Hello CC,
I’m wondering how an engineering degree from Columbia would fare against a business degree from NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, or Berkeley Haas in terms of recruiting. I guess what I’m really asking is, even though Columbia isn’t known for it’s engineering program, would the prestige and rigor associated with an Ivy League engineering degree be competitive with the more focused business degree from a non-ivy in the ibanking recruitment process. Thanks! Let me know if you need more context, I didn’t want this post to be too long.
I think in the long run, the Columbia degree would be better. You’d have the network and name for life, and I highly doubt that any employer would say that “you only went to Columbia” and not consider you based off of that.
To be honest I would pick any of those programs you mentioned over Columbia Engineering if you want to get into Investment Banking. First of all, you need a relatively high GPA to get into banking in the first place and pulling even a 3.5 / 3.6 in engineering, from what I hear, is extremely difficult.
Next you still need to know all your finance stuff for interviews even though you are an engineering major and you’re going to have to learn it all on your own.
Yes Columbia is a good brand but so is Stern, Ross, and Haas and there are way more of the latter alumni in banking than Columbia SEAS.
A large number of engineers from the Ivies go straight to Wallstreet. Your degree from any of the schools would not be a hinderance. Columbia, as a whole, is a target school. Goldman Sachs is not going pick the Columbia liberal arts kid over the Columbia engineer solely based on school of study.
However the same cannot be said for Michigan and Berkeley where you have to do an internal transfer into the B-school. If you don’t get in, you miss out on the significant boost Ross affords you.
I would take into account the optionality that the Columbia engineering degree affords you. I doubt you will have a much more difficult time getting an IBD job from Columbia SEAS than the other options, and an engineering degree is valuable for more quantitative roles in finance. You may also decide in the future you don’t want to do finance at all, in which case you would also have engineering jobs open to you. Also the proximity to NYC offices of investment banks for interviews at Columbia is something that you would not have at Ross or Haas.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in, I appreciate the help.
Why would you be an engineering major to go into anything else besides engineering? If you want to go into I-Banking, just go to Columbia, major in econ/finance, and get a high GPA. Engineering won’t make a difference in recruiting and you will enjoy college a whole lot more.
@Carotid Industrial Engineering meshes well with business or finance, depending on the course selection. So, why not?
Plus, engineers tend to use more math than econ/business majors. Engineers are more likely to learn computer skills. Both can be valuable to a financial firm.
In any case, even if you were an econ or business major, you wouldn’t necessary learn finance.
Because you are taking the risk of slaughtering your GPA for no reason. It’s equivalent to saying “I want to be an architect, but I’m going to be pre-med in college because people can get hurt on the job.”
Also, “computer skills” are not valuable to a financial firm whatsoever. You need to know how to use Excel and PowerPoint. Beyond that is unnecessary.
@Carotid Financial engineering requires computer skills deeper than Excel and PowerPoint. You’re thinking of business executives and management.
Engineering at an Ivy League gives you the name, hard work, and the math skills, all of which IBs love. If you go on Wall Street Oasis, you’ll see that many engineers do go on to Wall Street after graduation. GPA is the only down side, and you can still get a decent, good-enough GPA.
P.S. Out of curiosity, could you please PM me your match schools? I’m also interested in CMC and banking, but I’m having trouble finding match schools.
No, not many engineers go to Wall Street. Engineers go to engineering. There are probably far more liberal arts majors on Wall Street than engineers. Check anywhere else and you’ll see that nine times out of ten, interviewers will look at the english major with a 3.9 instead of the engineering major with a 3.4.
I’m already a rising sophomore at Claremont McKenna. If you’re interested in IB then PM me and I can think of some schools for you.
@Carotid Obviously the majority of engineer majors go into engineering, but many engineers do go on to Wall Street. Again, have a look on Wall Street Oasis, where this is actually a fairly common topic.
Also: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1326850-why-do-engineers-go-into-finance.html and there are quite a few threads here that talk about it.
Do you have a source that says engineer majors only go into engineering, or that very very few engineer majors go into Wall Street?
Did the English major with a 3.9 come from the Ivies and the engineer come from a less known school? From what I’ve heard, I doubt that an English major will be chosen over an engineer from the same school, unless the GPA difference really is significant.
I’ll PM you thanks.
If you’re trying to break into finance with engineering, then you obviously don’t have a passion for engineering and therefore should avoid majoring in it. And yes, I know what’s on WSO because I work for them.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/degree-engineering-vs-business