Financial Engineering Major? Forum

[Leeroy Jenkins]

same diff

actually i have no clue what the admissions stats were for back then, all I know was their acceptance at that time was probably well over 40%

[columbia2009]

same diff

actually i have no clue what the admissions stats were for back then, all I know was their acceptance at that time was probably well over 40%

It's much different now. I'll see how hard it is to transfer.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstrac ... 6-2008.htm

[Kiana]

So would it be better for me to major in economics? and how would a 3.8 and a 175 affect HYS?

If you have a 3.8/175 I don't think your major will hurt you too much. Interior design majors, fine arts majors, and fashion merchandising majors get into H with high enough numbers.

[Kiana]

i am not conceding that schools look down on pre-professional majors, but it's always a good idea to try to convey in your app a sense of continuity... like, why getting a law degree isn't you running away from your field/major, but rather a logical next step.

They do.

From Richard Montauk's book, How to Get into the Top Law Schools, in chapter 8, he says:

"Your specific major matters less than the type of major you choose. What matters is that you choose a serious major. Schools are leery of pre-professional subjects such as business, and those that reward performance talents such as acting. There are some majors that admissions counselors cringe at seeing; communications, criminology and pre-law (even though theoretically pre-law is not a major)."

Ivey says something similar in her book.

[columbia2009]

i am not conceding that schools look down on pre-professional majors, but it's always a good idea to try to convey in your app a sense of continuity... like, why getting a law degree isn't you running away from your field/major, but rather a logical next step.

They do.

From Richard Montauk's book, How to Get into the Top Law Schools, in chapter 8, he says:

"Your specific major matters less than the type of major you choose. What matters is that you choose a serious major. Schools are leery of pre-professional subjects such as business, and those that reward performance talents such as acting. There are some majors that admissions counselors cringe at seeing; communications, criminology and pre-law (even though theoretically pre-law is not a major)."

Ivey says something similar in her book.

okay, but is financial engineering a pre-professional major?

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Is Operations Research a pre-professional major?

[playhero]

No one is going to give a shit, if anything it might get you remembered.

[columbia2009]

No one is going to give a shit, if anything it might get you remembered.

hopefully. =D

[philip.platt]

I think a Financial Engineering major + a JD would be a strong combo. Are you in undergrad?

If you did BigLaw in NYC for a few years you could probably switch to a quantitative hedge fund after that and make bank.

[Boyk1182]

There is no such thing as a "pre-law"

--LinkRemoved--

I've never heard of it, but apparently it exists...

[philip.platt]

Do you learn to engineer bridges of money or? Since it's not an ABET accredited program, the amount that the degree transfers over is minimal (it sounds like it's a degree for coders of Wall Street programs, which is a niche as well). Granted, neither is Berkeley (which is at their business school), but it really sounds like it's pushing the "Engineering" term. I had never heard of it till you mentioned it, and I'm an Electrical Engineer. I agree with ScaredWorkedBored, I would be thorough about how this degree either brought you to law school, brings you closer to it, or how it will be applied.

Financial Engineering is fairly hot right now despite the markets. It is well known in the finance community. More companies are demanding that their employees get training such as the CQF that Paul Wilmott is pushing.

good article / tidbit about quantitative finance and how it relates :

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazin ... ntPage=all

They didn't know, or didn't ask. One reason was that the outputs came from "black box" computer models and were hard to subject to a commonsense smell test. Another was that the quants, who should have been more aware of the copula's weaknesses, weren't the ones making the big asset-allocation decisions. Their managers, who made the actual calls, lacked the math skills to understand what the models were doing or how they worked. They could, however, understand something as simple as a single correlation number. That was the problem.

"The relationship between two assets can never be captured by a single scalar quantity," Wilmott says. For instance, consider the share prices of two sneaker manufacturers: When the market for sneakers is growing, both companies do well and the correlation between them is high. But when one company gets a lot of celebrity endorsements and starts stealing market share from the other, the stock prices diverge and the correlation between them turns negative. And when the nation morphs into a land of flip-flop-wearing couch potatoes, both companies decline and the correlation becomes positive again. It's impossible to sum up such a history in one correlation number, but CDOs were invariably sold on the premise that correlation was more of a constant than a variable.


It is not really pushing the engineering term as this is exactly what they do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer

An engineer is a skilled technical professional. Engineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints

[columbia2009]

I think a Financial Engineering major + a JD would be a strong combo. Are you in undergrad?

If you did BigLaw in NYC for a few years you could probably switch to a quantitative hedge fund after that and make bank.

Interesting. Yes, I am undergrad. I'll probably have to ask for more information from the adviser.

