Boston University - MS in Mathematical Finance and Financial Technology

It’s been two years since I graduated from this program and started my career in the industry. With gratitude, I am writing this review with the hope that more people can recognize this excellent program for what it truly looks like.

The students' backgrounds were quite diverse, with undergraduate majors ranging from mathematics, finance, engineering, computer science, and various interdisciplinary subjects and they had graduated from universities all around the world. Some of them even had full-time work experience, but the majority came directly from undergraduate programs.

The overall curriculum setting was very intense and hardcore, and I mean it in a good way. During the two-week review classes and first semester, all the students took the same courses involving stochastic calculus, statistics, programming and math. As you can see, the program effectively combined theory with practical courses to get you prepared for the future study. Differentiation started from the second semester when students had the opportunity to choose their concentration from asset management, Fintech, quantitative analytics, risk management and research according to their interests and career plans. Every concentration has different focuses and thus different course combination. Even though, it gave us enough flexibility to choose a specific course from other concentrations if you really wanted after talking to the executive director first.

Fintech was such an emerging field at that time that only a few program in a few school set up relevant courses, and this program was one of them. I took the fourth semester and obtained the GCAFT, finding out a whole new world out of there. On top of the related courses set by Questrom, we were allowed to take courses from other departments, such as math and statistics or computer science. Through a deep understanding of blockchain, cryptocurrency, advanced machine learning methods, and the mathematical principles behind them, I feel that the future is slowly unfolding before my eyes.

Professors consisted of esteemed academic experts and seasoned industry professionals, offering diverse perspectives and equipping us with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in various paths, whether we chose to pursue a career in industry or continue our academic journey with a PhD. I have been fortunate to learn from each of them who generously shared their insights and wisdom without reservation, and who patiently explained to me everything even when I was asking stupid questions. I would like to express my special thanks here to Prof. Lyasoff, Prof. Xing, Prof. Kelliher, and Prof. Jacquier on their dedicated teaching, valuable advice, and unwavering support throughout my time at the program and beyond.

The career team did a really good job too. Because the epidemic had just broken out when we enrolled the program, and the economy had just begun to recover when we graduated, finding internships and full-time jobs at that time experienced various difficulties and obstacles. In addition to the weekly career course of interview training, and alumni or employer presentation, the career team provided with one-vs-one personalized assistance with respect to resume modification, interview simulation and offer selection. Thanks to our brilliant alumni, many employers came back to this program and recruited for more people. I am so glad to be one of them now. Many thanks to the career team grouped by Jun, Jason and Joe. You are the best!

Looking back, I am still amazed by how much I was exposed to and how much I learnt during such a short period of time. I was having this conversation with my friends who graduated at the same time and are currently pursuing different career paths. We were all grateful for the program's comprehensive curriculum, practical skills, and networking opportunities, which had provided us with a strong foundation and prepared us well for our future careers.

This review aims to provide a genuine and comprehensive picture of the program. And for those of you who are looking for a decent program to have a quant finance master degree in US, I hope you take this program into serious consideration.

Background:
I graduated with a major in Math from a U.S. college before attending the BU MSMFT program. My GPA was just below 3.5, and I didn’t have a lot of working experience. My GRE scores were Quant 169, Verbal 160, and Writing 4.5. In my class of 2023, there were 106 students, most of whom came straight out of college. The program included a bootcamp and three semesters in total. I also attended an optional fourth semester to extend my student status and have more time to look for a full-time job. After graduating, I landed a full-time position at a bank as a financial data analyst.

Schoolwork:
The two-week mandatory bootcamp covered the basics of programming, math, and stats without extra fees. It was a good refresher that prepared us for the actual courses in the program.
Each semester, we chose four courses worth 3 credits each and one 1-credit career prep course. In the first semester, everyone took the same courses: Stochastic Calculus, Stats, Programming, and Finance. These courses helped me build a strong foundation as a quant and were even helpful when preparing for job interviews. The stochastic calculus course was rigorous—great for those considering a PhD in finance but maybe a bit too academic for students planning to enter the workforce directly. To address this concern, a new course was developed, but I didn't have the chance to take it. However, the feedback from my classmates was positive.
Starting from the second semester, we had the freedom to choose courses based on our interests, though some third-semester courses had prerequisites. I chose Fixed Income, Machine Learning in Finance, Portfolio Theory, and Financial Econometrics (a corequisite for Portfolio Theory). In the third semester, I took Corporate Risk Management, Credit Risk, Economics of Fintech, and Accounting Risk Management. The workloads were reasonable, with homework assignments, exams, and final projects. It was great that we could showcase our academic projects on our resumes. I also appreciated learning about machine learning, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies, keeping us up-to-date with cutting-edge technologies in finance.
In the optional fourth semester, I took courses outside the MSMFT program, such as Big Data Analytics, Corporate Financial Management, ESG Investing, and Time Series Analysis and Forecasting. Through these courses, I learned valuable skills like Spark, SQL, financial modeling, ESG investing, and time series analysis. I believe these will provide long-term benefits in addition to the rigorous training in mathematical finance. I'm glad the program provided the flexibility for international students like me to have more time to look for full-time jobs.

