to do financial engineering and CS double major. Firstly you have to be accepted to the financial engineering program which is pretty difficult (you need about a 3.8 GPA) and the course load is large. You could probably do a CS minor though but it’s not really necessary. I wouldn’t reccomend doing FE unless you know you want to do investment banking
@ballislife thanks for the reply! So it looks like I will do a single major than. Do you know of other engineering majors (like Computer Engineering) get recruited by Wall Street firms? Or do you really need a financial engineering degree for that?
@outlooker The whole operations research department is good if you want to do finance
Current SEAS student here, class of 2016. I’m in the financial engineering program and just wanted to add / clarify a few points.
- Double majoring in SEAS is hard, but it happens sometimes. Double majoring in Financial Engineering and something else and doing well enough to get a job isn't likely, so you don't see that happen much. Like neuromajor said, it's not common and requires a lot of planning right from 1st semester freshman year.
- You can do Financial Engineering and a few minors if you pick them right. It's challenging but not impossible. Notably, econ minor basically comes free. I'm picking up an Applied Math minor too. It's possible to do a comp sci minor too like ballislife said it's not super necessary-- you take the practical programming classes anyway. If you're interested in comp sci, take the requirements early on; my first few internships were comp sci related and now they are finance related.
- FE isn't a pre-investment banking degree. Think of FE more as a rigorous combo of math, comp sci, operations research (optimization), and finance. FE students end up in trading, quant research, asset management, investment banking--basically anywhere in finance. Financial Engineering in your late junior and senior year will be more focused on pricing models and stuff. See http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/08/quants-quantitative-analyst.asp for more info. A lot of places respect Columbia FE.
- Finally, FE isn't the only way to get into finance. Operations Research is full of people wanting to do finance and you should be alright with something like CS, Applied Math, even EE. It's more about selling yourself properly at that point. Lots of great finance companies recruit at Columbia and the job boards have a lot of stuff for juniors and seniors.
@metalpawn that was very helpful, thank you so much for the reply. I just have one brief question, do FE students know how to to program computers, code, and all that? I’m sure a CS minor would help in that too
@outlooker, it’s a spectrum. Not many people do FE but among them some of them really like programming and CS, and others see it as a necessary evil. However, everyone in FE will know how to program because of the classes you’ll be required to take.
You must take: Intro comp sci, data structures, database systems, and applications prog for FE. You can take comp sci courses as technical electives too.
To see what courses FE require, scroll down to the bottom of this: http://bulletin.engineering.columbia.edu/undergraduate-degree-tracks-6
To see requirements for a CS minor.
http://bulletin.engineering.columbia.edu/minor-computer-science
You might notice that the few additional CS courses you have to take are theoretical (Fundamentals of Comp System, Comp sci theory, discrete math) and might not interest you anyway if you’re trying to learn how to program.