[Kiana]

i am not conceding that schools look down on pre-professional majors, but it's always a good idea to try to convey in your app a sense of continuity... like, why getting a law degree isn't you running away from your field/major, but rather a logical next step.

They do.

From Richard Montauk's book, How to Get into the Top Law Schools, in chapter 8, he says:

"Your specific major matters less than the type of major you choose. What matters is that you choose a serious major. Schools are leery of pre-professional subjects such as business, and those that reward performance talents such as acting. There are some majors that admissions counselors cringe at seeing; communications, criminology and pre-law (even though theoretically pre-law is not a major)."

Ivey says something similar in her book.

okay, but is financial engineering a pre-professional major?

It's not a stereotypical pre-professional major. I personally don't think it will hurt you, columbia2009. Maybe they'll see the word "engineering" and think you're smart.

[turtle22]

Columbia2009 - As another SEAS alum, +1 if you can get a 3.8 in any major in SEAS, although IEOR and the like are supposed the be the easiest. I am also curious what year you are and what type of law you want to practice. If you are planning on doing IP law then perhaps consider Industrial Engineering.

+1 to the other posters saying it would be very difficult to transfer to CC, that is my understanding as well. They give you no benefit for already being at Columbia.

And rayiner - the admissions % for SEAS was way higher than CC back when we were applying, but it is a far more self-selected group of applicants. Not sure how things have changed since then.

[columbia2009]

Columbia2009 - As another SEAS alum, +1 if you can get a 3.8 in any major in SEAS, although IEOR and the like are supposed the be the easiest. I am also curious what year you are and what type of law you want to practice. If you are planning on doing IP law then perhaps consider Industrial Engineering.

+1 to the other posters saying it would be very difficult to transfer to CC, that is my understanding as well. They give you no benefit for already being at Columbia.

And rayiner - the admissions % for SEAS was way higher than CC back when we were applying, but it is a far more self-selected group of applicants. Not sure how things have changed since then.

Here are the admission statistics:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstrac ... 6-2008.htm

I'm not sure what kind of law yet.

[philip.platt]

I think a Financial Engineering major + a JD would be a strong combo. Are you in undergrad?

If you did BigLaw in NYC for a few years you could probably switch to a quantitative hedge fund after that and make bank.

Interesting. Yes, I am undergrad. I'll probably have to ask for more information from the adviser.

Just be wary of direct answers from your adviser. Some of them are not up to speed with everything in the career world and I would recommend that you do a bit of your own research as well.

If you are looking at doing this JD/SEAS joint program, you might want find out about alumni from this specialized program and get feedback from them.

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I think a Financial Engineering major + a JD would be a strong combo. Are you in undergrad?

If you did BigLaw in NYC for a few years you could probably switch to a quantitative hedge fund after that and make bank.

Interesting. Yes, I am undergrad. I'll probably have to ask for more information from the adviser.

Just be wary of direct answers from your adviser. Some of them are not up to speed with everything in the career world and I would recommend that you do a bit of your own research as well.

If you are looking at doing this JD/SEAS joint program, you might want find out about alumni from this specialized program and get feedback from them.

I think there's only a CC/JD program, and acording to someone, like 2 people have been accepted into that program in the past 10 years.

[columbia2009]

I think a Financial Engineering major + a JD would be a strong combo. Are you in undergrad?

If you did BigLaw in NYC for a few years you could probably switch to a quantitative hedge fund after that and make bank.

Interesting. Yes, I am undergrad. I'll probably have to ask for more information from the adviser.

Just be wary of direct answers from your adviser. Some of them are not up to speed with everything in the career world and I would recommend that you do a bit of your own research as well.

If you are looking at doing this JD/SEAS joint program, you might want find out about alumni from this specialized program and get feedback from them.

I think there's only a CC/JD program, and acording to someone, like 2 people have been accepted into that program in the past 10 years.

hmm. That's why I am wondering if anyone here had gone through the JD/SEAS program.

[turtle22]

I found this in the CC bulletin

The AILE Program annually provides up to one or two College students with outstanding records the opportunity to earn the B.A. and the J.D. degree in six years. Selected students matriculate at the Law School after their junior year, having completed the required 93 points including the College Core requirements and a concentration. Interested students must submit an application in the spring of their junior year to the Office of Pre-Professional Advising. The College nominates one or two juniors each year; the final admission determination is made by the Law School Admissions Committee.

http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/special_prog

But couldn't find anything anywhere about a joint program w/SEAS. Does anyone know if such a program actually exists?

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I don't remember reading about one back in the day.

[jgloster]

I hope you didn't listen to any these people on this thread when you were considering what to major in, because your undergrad major DOES NOT MATTER! All that matters is your LSAT and GPA. Financial engineering is a perfectly valid major, and it's awesome Columbia has a program like that at the undergrad level.