Career:
Throughout the one and a half years of the program, alongside schoolwork, we needed to focus on resume preparation, submitting job applications, and networking to land a full-time position in the U.S. It wasn't easy, considering the rigorous courses. Despite help from the faculty and career services, it ultimately came down to our own dedication and effort.
The program offered career workshops almost every week. Some focused on resume and interview preparation, which I found very helpful. Others featured industry professionals from various financial institutions sharing their experiences. These were great opportunities to learn about different applications of mathematical finance skills and to network. However, since not all speakers were hiring and students sometimes lacked background knowledge in their fields, not everyone valued these workshops as they should. It could be better if the faculty or the Math Finance student club provided some background information beforehand, so students could have the right expectations.
Additionally, the program offered internships and research projects during the summer after the second semester. Many classmates struggled to secure internships due to limited opportunities, so it was great that many found positions internally or participated in research projects supervised by professors.
We could also request one-on-one appointments with career coaches who are current industry professionals. They provided personalized guidance on resume improvement, interview preparation, and even salary negotiation after receiving job offers.
The BU MSMFT alumni network is also a great asset. Alumni provided personal advice during networking events in Boston and NYC and were very responsive when I reached out on LinkedIn.

Faculty:
The professors were professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about the students. They were always willing to talk with us—whether during lectures, in office hours, or via email. Their openness made it easy to seek help and deepen our understanding of complex topics.
A special shout-out to Professor Xing, Professor Jacquier, and Professor Kelliher for their dedicated teaching and valuable advice during my time at BU MSMFT and even after graduation. Their willingness to engage with students made a significant difference in my learning experience. I'm extremely grateful for all the career advice from Jun Fan and Jason during our appointments; their guidance helped me achieve my goal of getting a full-time job in the financial industry. I also want to thank Joe and Abby for hosting networking events and creating opportunities for us.

Summary:
My experience at BU MSMFT was great overall. The faculty is professional and caring, the coursework is rigorous, and the career services are valuable. I highly recommend future students to attend the program.

Reading reviews varying so wildly can be confusing or discouraging to the reader and thus I feel it necessary to provide a detailed and objective review of the program and my experience thus far.

Let's begin with the facilities here at the school. A challenging program such as this one brings with it a great deal of stress and thus good facilities are a big plus to help with studying. The Questrom building certainly qualifies as a fantastic facility. The ample size, Starbucks located in the building, in house Pardee library, study rooms and student lounges provide a atmosphere conducive to productivity and this is useful in that one does not need to leave the building to conduct long study sessions. I will say however, that the building lacks a large communal area for studying. The lobby has a number of seating options but it is too busy in the lobby in my opinion to conduct productive study. I was recently at Harvard's new law school building. The front area of the building is a large study space that incorporates soft lighting, gas fire places, ample sofas, wood paneling, and aesthetic finishes that make for a fantastic study area. While this certainly is not a large concern area when choosing a program, these small things help throughout the semester and thus I want to detail all aspects to you. BU does have a large library and one can find enjoyable study venues there as well.

Next let's discuss classwork. I notice other reviews speak of how difficult the coursework is and how stressful it is and so forth. Let's be clear, you want challenging coursework! I see very little point in attending school and taking on the time and financial commitments it requires for anything less than coursework that pushes your mind to a new plateau. The fundamental difference between undergraduate and graduate studies is that in graduate school, the answer to a problem may come in several forms and is most often not readily available or straightforward. Problems in the professional world cannot be solved by simply reading a page or two out of a textbook. They require perseverance and deeper understanding of the material, that is what graduate school aims to emulate. Understand clearly that taking on very difficult coursework not only benefits you in the short term by improvement your mental capabilities, but also is excellent preparation for the rigors of the financial industry. So when you see comments of difficult coursework, welcome it with open arms!

Continuing with classwork, this year was the first year of the new curriculum. The compressed schedule of 2 classes every 8 weeks has been changed to the normal 4 classes for a full semester. This is great and will allow you more time to soak the concepts in. In previous reviews there are mentions of not enough time to complete tasks or the load is too bearing. I cannot comment on those statements as they were made under the old structure of the curriculum, but I confidently say that under the new structure you have enough time to do well if you manage your time well.

