- Joined
- 8/2/12
- Messages
- 2
- Points
- 11
Hello,
Right now I'm enrolled at an Undergraduate program in "General" Engineering and just finshed my 2nd year. After these two years, there are eight "options" to go into.
In the first two years we took physics, chemistry and applied math courses. I didn't know how a bond worked until I got intern at a bank after extensive trouble. There I managed to catch up on basic econ, and what the financial world looks like (I took 0 business courses in High School).
The problem right now is that there is this relatively new option in Finance for year three and four. The first wave of graduates have just finished this 2 year Option and have graduated this year. In this program they teach you basic econ, PDEs, linear programming to introduction to trading, option pricing, and more in-depth materials in 4th year (Martingales, Ito's Lemma, MCMC process etc). The big problem right now is that I don't know if after I do this, I don't know for sure if I want to continue for sure. After Undergrad, MFE would take another 50k or so, and I'd be graduating from with 80k in debt and I'm not even sure if that is the correct choice. MFE is almost nessecary since nobody in the Option got "reasonable" (~60k offers on Bay Street [Canada]) offers after graduation or for the optional 12-16month internship between year 3 and 4.
On the other hand, if I were to choose an option such as physics or electrical (signal processing), would I still be able to directly enroll into an MFE program (get accepted and suceed)? I would have a much stronger background in C-style languages, data mining as well as more network experience (although I doubt the last point would be that important). I would also have more flexibility in terms of choosing a career either in academia, industry, or transitioning into finance. However, I wouldn't have any experience in real analysis or stocahstic calculus and would probably fail my MFE program. My GPA would also be much lower in undergrad as well (meaning I'd probably wouldnt even be able to get into our school's own MFE program), as well as having my classes (Tutorial + lecture + labs) per week drop to 20-22h for Finance, but jump to 35h+ for physics or EE.
It seems really stupid now; I've already spent my summer interning at 2 banks after rejecting a cool offer to work in network architecture and I'm really not sure whether or not to commit to Finance or go with the perceived "safer" option of EE or physics. The other really urgent problem is getting into an MFE program as well. Our program isn't even a top 10 program and it got >400 apps for 30 spots, while physics and engineering grad school takes anyone in undergrad with a 3.2+ (out of 4) GPA from our program. I'm not even 100% confident about getting into MFE if I go into Finance let alone going into physics or EE...
Thanks, sorry for the wall of text.
TL DR version:
I'm retarded. Physics/EE = bad grades but more options. Finance = easier but I'm not even 100% sure. WTF am I supp0sed to do...
Right now I'm enrolled at an Undergraduate program in "General" Engineering and just finshed my 2nd year. After these two years, there are eight "options" to go into.
In the first two years we took physics, chemistry and applied math courses. I didn't know how a bond worked until I got intern at a bank after extensive trouble. There I managed to catch up on basic econ, and what the financial world looks like (I took 0 business courses in High School).
The problem right now is that there is this relatively new option in Finance for year three and four. The first wave of graduates have just finished this 2 year Option and have graduated this year. In this program they teach you basic econ, PDEs, linear programming to introduction to trading, option pricing, and more in-depth materials in 4th year (Martingales, Ito's Lemma, MCMC process etc). The big problem right now is that I don't know if after I do this, I don't know for sure if I want to continue for sure. After Undergrad, MFE would take another 50k or so, and I'd be graduating from with 80k in debt and I'm not even sure if that is the correct choice. MFE is almost nessecary since nobody in the Option got "reasonable" (~60k offers on Bay Street [Canada]) offers after graduation or for the optional 12-16month internship between year 3 and 4.
On the other hand, if I were to choose an option such as physics or electrical (signal processing), would I still be able to directly enroll into an MFE program (get accepted and suceed)? I would have a much stronger background in C-style languages, data mining as well as more network experience (although I doubt the last point would be that important). I would also have more flexibility in terms of choosing a career either in academia, industry, or transitioning into finance. However, I wouldn't have any experience in real analysis or stocahstic calculus and would probably fail my MFE program. My GPA would also be much lower in undergrad as well (meaning I'd probably wouldnt even be able to get into our school's own MFE program), as well as having my classes (Tutorial + lecture + labs) per week drop to 20-22h for Finance, but jump to 35h+ for physics or EE.
It seems really stupid now; I've already spent my summer interning at 2 banks after rejecting a cool offer to work in network architecture and I'm really not sure whether or not to commit to Finance or go with the perceived "safer" option of EE or physics. The other really urgent problem is getting into an MFE program as well. Our program isn't even a top 10 program and it got >400 apps for 30 spots, while physics and engineering grad school takes anyone in undergrad with a 3.2+ (out of 4) GPA from our program. I'm not even 100% confident about getting into MFE if I go into Finance let alone going into physics or EE...
Thanks, sorry for the wall of text.
TL DR version:
I'm retarded. Physics/EE = bad grades but more options. Finance = easier but I'm not even 100% sure. WTF am I supp0sed to do...
