Cornell's financial engineering degree is the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Operations Research and Information Engineering with a Financial Engineering concentration, a full-time program of three semesters, two on the Ithaca campus and a final fall semester at Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan (CFEM) in New York City. For Fall 2027 entry you apply by December 1, 2026, and you'll need a GRE or GMAT score, with the GRE preferred.
I'm Fiona Taft, founder and CEO of QuantMinds, former Executive Director of UC Berkeley's MFE program and former Associate Director at Stanford University. Program details come from Cornell's official pages, checked October 2026. For the advice that applies to every program, start with my guide on how to choose a quant master's program.
Cornell financial engineering at a glance
Degree. M.Eng. in Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE), Financial Engineering concentration
School. ORIE, in Cornell's Duffield College of Engineering
Length. Three full-time, in-person semesters, fall, spring and fall, and at least 30 credits
Locations. Ithaca for the first year, CFEM in Manhattan for the final semester
Start. Fall, since spring entry is open only to Cornell undergraduates
Fall 2027 deadline. December 1, 2026
Tests. GRE or GMAT required, GRE preferred, and current Cornell students are exempt
Tuition. $36,973 a semester at Cornell's 2026-27 M.Eng. rate
Application fee. $105
Admission requirements
Cornell's ORIE admission requirements page lists prerequisites you must finish before you enroll, most matched to a Cornell course so you can judge the level, and the application asks for details showing you've met each one.
A calculus sequence through vector calculus, including linear algebra with eigenvalues and eigenvectors
Two semesters of calculus-based probability and statistics, plus a course in stochastic processes
An introductory programming course and an intermediate one in a general language such as C, C++, Java or Python
An introductory finance course covering financial instruments, risk and return, and capital budgeting
Watch what Cornell rules out. Economics and accounting don't count for finance, applied statistics courses and the CFA or FRM don't count for probability theory, and a course that only uses programming doesn't count as one. Cornell also strongly recommends differential equations and Python, its preferred language. If you've got gaps, here's the math you actually need to break into quant finance.
The application itself asks for these.
A resume and unofficial transcripts, with official ones requested only if you're admitted
Two letters of recommendation, though Cornell prefers three and suggests one academic, one professional and one of your choice
An Academic Statement of Purpose and a Personal Statement, each up to 1,000 words
A GRE or GMAT score, sent to Cornell's institution code 2098
IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT scores, unless you qualify for an exemption
An asynchronous video interview, which Cornell releases shortly after the deadline
Your recommenders don't get their request until you submit, and Cornell can't review an application until every piece is in. So submit well before December 1, early enough for your letters to land.
Duffield's English minimums, per its M.Eng. application guide, are an overall IELTS band of 7.0 or TOEFL iBT section scores of at least 4.5 in speaking and reading and 5.0 in listening and writing, or 23, 22, 22 and 24 on TOEFL's former scale. Those are the only two tests it lists, and a bachelor's from a US college where you studied in person for most of the degree exempts you.
How the three semesters work
The program dates to 1995, and ORIE added the New York semester, founding CFEM, in 2007. The 2026-27 Cornell catalog says you complete an FE Intensive, a probability and statistics refresher, before your first semester starts.
Your core work covers optimization, stochastic modeling, and data science and statistical modeling, from lists that include Financial Engineering with Stochastic Calculus I and II, Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering and Statistics for Financial Engineering. You also need at least 12 credits from the financial applications electives, drawn from Cornell's Johnson business school and CFEM, and at least six of those credits have to come from CFEM.
The calendar leaves the summer after your first year open for an internship. Then you move to New York, where practitioners teach most CFEM courses and the electives change each year with the industry.
The centerpiece of that semester is a five-credit team project with an industry sponsor, and CFEM offers about 10 a year so teams stay small. Past titles on the student experience page include market making in crypto and an LLM system specialized in asset management. If you want more machine learning, an optional Financial Data Science Certificate is built into the curriculum.