Onto to the professors. Let's begin with Andrew Lyasoff as he has received some undue criticism on this review feed. Lyasoff is one of the best professors you will ever have. I guarantee it. You will struggle to find another professor who knows his field as well as he does and is as committed to your success as he is. He holds office hours twice a week with the mantra 'I will hold office hours as long as you need'. He often held 3 hour sessions on Sunday as well. I challenge one to find a more dedicated professor. Having said that, his coursework is highly theoretical and very challenging. But this is a good thing! He challenges students to grow academically and if you respond positively to this, you will find it a rewarding experience. There is the drawback that if you are not seeking to be a true quant, theoretical work in stochastic methods is unlikely to be seen in your career. Thus the only negative thing I would say of his class is that it lacks practical application in certain areas. But again, if enjoy the field of math finance and want to be challenged, you will enjoy his class thoroughly.

The statistics professor is Eric Jacquier. A previous review mentions his lectures are incoherent. This is false. Simply put, pay attention in class, take notes and ask questions and you will learn plenty in his class. Another mention was of difficulty to understand his accent. Perhaps I have super hearing but I have not once thought he was challenging to understand. Additionally, he is a pleasant person and enjoyable as a professor. Jacquier's tests are challenging so be prepared for that.

Gustavo Schwenkler is the finance professor in the first semester. I do not have too much to say on this course other than it is well organized, Gustavo knows his material well, homework assignments are practical, tests are not easy but follow the coursework. There is perhaps too much focus on options throughout the course. In addition he grade deflates as mentioned in a further paragraph.

Last is the c++ course. This has been taught by the Executive Director A.Namini. Namini has however, accepted a position as a CTO at a hedge fund in Boston and thus will not be teaching the c++ course in the Fall of 2016. I cannot provide any useful information for prospective students for this class as I do not know who will be teaching this class in the Fall. On the class itself however, very useful class and the projects were extremely insightful and I learned a massive amount from working through the projects.

My only complaint on the coursework is that I think the program should be 2 years long. Given the complexity of the work, I believe students would come out the program as stronger candidates if the extra semester was present. I think that schools with a 2 year math finance program have a great advantage over BU in this regard.

Next on my list is to address grade deflation. Grading in my year has been very fair with exception to G.Schwenkler. If individuals who mentioned grade deflation were referring to a graduate school not just handing grades all B or B+ and above, that is not grade deflation. It is important to maintain a reputation with employers that when they see a GPA of 3.5 or above, they know this student really knows his/her stuff. Having said that, it is also incorrect to 'block grade' students. That is, pre-assign a certain number of grades before the class has even begun. Schwenkler's method guarantees that 25% of the class get a b- and only 10 out of almost 100 students get an A. Most graduate schools don't even accept grades below a B, so to grade this way reflects very poorly on the student in an interview or the like.

Next is the pre-requisites list. I think that the list is missing a couple of items. The list should include real analysis, a full semester of computer programming, measure/set theory. If you can do these before the program it will help quite a bit. However, many students have not done these and if you haven't you still have the tools you need to succeed. These extra classes will just make certain concepts easier to absorb the first time around.

Lastly is the admin staff. They are awesome! Whitney is the assistant director and adviser to the MSMF students and she is great. Always willing to help and organizes a lot of fun things for the students to do. The career adviser is Cris Nigro and she is great too. She will be there to help you through the career search process and I have found her advice to be very useful. She also sends out resume books to employers which create opportunities for students. Thus far, of the things I know about, a couple students got interviews within the first 2 months of the program, some got contacted by Goldman Sachs, and other by State Street as a result of her networking. Of course the school does not have the connections that Ivy schools have, but BU alumni are all over Boston and there are many opportunities out there.

So, there you have the scoop. I think this has been a great learning experience and I am happy I attended. If you approach this with the attitude of gleaning as much as you can and making the most of every opportunity, I think you will be too.

Great program, very though content. If you go to BU you should prepare to study hard. Also be patient as most of the applicable courses are towards the end of the program. Many people get good positions at good companies, although many have to settle for jobs they don't like a lot. I feel mostly the people that cared about learning got better placed, my guess is that is an effect from being able to speak much more intelligently about finance in an interview.

I feel most of the professors did a great job. They are very accessible and know very well the content of their classes. They also care about students learning well the content of the courses.

Living in Boston is great and good friendships are built during the program. Expect to always have your hands full studying and try to have one or two nights a week to grab a drink with friends.

I would sum up the masters as follows:
First semester: Introduction courses, mostly you will deal with learning stochastics and being introduced to math finance.
Second semester: half and half, still you are learning math tools but finally you are starting to go into applications by studying fixed income and computational methods.
Third semester: applications learning. Some of them are more abstract than the others, but it will build a good mind set. Sadly though many people don't take advantage of the content as they are much more preoccupied of getting a full time offer.

I would recommend this masters. The pros are the professors and the content, if you care about learning be assured that you will learn a lot. The cons would be not the best placements and I would have wished it was more computational.