Graduate School Degrees related to Quant Finance

[Pakman2012]

So I have been wondering, what exactly is the difference between Financial Engineering, Financial Mathematics and Computational Finance?

I am strongly considering pursuing a PhD in Financial Math at some school that offers it, and I'd like to know if I will be less preferred than someone with a Financial Engineering degree for a quant job, or some nonsense like that. Is the demand for people from these degrees going to decrease due to the economic downturn?

I'm aware that the most important skills I can have are good programming skills and a keen brain, but I figure taking the right classes really can't hurt.

The current schools on my short list that I'm confident are not shams (yeah, I'm looking at you, Fordham): Carnegie Mellon and Stanford (though they don't have a PhD program)

If anyone knows anything about the real reputation about any other programs, I would certainly love more insight. Since I live in Tallahassee, Florida State is naturally my backup school, and they surprisingly have a PhD program in FinMath.

Other related questions: I can finish both my pure math degree and my actuarial science degrees in two years (i.e. Summer 2010). Should I just apply to grad school, work for a year doing some sort of entry level actuary work, take more classes at the graduate level at Florida State without really pursuing a graduate degree, try and do some research with some of the FinMath professors at FSU or [sarcasm] work on my novel[/sarcasm]?

Options 2, 3, and 4 and be done at the same time, or at least 2 and 3.

[Different]

you do not need to have PhD in fin. math to work as a quant. In fact, most fin. math PhDs stay in academia.
Do PhD in some real science instead (math/physics).

and, regarding your main question, no, there is not much difference between quant finance / fin engineering / fin math.

...and, in general, it is an awful time now to think about career as a quant. the glory days of investment banking are over

[NoYoo-hooForMe]