<p>Hi Guys, I am thinking of pursuing a career in finance, which seems a little strange perhaps because I am an electrical engineering major. I have a 3.8 gpa, with internship experience. I am also a resident assistant and executive board member of my school's honor society. Will I most likely be able to get into a good m.s. finance program despite my non-finance background?</p>
<p>That’s not strange at all; many quantitatively-oriented students from non-finance backgrounds (including engineers) go into finance. You may also want to consider the field of financial engineering, which takes tenets from the engineering sciences and applies them to finance.</p>
<p>I would wager that the majority of finance graduate students didn’t major in finance in undergrad. Engineering is a great major to prepare for an MS in finance, so your non-finance academic background won’t harm you. Your extracurriculars don’t matter; graduate school doesn’t care about those.</p>
<p>However, what might harm you (even for an MS program) is lack of work experience. Some MS programs are more research oriented - they are preparing people for PhD programs - but I would say most MS in finance programs are more professionally oriented, and so they would prefer but not require work experience. Of course, this is less work experience than an MBA program would require. So go ahead and apply straight from undergrad, but know that some of the top finance programs may want to see around 1-5 years of experience.</p>
<p>hi guys.
Would part-time work experience count? Part-time but over a two-year period. The work is professional.</p>