Boston University - MS in Mathematical Finance and Financial Technology

My experience is mixed and a bit different from others as I was accepted into PhD program but transferred to MSc after year 1 and got MSc degree:

PhD program year 1 included:
1) Macroeconomics and Microeconomics with Econ PhD students. Courses were nice, especially semester 1 Micro by professor Lipman, but difference in GPA good standing requirements between Econ (3.14) and Math Fin (3.3) made it not very comfortable in the terms of grade curving)
2) Finance doctoral seminars (semester 1 with professor Rindisbacher was nice, semester 2 by professor Detemple was worse as he wasn't inclined to answer questions - "figure out everything yourself" - although advanced stochastic calculus is interesting)
3) courses with MSc students (statistics for Math finance and Fixed Income Securities - that was my favorite class, actually - taught by professor Prieto)
4) TA for some courses for Msc students (it does not seem very nice when you TA classes for people you take other classes and drink beer with)

so after semester 1 we were told that it is important to have 3.3 GPA after 2 years to be accepted to quals, and after semester 2 were told to leave (3 out of 5 students in the cohort - 2 of us accepted the offer to pay for 1 semester and get Msc and 1 left)) - after that despite staying in the University I was kicked out by program director Professor Namini from PhD party, where I sneaked to meet friends))

So after transferring to Msc program - there was one more semester and among the courses I would emphasize Corporate Risk management course by professor Burton (most practical one) and Credit Risk (taught by mentioned Professor Namini - although course included a lot of joking anf trolling from his side)

Career service at that time did not look helpful - although honestly I planned to go back to my home country after the degree and used rare interviews more as a travelling method (went to Optiver interview in Chicago, e.g.) - so got my Msc degree and now I work in financial risk management of a state owned Bank in my home country)

If you have more questions, you can ask))

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I studied full-time in the program from 2008-2009
My interest in Math led me into Engineering and Computers was what interested me. After my Bachelors in Computer Engineering with a year long project developing application for one of the reputed companies, I was in the quest of applying my knowledge of math and computer to a particular field. With signs of recession coming in around that time, it made me more inquisitive about the reason why all this was happening. I worked with a trader to see how the market functions, researched a bit on genetic algorithms. It was then I realized that I need to get to the basics which led me to BU Math Finance.

Did you get admitted to other programs?
I was admitted to IIT Chicago and NYU Poly.

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Konstantinos Kardaras & Jerome DeTemple. My idea was to join a program which was more of Math with a hint of Finance. This suited me perfectly. Also the faculties that I have listed were the best thing that could have happened to this course.

Tell us about the application process at this program
Applications were smooth. Prompt response each and every single time.

Does this program have refresher courses for incoming students.? How useful was it?
There werent any refresher courses then. But we were asked refer to John C Hull and couple more texts. The course structure was good enough for a proper built up. They have revamped it a little bit though.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
It was a fixed set of classes that we had to take. No choices offered.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
The standard of the course is good. Starts out from basic and then peaks up gradually. There was help available at all times.

Materials used in the program
Lot of standard texts, but personally I liked the way I started referring research papers after talking to professors.

Programming component of the program
Decent amount of programming done for Monte Carlo simulations, Statistical analysis of financial data.
C++ was the main language. Also packages like R. Personally I used Matlab and Stata as well.

Projects
A couple of exams were group exams.

Career service
The program was going through a few changes. But we got assistance with few career fairs and were kept posted about the companies visiting BU. Apart from this, a third party called EUSA was available to us find internships (CPT).

What do you like about the program?
Starts off with basics, but builds up.

What DON'T you like about the program?
Internships in Summer 2nd half. Also 10 months at a go.

Suggestions for the program to make it better
They have already improvised on few suggestions we gave to change the course structure.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Currently working with a startup in Algorithmic Trading Platform space. I am very much interested to get into Option Pricing, Arbitrage or quant trading side.

Other comments
Come in with more experience and this course will carve you better.

This review was submitted anonymously