<p>how are the career and internship prospects of an economics major compared to a financial engineer major? are they the same? would employers look down on a financial engineering major from columbia's engineering school? would business employers even know what financial engineering is? do students from the college get better jobs than students from engineering school? what do you guys think of my plan? isnt fu easier to get into than the college?</p>
<p>FE is better than econ, more quant heavy, leaves you with more job options. Many people do FE with an econ minor. FE at least at a master's level was ranked 2nd in the country in like 2003 or 2004 (that's the last time i know that it was ranked) after nyu's FE program, so wall street job prospects are great. It's probably the major at columbia that most caters to wall street and that wall street will recruit the most from. business employers in banking, trading, research and consulting all know what FE is and like it. </p>
<p>I don't think students at the college get better wall street jobs than the engineering school, i've actually heard the opposite, which makes sense because seas kids all get quantitive degrees, college kids have to major or concentrate in math or applied math or physics or CS or stats etc, if they want to get a quant heavy degree. and fu isn't easier to get into than the college, the higher acceptance rate is deceptive, it tells you very little, other incoming class stats are much better for Fu (like top 10% of HS class or average sat score), either way employers don't really think to themselves 'hmm, this kid has a great record, but it was easier for him to get into his college than this other guy, so let's not take him'. what your education does to you matters much more. </p>
<p>the only catch is FE is competitive in fu, i.e. they don't take everyone that wants to do FE, it's a selective program and getting into the major is not a cake walk. econ on the other hand in the college is a matter of choice. I'd choose a major less on job prospects and more on what you actually like doing. doing something you don't love will likely show up in your gpa (and you'll have a sucky undergrad experience). wall streets cares little about specific majors, it's all about whether you excel at what you do, doing quant stuff does leave you open to more opportunities though, there's basically a qual/quant divide, doing something purely qualitative (econ has some quant) will leave you out of many jobs, but if history floats your boat and you do really well, there are still many wall street jobs available to you.</p>
<p>uh, confidentialcoll... FE hasn't existed that long. I'm pretty sure the first year it was offered, even on a trial basis, was the 04-05 year. And Princeton's FE program has been around a lot longer.</p>
<p>to the OP; you should also consider the core requirements for both the College and SEAS. They both have their own Core curriculum, but the College naturally has a very liberal-arts focused sequence of classes whereas SEAS goes pretty heavy on math and science (but still has a nontech requirement). Anyway, if youre not sure what to do, you might also want to consider the joint econ-IEOR major. I dont know much about it but perhaps Truazn could pick it apart for you.</p>
<p>here you go Denzera: </p>
<p><a href="http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/news/fall04/financial.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/news/fall04/financial.php</a>
&
<a href="http://www.global-derivatives.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56%5B/url%5D">http://www.global-derivatives.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56</a></p>
<p>second after Berkeley, NYU third</p>
<p>Ah, I see that you're talking about a masters' program. Those links (and your post) reference the masters' degree. I was stating facts about the undergrad program in FE, since after all that's what the OP is interested in.</p>