How to earn a large salary with a Masters in Financial Engineering
Back in 2020, we had a look at the best Masters degrees in Financial Engineering. A relatively new alternative to the traditional masters in finance is being offered by a number of top universities across the US and abroad.
Is a Masters in Financial Engineering worth it, though? With the possible exception of Baruch, the courses don't come cheap. - Berkeley, for example, estimates tuition fees and living expenses for its MFE at $80k for 2023 to 2024.
How much will you earn as a result? Our analysis of the latest figures for graduating pay from publicly available employment reports suggests that graduating salaries range from $108k to $150k, and that pay is rising fast as banks' demand for people with quantitative skills rises.
The University of Berkeley was one of the premier destinations for MFE students last time we looked in 2020. The same is true today but pay is substantially better. Starting salaries for Berkeley MFE graduates went from $119k in 2020 to an impressive $150k for the class of 2022. For reference, a senior quantitative strategist job listing at Goldman Sachs in New York, one of the bank's top engineering roles, has a lower salary limit of $150k despite requiring 6+ years of experience in addition to a postgraduate degree.
Berkeley MFE graduates aren't the only ones getting paid more, though. MFE graduate salaries rose at all the colleges in the chart above in the past two years. The largest jump in base salary was at NC State University, with the current average of $118k up $31k on two years ago.
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