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MBA (Finance) vs Financial Engineering

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1/16/07
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How is MBA(Finance) and Financial Engineering different from each other from a career perspective and also from education perspective??
 
How is MBA(Finance) and Financial Engineering different from each other from a career perspective and also from education perspective??

I can comment on educational perspective at Baruch
MFE:
Courses are rigorous and focused.
36 credits (12 courses) are needed to graduate.

MBA:
Courses are broad and not as rigorous.
Accounting, Marketing, CIS, Statistics, Management, Economics
are required courses. Then you have to take the major and
elective courses, a total of 57 credits (20 courses 17 3-credit courses and
3 2-credit courses) are needed to graduate.
 
How is MBA(Finance) and Financial Engineering different from each other from a career perspective and also from education perspective??

Financial Engineering is a niche in the industry. It's a very quantitative approach to solve financial problems. Someone who is going to choose MSFE way should have strong mathematical and programming background.

MBA is a more general way. Student learns a little bit of everything during the MBA coursework. As a result, employment options are much broader than those for quants. However, it doesn't mean that finding a job for MBA student is easier. There are numerous MBA programs in the country. Almost every school has several MBA programs.

Overall, if you enjoy programming, implementing various models to solve financial problems then go MFE way. If crunching numbers is not for you, MBA will give you more general degree and hopefully a good career in non-quantitative area.

If you want to have a better picture what quants do, read "My life as a Quant" by E. Derman.
 
I don't think they are two comparable programs.
They can be comparable for one who doesn't know what exactly she wants. And probably if someone is trying to compare these two, she should go for MBA, since she is not sure what to do.
After MBA one can start a specialized 1 year program in MFE if she blieves that she needs to be quant.
After MFE one can go for an MBA if she believes that she doesn't like this highly concentrated area...
 
MBA vs. MFE

I have an MBA from the University of Rochester and am applying to MFE programs. If you would like to discuss the differences in further detail I may have some insights for you.
 
What is the general consensus about MBA programs that offer a financial engineering track? For example, NYU Stern has a quantitative finance specialization:

NYU Stern Innovative Curriculum

Any thoughts on how this and similar programs are looked at in the financial engineering community?

It also looks like both NYU and Columbia provide both dual MBA/MFE degrees. Does Baruch have a similar offering?

I just feel that having an MBA, in addition to the MFE, may be a good back-up incase one ever needed to change industries in the case of another market melt-down and massive downsizing on Wall Street.
 
The MBA/MFE track is relatively new (I think they just introduced it last year) so we will have to wait a few years to see how it works out.
My thinking is that one should be clear of what he wants to do. It is never a good idea to spend more time and money on what these degree ultimately get you: entry in the industry.
This just sounds to me like a business model where schools fire on all of its barrels to get everyone on this wagon. By adding the MBA to the MFE degree, they can attract both the usual MBA crowd and the techie MFE crowd.
Just wait before they offer MBA/MFE/PhD combo. Or maybe MBA/MFE/JD track.
 
The MBA/MFE track is relatively new (I think they just introduced it last year) so we will have to wait a few years to see how it works out.
My thinking is that one should be clear of what he wants to do. It is never a good idea to spend more time and money on what these degree ultimately get you: entry in the industry.
This just sounds to me like a business model where schools fire on all of its barrels to get everyone on this wagon. By adding the MBA to the MFE degree, they can attract both the usual MBA crowd and the techie MFE crowd.
Just wait before they offer MBA/MFE/PhD combo. Or maybe MBA/MFE/JD track.


Makes sense.

"Just wait before they offer MBA/MFE/PhD combo. Or maybe MBA/MFE/JD track. "
--Funny, I could actually see someone offering this.
 
Makes sense.

"Just wait before they offer MBA/MFE/PhD combo. Or maybe MBA/MFE/JD track. "
--Funny, I could actually see someone offering this.


I know that I am going to catch alot of flack for this, but I would love to have the option for and MBA/MFE/JD or MBA/MFE/DBA [ok, lets just call it the Instant Hedge Fund Program], but that is because that is one of the major milestones that I would like to achieve. Sounds hokie, but it is true.

And I think that anyone who is serious about taking a leadership and management role should consider doing both an MBA and MFE. My school preferences are Kent [hey they have an excellent up an coming program and actually put an emphasis on algorithms AND actual trading. Plus I am from Ohio, so in my opinion they should continue to rise up the rankings, but that is another story.], Baruch... [Best bang for the buck is hard to argue with], Stevens [Convenience of breaking the progam down into Certificates and all online makes their pricing ALMOST WORTH passing up the other two] NYU [All of their Quant Programs], Columbia [Same], and MIT's MBA in Finance w/ Financial Engineering emphasis.

Baruch and Stevens have unique value propositions that every other school should consider soon. Baruch has such a small tuition expense in comparison to other programs but is so selective, the type of educator and student that attracts is will always keep them positioned at the top. Conversely, Stevens making both their MBA-TM w/ Financial Engineering emphasis and their MS in Financial Engineering available entirely online are just outstanding in meeting the reality of many students constraints on time and resources. And the fact that you can take you're MBA-TM w/ Financial Engineering's emphasis credits, collect another graduate certificate w/in the discipline and have you MS in Financial Engineering speaks right to the heart of whether there is value in obtaining both. Why bother figuring it out when you can have both with the smallest amount of comparable time elapsed???

But Alas, I want the confirmation of experience with pitting my work against live market data in a lab environment -- specifically in the Futures and Forex Markets. For that to be obtainable, I am forced to work with Kent. BTW/ if Anyone from NYU, Columbia, or Stevens is reading this, My technology experience is predominantly virtualization and security, so lets talk about making more seats available to those interested [along with more flexible course offerings] through VDI -- desktop virtualization.
 
I had to take some MBA finance courses for my econ masters. I can tell you that the MBA finance courses are similar to those, if not identical, taken as an undergrad. In the MFE you would learn the mathematics behind the finance.
 
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