mfegrad
CMU MSCF Alum
- Joined
- 3/10/11
- Messages
- 332
- Points
- 53
i don't mean to be harsh, neither of those reasons will cut it or are sufficient reasons to go into this field.
are there students that do mfes for that reason? yes...there are a ton. i'd argue, though, that they often times have tougher times finding jobs (because they don't know anything about the way markets work or they lack basic economic intuition). they then find themselves in seemingly less glamorous jobs where they're further from the money. result: unhappiness.
my firm belief is that there are too many schools in this field. if people were rational, this would self-correct, as approximately 80% of schools would shut down. however, this leads directly to my other firm belief: there are waaaaay too many people who think that doing an mfe is the way to get rich quick. a smart trader/investor would see this and run fast in the other direction. simply put, don't follow the herd...and there are already too many who want to do an mfe because they believe a) in credentialism and b) that it's the get rich quick path. that should tell you something.
you really should have a passion for markets or economics or something similar. for one, it'll make the long days a lot easier. but more importantly, if you want to "trade" (as it seems almost every aspiring mfe student wants to do as they've heard that's where the money is), traders will see right through you during interviews.
graduate school (esp. terminal degrees) should involve some major soul-searching. too few people do it. as an aside, i'd wager you can probably tell that from essays.
edit: wording.
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