Duke MEM Program, Worth It?

[Ben Franklin]

I recently graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering, and will be enrolling in the Duke Master of Engineering Management program in the fall. I'm curious if this program has any potential for validity in the quant community.

It is a one year degree that consists of 4 core business-engineering courses, only one of which has a topic in finance. Students may however fill the rest of their time with technical electives, which include courses offered from the Fuqua MBA program. Here is a sample of what my FE course load could look like:

Semester 1:
Finance in high tech industries (program requirement)
Computational finance (program elective)
Financial engineering (through Fuqua)

Semester 2:
Advanced topics in financial engineering (program elective)
Derivatives (through Fuqua)
Mathematical finance (graduate economics course)

I am wondering if it is worth it to exhaust my technical electives towards financial engineering, when I will be receiving a degree that is essentially unknown in the community. There is a Duke "center for quantitative modeling" linked here: http://cqm.pratt.duke.edu/node/8 that shows some of the projects students have completed in the past. I am great with networking and communicating, and am comfortable reaching out to professors and getting to know them. I will also be a leader for projects / student groups during my time at Duke. Any suggestions, or will it be difficult to find a job in the sector with this somewhat unknown degree?

 

[nikeeng]

The market for FE have been oversaturated over the last few years. IMO your best bet in obtaining a job after graduation is via alumni contacts so the best gauge of how good your program is is by how active your alumni network is. Ever since the crash in 2008 the demand for FE have shrunk dramtically paralleling the contraction in the structured and derivatives products. Times are tough and there is no knowing when and if the market will improve.

 

[pingu]

I recently graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering, and will be enrolling in the Duke Master of Engineering Management program in the fall. I'm curious if this program has any potential for validity in the quant community.

It is a one year degree that consists of 4 core business-engineering courses, only one of which has a topic in finance. Students may however fill the rest of their time with technical electives, which include courses offered from the Fuqua MBA program. Here is a sample of what my FE course load could look like:

Semester 1:
Finance in high tech industries (program requirement)
Computational finance (program elective)
Financial engineering (through Fuqua)

Semester 2:
Advanced topics in financial engineering (program elective)
Derivatives (through Fuqua)
Mathematical finance (graduate economics course)

I am wondering if it is worth it to exhaust my technical electives towards financial engineering, when I will be receiving a degree that is essentially unknown in the community. There is a Duke "center for quantitative modeling" linked here: http://cqm.pratt.duke.edu/node/8 that shows some of the projects students have completed in the past. I am great with networking and communicating, and am comfortable reaching out to professors and getting to know them. I will also be a leader for projects / student groups during my time at Duke. Any suggestions, or will it be difficult to find a job in the sector with this somewhat unknown degree?

Don't want to blow your bubble but this sounds like a "money suck".