<p>Anyone familiar with these programs - MS in Management Science and Engineering and MS in Financial Engineering? What are the pros and cons of each degree?</p>
<p>They are completely unrelated, imo.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about MS in Management Science and Engineering, but it sounds like a professional degree for Technology professionals that need an advanced degree to move up in their field (aka, the degree that promotes them to a management position within their company).</p>
<p>A Masters in Financial Engineering really isn’t “engineering” at all. These programs are also known as “Mathematical Finance” or “Computational Finance”. Lots of mathematical modeling (of financial markets/products/etc) using computer software. Theory about derivatives, risk management, portfolio management, etc. It’s a Quantitative degree dealing with the Finance industry. People that get jobs in this field are known as “Quants”.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I am wondering if work experience is necessary in trying to gain admission to a MFE?
I can’t locate many MSE programs except Stanford’s. I’ve never met anyone who has done it. I think most of those thinking of going for a MSE work and eventually go on for MBA’s instead of the terminal MSE.</p>
<p>For the Financial Engineering program, work experience is less important than high levels of math, imo.</p>
<p>You need to have taken full Calc sequence, Calc based Probability and Statistics, Linear & Matrix Algebra, Computer Science (or at least some programming classes) and maybe some other Finance/Economics classes.</p>
<p>That being said, many people that pursue a Masters in Financial Engineering come from a Finance background.</p>
<p>What if you have taken all of the required math (with A’s) but have not taken any finance classes, would that be detrimental to the application going against all those with finance experience for a financial engineering program? Do those who obtain a financial engineering degree ever eventually go back for an MBA, or is that a feasible senario?</p>
<p>It’s much easier to teach finance to a math person than it is to teach math to a finance person.</p>
<p>Good point. So is a job in finance all about dealing with numbers all day?</p>