For careers, you've got Cornell's Ithaca career services, and at CFEM you work directly with its associate director of career development, with bootcamps in New York and networking and interviewing workshops, some of it required coursework. Cornell reported in October 2026 that this fall's CFEM Alumni Round Robin brought more than 20 alumni from the classes of 2011 through 2025 to a Midtown student lounge, grouped by the work they do, from systematic equities to model risk.
What it costs
Cornell bills M.Eng. students at a professional master's rate, which the Bursar's tuition page lists at $36,973 a semester, or $73,946 a year, for 2026-27. Fall 2027 entrants pay the 2027-28 and 2028-29 rates, which aren't published yet, and Cornell lists no separate rate for the New York semester, so budget for three semesters plus the $50.50 per semester student activity fee and living costs in Ithaca and then New York. Cornell updates the rate every academic year, so check again before you budget.
The M.Eng. is self-funded, and Cornell's aid is limited and based only on merit. Duffield considers every complete fall application in by February 1 for M.Eng. fellowships, so applying by ORIE's December 1 deadline puts you in that pool with no extra application. The Dean's Fellowship covers full tuition for two semesters, with preference for domestic applicants, and the MEC Fellowship partially covers tuition. Awards apply only to the year you're admitted for and aren't guaranteed if you defer.
Outcomes
Cornell's financial engineering concentration page doesn't publish placement rates or salaries. It says most students have firm plans by the time they graduate in mid-December, some find offers in the first months of the new year, and many new openings come up between February and May. It also says CFEM works closely with new alumni and recruiters to ensure high placement rates within six to nine months of graduation. For figures, Cornell points M.Eng. applicants to its Outcomes Dashboard, where you filter by degree and select MEN for M.Eng. results.
How I'd approach Cornell
Cornell has a good program, and I suggest it to people building their list.
Start with the role. Know what you want to be doing in two, five and ten years, and which path gets you there. Cornell names trading, quantitative portfolio management, financial data science and fintech, and financial risk management among its most popular career tracks. If you're still deciding, read our guide to choosing between quant research, trading and development first.
Then make the Academic Statement of Purpose about Cornell. It asks why you want this concentration, what you'll study, how you'll use it in your first job and how you'll add to your classmates' learning, and it tells you not to repeat your resume. Name the faculty, the courses and the kind of CFEM project that drew you, and tie each one to that first job.
Treat the test as part of your math case. Cornell requires one, and a high GRE quant score can help put your profile over the line, especially if a grade on your transcript is weaker than you'd like.
Get to know the field before you apply. Go to programs' information sessions and to quant events in New York, where you'll learn the industry and meet people in it, Cornell alumni included. CFEM's seminars, listed under Upcoming Events on its financial engineering page, are an easy start.
And before you commit, ask CFEM for its latest placement numbers and check whether graduates went to the firms on your list.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cornell's M.Eng. in financial engineering STEM-designated?
Cornell's M.Eng. FAQ says an M.Eng. degree makes you eligible for STEM OPT, the extended work authorization for F-1 graduates in STEM fields. Confirm the details for your situation with Cornell's Office of Global Learning.
Is this the same as Cornell Tech's ORIE degree?
No. Cornell Tech runs its own ORIE master's on Roosevelt Island, separate from the Ithaca M.Eng. and from CFEM, and the financial engineering concentration is offered only through the Ithaca program.
Can I apply to more than one Cornell master's program?
Not at the same time. Cornell takes one graduate application per person at a time, but you can name a second-choice program, and if your first choice doesn't admit you, you can ask for your application to be forwarded.
What GPA do I need for Cornell's M.Eng.?
To be eligible, you need at least a 2.70 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale and at least 2.50 in each of your three most recent terms. Individual programs may set a higher bar, so treat those as the floor.
Get a second opinion
If you'd like another set of eyes on your Cornell application, from your prerequisites to your statement of purpose, request a free Discovery Session, a Zoom session with one of our coaches, and we'll work through it together.
Header photo by Notyourbroom, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 3.0, cropped and with the Cornell logo added.
