Stanford MS&E (undergrad)

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm wondering how's MS&E undergrad program. I heard that it's considered a soft-core engineering. My career goal is to be come a hedge fund manager (investment banker first of course). Also, is it weird to do a bachelor's in MS&E and do a coterm in MS&E again? This way, I feel that I will be able to take more advance courses in MS&E.</p>

<p>From what I heard MS&E is quite prestigious at the graduate level, but how is it at the undergrad?</p>

<p>What's your opinion on this?</p>

<p>(Another major I'm considering is Chemical Engineering).</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Also, what’s the difference between MS&E (master’s) and an MBA degree from Stanford GSB?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>you can take lots of grad level classes at the undergrad level if youre interested so i dont see a need for you to do both. id encourage you to explore more. many people i know did something else then the MS&E coterm or MS&E BA and something else, i.e. Statistics or Financial Math.</p></li>
<li><p>Well, one is a MA and one is a MBA. Job offers and networks with the MBA much better. Classes are also different.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>How hard is it to get into Financial Math (coterm) compared to MS&E (coterm)? How much easier is it to get into these coterms if you’re a Stanford undergrad?</p>

<ul>
<li>can you take classes offered @ GSB?</li>
</ul>

<p>MS&E is a part of the engineering school. the MBA comes from the business school. Totally different admissions process and programs. One is about high level business topics, the other talks about some business problems from an engineering type perspective. For example, there will be 0 classes in MS&E about leadership, teamwork, communication, marketing, etc (that’s not exactly true, but it is 98% true). there will be classes on operations research and financial engineering. MS&E is a popular coterm because there is a really fuzzy track in it that non-technical people can get through… but still get an engineering MS from stanford (ridiculous, but that is a different topic). Thus it is a bit more competitive to get into the MS&E coterm than the financial math masters. this is misleading though, because the prerequisite math courses for the fin math program are pretty intense and preclude the vast majority of the campus from applying (including most people in MS&E).</p>

<p>MS&E for undergrad is that great. You won’t learn anything useful. Do something else in engineering (or econ) and then go to MS&E for a masters.</p>

<p>In terms of job prospects, which would be better for a career in management consulting/investment banking: coterm in MS&E or Financial Math ?</p>

<p>I notice that the financial math program allows you to take classes @ GSB. Will this increase my chance of admission into Stanford’s ultra-competitive MBA program?</p>

<p>For undergrad, I plan to do Chemical Engineering (with math and computational science minor). Is this possible? I don’t want to be study 24-7, yet I still want to make the most out of the 200 grand my family is paying.</p>

<p>How is the MS&E grad program? I’ve gotten into it at Stanford, and gotten Masters in Financial Economics at Oxford. However, since the MFE course is a nine month itnensive course and I’m an engineer with no prior work experience, I feel like the MS&E will give me a greater breadth of experience and allow me to get into the industry with more flexibility. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Just so you realize…investment bankers rarely become hedge fund managers. The skillset is very different and not nearly as transferable as you might think.</p>

<p>@abcdeff No one in the fin math program is trying to work in banking or consulting. Everyone in the fin math program wants to be a quant or a trader (and even then, typically a pretty quantitative trader, if not outright algorithmic trading).</p>

<p>Fin math kids do have access to a couple classes at the GSB. These are not classes that the MBA kids take, these are a couple of the core classes for the Finance PhD students. They are EXTREMELY difficult. i.e. one of my stats PHD friends took the intro finance 620 series class with duffy (famous professor at the gsb) and it was ~40hr a week commitment for him (and you can rest assured he really knows his stuff). In short, no, taking the classes that fin math kids take in the GSB will not help you get into the MBA program. Maybe the finance phd program if you can rock out the 620 series, but that might even be a stretch (i dont know the details of that programs admission process at all, except that a ton of people apply, and most get rejected because they don’t have enough math background).</p>

<p>kids go to consulting from masters in MS&E frequently. Some of my friends have argued that they seem to have a bit of a preference for the masters applicants, but I cant confirm or reject that. People less frequently go into banking from the MS&E masters, but that is because most banks seem to have a strong preference for undergrads for banking analyst slots (you won’t find many banking analysts with a masters if you go to a bank).</p>

<p>you can do a major in chem e and a minor in MCS if you want. You’ll really need to want to do chem e, as its a huge major, even among engineering programs here. MCS is a cool program, I sometimes wish I had done it over CS.</p>

<p>First question: Apart from the fact that I LOVE Chemistry, does pursuing a BS in Chemical Engineering help in terms of job offers? I mean, will the recruiters care whether or not I’m doing one of Stanford’s (or any college’s) major?</p>

<p>Second question: I’m really new to the financial/business world. What can you do with a master’s degree in MS&E? I know that trying to finish Chem En and MS&E coterm in four years is pretty close to impossible. Is it possible to finish them in 4.5 years?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>