What are the differences in the curriculum between the financial engineering major and the finance major?

To answer this question, first explain why metalworking appeared. In fact, it is very simple, that is, finance must be connected with computers, but those who only do finance do not understand computers, and those who only study computers do not understand finance. What should we do? Let’s do financial engineering, so financial engineering is a comprehensive subject. Similar to business data analysis, business data analysis combines statistics, computers and business; financial engineering combines advanced mathematics, computers and finance. So you can tell from the elements included in this major that there is definitely a big difference between the course design of financial engineering and finance.

Let me first talk about the curriculum of finance majors. You may think that Baidu is enough. Is it still useful to you? Ha, you can use it. What I want to say is not the ones you can find on Baidu, but very real stories. Financial courses offered by different schools are not! one! Sample! Moreover, some schools say they offer finance, but the curriculum design is basically economics! (Although you must study economics in finance, economics courses should not be the main focus; just like in CFA, economics is just a module) Especially for some finance schools with low rankings (I said rankings of finance majors), don’t look at it 985 and 211, you feel that it is advanced, but in fact it is not. The course design is terrible, and for some advanced metrology courses, there are no teachers who can teach them at all.

A friend of mine who went to Xiamen University for exchanges said that they all use foreign textbooks, and the undergraduate course covers intermediate macroeconomics, which is completely different from her own 985 and 211 universities. Now she is taking the postgraduate entrance examination , and then said that she felt that she had a lot to make up for herself, because the university she was admitted to also taught undergraduate courses to intermediate macro by default. Therefore, I want to say that if you choose a finance major, you should really go to a school with finance as your strength, otherwise you will need to study on your own in the future.

Then check out the courses you can find:

Insurance, Finance, International Finance, International Trade, Securities Investment, Money and Banking, Econometrics, Investment Banking, macroeconomics, statistics, central banking, political economics, microeconomics, accounting, financial law, linear algebra, probability theory and mathematical statistics, calculus, investment risk management, etc.

Because I applied for quantitative finance and business data analysis in the United States and Canada, I also copied their course offerings from the websites of foreign universities. The following is the finance course set up by Princeton University (Princeton University, ranked first in the United States in finance majors). If the ranking you are looking at is different from mine, don’t criticize me. Who doesn’t know that ranking is metaphysics? You just have to know it in your mind

There are 5 core courses in the project:

Asset Pricing I: Pricing Models and Derivatives (Asset Pricing I: Pricing Models and Derivatives)

Statistical Analysis of Financial Data (statistical analysis of financial data)

Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting (corporate finance and financial accounting)

Asset Pricing II, Stochastic Calculus and Advanced Derivatives (Asset Pricing II: Stochastic Micro Points and Advanced Derivatives)

Financial Econometrics.

The project also has three branches: This probably means that students need to choose some electives from these perspectives

Financial Engineering and Risk Management

Quantitative Asset Management and Macroeconomic Forecasting

Data Science & Financial Technologies.

Then let’s talk about financial engineering. In addition to financial basics, financial engineering also needs to be able to establish mathematical models and programming. However, in fact, different schools have different levels and different directions in training students (anyway, I think it has something to do with the school's background. If someone majored in engineering majored in metal engineering, they are basically biased toward finance. Programmers; if you study finance in the business major, it basically focuses on financial product design) and the metalworking courses are also different.

Because metalworking can not only become a financial product design, it is similar to the feeling of a programmer or a product manager. Therefore, some schools may focus on financial mathematical models, and the students they train will be mainly product design; some schools may focus on code programming, and the students they train will be coders in the financial world. You should have an idea of ??which direction you are interested in.

I would like to add to you the financial engineering curriculum of New York University (financial engineering ranks sixth in the United States). If the ranking you are looking at is different from mine, don’t criticize me. Who doesn’t know that ranking is metaphysics? Just have an idea in mind

Core courses (15 credits)?

Financial AccountingFinancial Accounting

Economic Foundations in FinanceFinancial Economic Fundamentals

Quantitative Methods in Finance

Corporate Finance

Financial Risk Management and Asset PricingFinancial Risk Management and Asset Pricing

Elective Courses (6 Credits)?

Money, Banking and Financial MarketsMoney, Banking and Financial Markets

Investment Banking and Brokerage

Applied Derivative Contracts Contracts

Derivatives Algorithms Derivatives Algorithms

Asset-Backed Securities and Securitization

Basel 3 amp; Banking Assets Management Basel 3 and Bank Asset Management

Special Topics in Financial EngineeringFinancial Engineering Topics

Topics in Finance and Financial Markets I Finance and Financial Markets Topics I

Topics in Risk Finance I Topics in Financial Risk I

Topics in Financial and Risk Engineering I Topics in Financial and Risk Engineering I

Topics in Financial and Risk Engineering 2 Topics in Financial and Risk Engineering 2

To summarize, the current metalworking industry in China seems to be, emm, because it seems to be still research-oriented, so I won’t comment on it. Of course, there are also people with master’s degrees. Many financial institutions abroad have also begun to require students to learn python and quantification, but they are not in-depth and the core is still focused on finance. In addition to basic finance, financial engineering also has a large number of mathematical models and programming courses.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Because I usually study R and python, the reply may be slow. Please forgive me.

Some pictures come from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please let me know and delete them