MFE or ChE?

[Lunasol]

Guys:

I have been on this forum for a long time as long as I was thinking of my career path. But still confused with my career path. If anyone here would help me out, that would be greatly appreciated.

I am a senior major from a U.S top 5 Chemical Engineering school with a nearly perfect GPA. Since I have such a broad interests and owing loans, my friends told me I might want to think of MFE as a grad program coz this is a hot place with hot money (honestly from my heart speaking). Honestly speaking, I have never taken any classes regarding finance and financial mathematicals. As said, I am a typical chemical engineering major with good sense in math, analytical skills and highest GPA with a 650+800+5 GRE. Another skill that I am not quite comfortable with is my C++ programing skill, I never touched that thing before.

Plus, I started trading stocks and some options a couple months ago, but encountered two major market corrections: one in August and one right now. Portfolio being droped more than 40% which made me really doubt about my personalities for this financial field.

My only reason for applying for MFE is I am or have been a top engineering student, and really be able to be smart in learning. But regarding my lack of financial knowledge and necessary skills, should I still continue apply for this program or just stick with my current engineering discipline which I do not hate at all.

Apologize for the long BS. But really appreciate any good advices that would help me out of this jam.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I would say stick to CHE, graduate and work. If you don't like the job after a few years, MFE is still there. Just because you have a huge student loan and your friends say MFE is hot money, it does not mean going to MFE will solve your problems.
First, you probably will take another loan for MFE which costs 40-80K for most programs. Second, in this market condition, MFE does not guarantee a high paying job (if you are able to find a job at all).

So you may end up in a worse situation after MFE than you are now. And with a bigger loan.

Would you kick yourself if chem engineering becomes hot then ? Or would you go to another field, let's say Nursing, if it's the big money then ?

So while it's impossible to give you an answer, I can only lay out all the possibilities for you to make a informed decision. If you decide MFE is your calling, I have no reason to believe you will not be successful.

 

[Lunasol]

Thanks Andy, I really appreciate that.

 

[alain]

What do you like in chemical engineering? If you make the decision to study chemical engineering, you probably found something interesting in that field. I would think that's a great choice if you find something that you really want to do.

Chemical engineering is still a HOT place to be if you are related to the oil industry. I have couple of neighbors that worked as chemical engineers, one in oil for BP and another one in plastics for BASF (he just retired). Both of them are really wealthy so money doesn’t seem to be an issue. The only drawback I can see is that they have to travel a lot. The guy from BASF worked in Germany and Hong Kong for the last 8 years. The guy in BP has been working outside of US for most of his life: Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and EUA. He loved EUA. He said that place is awesome.

So do some soul search and decide.

 

[Vic_Siqiao]

i think top5 ChE has already guaranteed ur future and demonstrated ur ability. Switching to a totally new filed will take u lots of time to feel comfortalbe and it is also not easy to be well-recognized as before.

 

[Yuriy]

I agree with Andy. Top 5 CHE and Great GPA (in CHE) is much better than unknown future of a Financial Engineer, where there are many obstacles starting with not so easy to get into good schools and ending with huge competition for those high paying jobs.

If I remember correctly, the person who donated a huge amount of money to my undergrad institution (Poly) was a chem engineer. CHE is still a hot place to work as well, and maybe even more stable than FE (as you mention your own experiences with trading).

If you like CHE, stay there, then if you like finance, you can always either become a FE or just trade for your own pleasure.

 

[Lunasol]

Thank you for all you guys.
It's always being true that others are always better than own. That just punched me so bad in the past months. I really appreciate you guys' comments that are GREATLY helpful. Even if I am not going to be a FE, I will still hang out on this forum since the bright ideas, sharp advices and friendly environment.

 

[Vic Chan]

Your background ChE is the same as me. Based on my experience, it is hard getting a job with only bachelor degree for ChE plus even though you were from top5 university and if you are an international student also.

Again, ask yourself if you STILL have desire to explore and concentrate more in a specific field in ChE, then I suggest you continue to pursue PhD in ChE. However, if you want to have broad knowledge in a different field than ChE, then I suggest to continue study FE.

In my opinion, you still use lots of your knowledge from ChE. You use the same tools to solve numerical, modeling problem. The difference is just the type of the problem you will face: the advance-finance problem. Well, the basic finance problem, I think you have studied in ChE such as calculating NPV and IRR to compare different project. You learn also economic and market condition for chemical company.
Moreover, the thing that differs and give advantage you from another FE student is your problem-solving skill because you were graduated from top-5 university. Not always but you should have a strong basic foundation of math, physics and computer programming.


Myself is pursuing related FE field now because I like to learn more stuff as long as you are still young:D.