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My experience is that most of the finance majors start in engineering. And switch majors to finance once they get to the engineering weeding out classes.

threepipeproblm 12y ago
Doesn't mean they won't convince someone they can be your boss.
SpaceManNabs 12y ago
That is interesting. At princeton, they do operations research and finance. It can get pretty math intense, almost as hard as the physics department in some cases. The engineering classes are easier compared to the ORFE classes, I believe.
- yuncun 12y ago
  well at state school, that wasn't the case
- threepipeproblm 12y ago
  Yes but the engineers can build bridges that don't crash, whereas the finance people who want to impress us with hard math brought us the derivative crash and high-speed trading with the "flash crash" etc.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    Bridges certainly can and do fail.
    - hga 12y ago
      As the example I'm most familiar with, this bridge should not have failed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge The state of the art in the first half of the '60s was good enough to design such a bridge correctly, but the gusset plates that connect girders together were undersized. Then there's the famous example of Boston's Hancock Tower, which was designed and built per the current state of the art and code, but it turned out that did not consider some important things that could have caused it to collapse along its long, narrow side: http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5826 http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5826
    - threepipeproblm 12y ago
      I didn't claim that bridges can't fail, but that engineers can make bridges that are reliable. Yes with roughly 20% of the economy locked up in "finance" we appear to get INCREASED economic instability. So... did I get downvoted because that wasn't clear, or because it hit too close to home for the financial experts on here?
- TheHypnotist 12y ago
  Nevermind that banks don't just pick up finance majors. They pick up people with math & science degrees as well.
yuncun 12y ago
I hate to admit it, but I almost switched to econ in my second year. I was halfway through operating systems and I filled out the request and everything, but I didn't turn it in. Nowadays I look back to that from the eyes of a born-again suicide survivor, but I guess when you're 19 and all your friends are definitely not debugging parse trees on Friday, a career in business doesn't look that bad.
jgroszko 12y ago
All of my finance friends are pretty smart and were able to complete their engineering degrees. They just saw better hours and better pay for basically being able to play poker (commodities trading) all day...

threepipeproblm 12y ago

Doesn't mean they won't convince someone they can be your boss.

SpaceManNabs 12y ago

That is interesting. At princeton, they do operations research and finance. It can get pretty math intense, almost as hard as the physics department in some cases. The engineering classes are easier compared to the ORFE classes, I believe.

yuncun 12y ago
well at state school, that wasn't the case
threepipeproblm 12y ago
Yes but the engineers can build bridges that don't crash, whereas the finance people who want to impress us with hard math brought us the derivative crash and high-speed trading with the "flash crash" etc.
- freehunter 12y ago
  Bridges certainly can and do fail.
  - hga 12y ago
    As the example I'm most familiar with, this bridge should not have failed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge The state of the art in the first half of the '60s was good enough to design such a bridge correctly, but the gusset plates that connect girders together were undersized. Then there's the famous example of Boston's Hancock Tower, which was designed and built per the current state of the art and code, but it turned out that did not consider some important things that could have caused it to collapse along its long, narrow side: http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5826 http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5826
  - threepipeproblm 12y ago
    I didn't claim that bridges can't fail, but that engineers can make bridges that are reliable. Yes with roughly 20% of the economy locked up in "finance" we appear to get INCREASED economic instability. So... did I get downvoted because that wasn't clear, or because it hit too close to home for the financial experts on here?
TheHypnotist 12y ago
Nevermind that banks don't just pick up finance majors. They pick up people with math & science degrees as well.

yuncun 12y ago

I hate to admit it, but I almost switched to econ in my second year. I was halfway through operating systems and I filled out the request and everything, but I didn't turn it in. Nowadays I look back to that from the eyes of a born-again suicide survivor, but I guess when you're 19 and all your friends are definitely not debugging parse trees on Friday, a career in business doesn't look that bad.

jgroszko 12y ago

All of my finance friends are pretty smart and were able to complete their engineering degrees. They just saw better hours and better pay for basically being able to play poker (commodities trading) all day...