Monday, June 19, 2006

Haas MFE Grads Starting Out at $156,000+

Are you one of those people who are debating whether to continue a career in engineering or to branch out and get an MBA?

There's another -- lucrative -- alternative you might consider: a Master's in Financial Engineering.

The Haas School of Business reports that 56 of the 59 people who completed its MFE program this year had job offers within three months of graduation. Their average first-year compensation offer was worth $156,614, reflecting a starting salary of just over $99,000 plus bonuses. That figure marks a 17 per cent increase over last year's average offer of $133,618.

Lehman Brothers was the leading employer of this year's Haas MFE grads, taking on 9 employees from the class. BGI, Citigroup, Fitch Rating, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and BNP Paribas hired two or more graduates each. Other employers were Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Credit Derivatives Research (CDR), LaSalle Bank Corporation, and SAC Capital Advisors.

It's important to understand that a financial engineering degree leads to a completely different career than an MBA does. To put it simply, MBAs are taught to manage organizations and their parts, processes, and resources, whereas MFEs are taught to manage investments.

MFE programs train students to apply financial theory and computer modeling to investment management. Graduates use their skills to make pricing, hedging, and trading decisions in investment banking, corporate consulting, risk management, and other financial fields.

Full-time MFE programs are shorter than MBA programs, with most lasting only a year to 18 months. Strong quantitative skills are an absolute requirement. Most programs have acceptance rates of 10 per cent or lower, with many applicants being rejected on the grounds of insufficient mathematical skills.

For more information on program options, visit these schools' websites:

University of Berkeley - Haas School of Business (Master's in Financial Engineering)
Carnegie Mellon - Tepper School of Business (M.S. in Computational Finance)
Cornell University (Financial Engineering Master's Program)
New York University (M.S. in Mathematics in Finance)
Princeton University (Master of Finance)
Stanford University (Interdisciplinary M.S. Degree in Financial Mathematics)
The University of Chicago (M.S. in Financial Mathematics)
The University of Michigan (Master of Science in Financial Engineering)

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