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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just read something that says 1/3 of Brown engineering students go into finance or other business related things.

Why would one choose engineering as a major if the goal isn't engineering?  Does someone with an engineering degree have an advantage in those fields?[/quote]

The result of a "regular" Engineering degree such as one from VT is a regular Engineering job. Great pay, great job. But they do not place into top phD programs with regularity, and they do not regularly place into top tech jobs where Engineering background is necessary but not sufficient. 
The further up the chain you go (first to top publics GaTech and Mich, then up another big step to truly world class programs at MIT, Penn, Princeton, Stanford), the more the degree teaches whole-economy interdisciplinary Engineering: ABET accredited with math/physics /chem and the basics, yet taught with more challenging psets and faster paced, leaving room for leadership and business modeling worked into the engineering education. This produces Engineers ready to become project leaders, CEOs, launch a startup, spinoff into technical financial fields, or get a phD from an elite school and become elite professors, and on and on. 
When one goes on tours and hears and sees the difference in the jobs available at these elite schools, it makes sense to do Engineering there. Once there--the proof is in the pudding. It is night and day different than how regular state schools run the ABET curriculum, never mind the on-campus research with world class faculty, and top tech recruiting.

I do not know anyone at Brown Engineering--that one is not recognized to be quite the world-class level of others, but maybe it is up and coming. They do focus on interdisciplinary education and they have the ivy brand for the connections to business/ finance, even if the phD /research pipeline is less robust. 
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