I got into UCB as an Aerospace student which I’m really excited about and I’ve been recently looking more into finance and especially quant as somthing that I might want to do post graduation. After asking around with some family friends in the industry I know that most people in the field usually do double majors (or undergrad and masters) in finance + some kind of quantitaive / math heavy field and since Engineering fills the quantitative / math side of the equasion I’m looking into a double major in finance or a related major in Hass.
My question is how exactly does the double major program work at UCB. Is it a seperate program, do we have to apply in advance, are inter college double even majors possible? I know if it is possible it’ll be a lot of work but I’m confident that I can make it work with enough effort and planning.
A double major in AE and business would be the MET program. It is likely that applying to the MET program (i.e. adding a business major in addition to the AE major) is highly competitive. See Continuing Student Admissions - Berkeley M.E.T. .
Note that doing a double major in any engineering and business will require more course work than the usual 120 units (15 units per semester). Expect to have course loads closer to 20 units per semester if you want to graduate in 8 semesters.
If you are really focused on quant finance, some other math-heavy majors like applied math or statistics may be a better fit for that purpose while crowding the schedule less than an engineering major. This would mean applying to the non-MET business major. See Continuing UC Berkeley Students - Undergraduate Program - Berkeley Haas . Another option instead of business would be the economics major with a focus on the math-heavy and financial economics courses.
If you really want to work in engineering, note that some engineering employers do not have a favorable opinion of new engineering graduates with second majors or substantial course work in business.
I don’t think you have to be in MET to have a COE major + business major. I’ve talked to a student who had this combination but wasn’t in MET. However, the student said that it was competitive to add the business major. (And it’s possible that the rules may have changed since the student picked up this major, too.)
Yeah I hope thats the case since the MET acceptance rate is around sub 2% based on some back of the napkin math and if that’s the only way to get a double major in engineering and business my prospects arent looking too hot.
I’ll def look into the other more math heavy majors as you suggested but a small question i got is why employers wourld look down on graduates with business coursework. I assumed even if your not going into a busness-engineering blended job it would still give you a bosst with additional skills and showing you can manage more work?
Search for posts by @HPuck35 on the subject of hiring engineering+business graduates for engineering work.
MET or not, the combined requirements for any engineering major plus a second major in business would still require substantially more than 120 units of courses.
… and if this same student didn’t choose to do the business major, they could instead take additional advanced technical courses, either in their major or a related field.
What most people consider to be the “quant industry” is tiny, hiring perhaps 500 undergraduates each year (it was higher before AI made employees more efficient). And a majority are hired from about a dozen colleges in all, with MIT graduates being the most prevalent.
There are two primary roles in the quant industry for undergraduates. The first is in software engineering, where the companies prize graduates that can write high performance and error free code. The second is in quant trading, where the companies are looking for graduates with truly exceptional math skills. Many of my child’s colleagues have national or international math awards.
The quant industry will seriously consider UCB CS students for software engineering roles.
If you are set on trying to get into quant trading, your aerospace engineering degree won’t help, nor will the MET program. What could help are degrees in mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering, or physics. But even then, your odds of success of becoming a quant trader are low because it’s a tiny industry. To put things into perspective, a few years ago, my son’s friend had a 4.0 at Yale in CS, and got zero interest from companies for a quant trader position (he did get great offers for quant software engineering).
Do you know anything about quant finance besides that it pays very, very well? Start there before you twist yourself into knots.
And agree that if you’ve soured on AE, math is probably a better on-ramp for finance than AE with a business minor or double major. AE is hard. It’s fantastic and absorbing for someone who loves it, it will be sand in your gears if you’re using it for a stepping stone to something else.
My friend’s son is a quant. He graduated from a T20ish school. I think his degrees were Physics and Quantitative Finance or something close. Those seem to be the desired majors for this work.
He interned at a top hedge fund (Citadel?). He was one of those exceptional math students in HS. It seems to be an ultra competitive path. Good luck.
Thats the big thing I’m hung up about. I love AE and i’m so thankfull that i was able to get into UCB for it but it feels like im having buyers remorse after the fact. Since the field is so specialised I feel like I wont really have many options to change carrear paths if somtehing in me changes later in life so I’m looking to cast a wider net.
I just stumbled onto quant since some of our family friends work in the field at rennisance and one of the other firms and they said if I did really well in my math realted classes and took some finance they might be able to set me up with a junior year internship.
Putting aside quant for a minute, if you want a wider net, consider degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or CS. The aerospace industry will hire plenty of people with those backgrounds, but those degrees also open up other career paths as well.
You have time to figure it out! Fortunately, most of the coursework you’ll be doing in the first year will be applicable to a wide range of other engineering majors. As long as you keep your grades up, it’s quite possible to switch majors if your interests change (that’s what my son did). Advising is accessible and helpful in the college of engineering.
Quant finance is brutally competitive- to get started and hired, to STAY hired, to be successful. So don’t “stumble” into it. If you’re lucky enough to have family friends in the industry, see if you can shadow, do a five day temp/intern role during your winter break, read as much as you can.
You might learn more and hate it. Which is fine- there are hundreds of other neat careers. But no need to contort yourself for an industry you might end up having zero interest in…
Of the MET options, IEOR is going to be the most “business-y” (not quant), leading to things like supply chain optimization. I also know an industrial engineering who worked for Disney optimizing their theme parks. Lots of options.
This would imply MET graduates are looked down upon which is not the case based on the placements I have seen. That said, I do not see the value as lot of them are placed on the engineering side or business side and a minor would have sufficed.
The primary benefit for studying business+engineering which is frequently mentioned is for people interested in starting companies.
There is no place for a bad quant to hide. If you are a quant trader, there will be a daily measurement of your profit or lack of it. And while there is significant randomness as to whether you make money on any particular day, over time your skill level will become apparent to everyone.
Likewise with software engineering, the reason you are paid 2-3x what Google pays is to solve extremely difficult problems given the limitations of execution time and available compute power. In six months, everyone will know whether you have that skill or not.