Great, glad to hear it. I think I might have mentioned it in a previous comment, but there are also quantitative roles at investment banks, such as the analyst role in Goldman's QIS group. You shouldn't view the analyst program at investment banks purely as a stepping stone.
Will definitely keep this in mind when applying for internships.
Yes, I agree most of the material that you learn in finance won't be useful in a practical setting. However, I also doubt that anything in an upper level math course will likely be very useful outside of an academic setting. I think that even if you were to take the BSEE route, taking one extra course in quant finance would be appropriate -- it demonstrates your interest in finance when you are applying for finance jobs.
Talk to your academic counselor to explain your situation, maybe they can allow you to be more flexible with when you take your courses and how many course you can take. My counselor in college was very helpful in helping me make my schedule. I had attended college at one of the schools that you listed above and I had planned to sub-matriculate into a MS on top of getting my double degree. I made the decision pretty late though (first half of my sophomore year), so I had to take twice the number of courses that I was supposed to originally take in my junior year. It was a hassle though because you had to make sure your courses you wanted to take didn't overlap, and then basically ask the professor for priority in getting the course timeslot that you wanted. -- Basically what I'm saying is: figure out what you want to do, and then figure out how to make that possible.
The problem with my college's business school is that everyone gets a degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in whatever field they choose. Since it's a general degree, you are required to take a course or two from every field of business (i.e. marketing, supply chain management).
So if I were to add a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, I'd take 15 business courses total and only 5 would be actual finance courses. The 5 finance courses I would take are financial management, corporate finance, investments, and two electives (choice out of Financial Risk Management, IB, M&A, Valuation and Value Creation, Credit Analysis, Risk management + Insurance). I am very interested in the finance classes, but I feel like I'd wasting my time and money going through the general business bs.
On the other hand, an MFE would take the same amount of time to complete and would be specifically focused on finance. Plus, I get a chance to re-brand with a target school and go through OCR there provided transferring doesn't work out.
I really like the idea of adding a quant finance elective to my BSEE. I'll try asking my advisors but I feel like they won't have the power to place me in one of the higher level finance courses. The quant finance courses offered (like the risk management), all have a mountain of pre-reqs beneath them that I'd have to try and get around. Right now, I don't have any finance on my resume. The only thing I have that could demonstrate interest is the couple FE MOOCs I did, my personal trading account, and the stuff I read on Stratechery and WSJ.
