Cornell MEng in Financial Engineering or ESSEC Master in Finance for S&T
Hi everyone,
I am currently a master's degree student in applied maths and energy engineering and I would like to work in sales and trading (ideally within a commodities desk as a trader). I got admitted to Cornell University's MEng in financial engineering in Ithaca, New York, and to ESSEC Business School's Master in Finance in Paris, France. I really hesitate between both programs since Cornell's program is way more quantitative compared to ESSEC's but I don't know if it really makes a difference to get an internship and then a job in sales and trading within a bulge-bracket bank. I know that Cornell will open the doors to New York-based jobs whereas ESSEC is known in London but not at all in New York. I don't mind working in London or New York.
Cornell is probably the better choice but another factor is the tuition fees are 5x those of ESSEC.
Could you please give me some advice?
Thank you very much!
For your information, I currently live and study in France!
Cornell will be respected in London. ESSEC isn’t known outside of Europe. Cornell is also a significantly better school. I’d go there, unless cost is an issue
Thanks for the feedback! Does the MEng in Financial Engineering of Cornell benefit from a strong reputation in trading desks in NY and is considered as target? From what I understood, in the US, summer interns are usually undergrads.
I think if you are not local, London would probably be an easier place to stay than New York. Also, wouldn't ESSEC give you opportunities in France and other parts of the continental Europe?
I personally vote for ESSEC, but I think opting Cornell would not be a wrong choice, either. Still, I wonder what your final choice is, though.
Among all MFEs in the US, programs that place the most number of students into SnT/buyside are CMU, Baruch(maybe MIT), not so much with other programs. Have you tried applying for the MFEs mentioned?
I only applied to ESSEC and Cornell, so I will have to choose between these two.
These schools place well but are hardly the only good programs… OP I would head over to quantnet before asking these sorts of questions here; you’ll find a lot more accurate information and a lot more resources over there.
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