Claremont Graduate University - MS in Financial Engineering

As a recent graduate of the CGU MSFE program, I want to share my experience here to anyone who is interested in this program.

What is unique about this program?
This program is relatively small compared with other MSFE programs. Therefore, as a student, I can have discussions with professors and staff frequently. The discussions were not only on the course material but also on the news of the financial industry and how the things we learnt can be applied in real-life. All of my questions and requests were addressed timely. This can be a huge advantage both for academic and career development. Besides, each of the students has a mentor. The mentors are all senior industry leaders in areas such as risk management, asset management, trading and Fintech. Having 1-to-1 conversations with my mentor helped me a lot on the career development planning.

Another unique thing about our program is that students are allowed to have different focuses in study – data science and fintech are two of the popular options. They are the emerging sectors in the financial industry and not a lot of programs have coverage on them.

What are the weakest things about the program?
The tuition is high here, but I got scholarship which helped a lot. This program was not programing intensive but I can see the school has been working on improving from this aspect. Now all the enrolled students have to finish a R/Python coding course with Datacamp. Also, a few of the classes are adding in programing(R/Python) requirements into the syllabus.

Career Services
I gained a lot of help from the career service center, specifically our career counselors – Jeff and Isabelle. As a result, I got a great internship offer and a full time offer before graduation. The career counselors coached me on interview preparations. The preparation was not only just going through the resume and practicing common behavioral questions but also practicing how to follow up with the interviewers which is also very important.

Besides help from the career counselors, I got a lot of advice from our professors and my mentor as well. They helped me on identifying the strength and weakness of my background, choose my area of interest and highlight the technical knowledge/skills that are essential for the career development.

What is unique about this program?
The MSFE program at CGU is unique in its focus on finance and applied mathematics. Every student can focus on their area of interest. Several courses in finance are offered at the Drucker-Ito Graduate School of Management, while mathematics courses are offered by CGU as well as the undergraduate colleges of the Claremont consortium.
CGU is also an active participant in the IAQF’s National Financial Mathematics Career Fair held in New York. During this time, students also get a chance to connect with alumni and be a part of company visits that include Barclays, RBC, and Bloomberg.

What are the weakest things about the program?
The cost of the program is quite high. However, CGU awards scholarships and fellowships to meritorious students that reduce the overall tuition cost.

Career Services
The career development team is dedicated to helping the students get good internships and full-time offers. Being a small school, CGU may not have the career resources that a big school has. Nevertheless, the career services team has been devoting more time and efforts to the FE program to ensure strong career outcomes.

Student Body
CGU has a diverse and active student body. There are several student clubs and organizations that cater to the different interests of the student body. The FE class size is small and there is a lot of interaction between students and the faculty.

What is unique about this program?
I believe the MSFE program at CGU is unique in its focus on actual finance. Financial Engineering is a branch of Finance and as such, it deals greatly with concepts in Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Risk Management, Accounting, etc. Once you get training in Finance, you are able to understand the rationale behind the Mathematics and Economics that you get in quant finance programs. Something that is lacking in a lot of Financial Engineering / Math Finance programs.
CGU has a strong curriculum in Finance, without compromising on the Quant side. In fact, if you can’t get enough Mathematics you get plenty PhD level courses in Math (both applied and pure) at CGU. Additionally, you can register for courses in Harvey Mudd College (which I did), the top engineering school in the United States (U.S. News). The level of Mathematics and Computer Science that they have is unbelievable. Finally, it is possible to enroll in a dual degree on MSFE / MS Mathematics at CGU. I am actually doing the Math extension I will graduate with two master’s degrees in two years’ time.
I did my internships in New York in Risk Management for an Investment Bank, and attended IAQF’s National Financial Mathematics Career Fair. During both of these experiences, I had the opportunity to meet and talk to a lot of Financial Engineering students from East and West Coast schools. Some, better ranked than CGU here in Quantnet. While talking to my peers, or to actual professionals and potential employers, I realize (time and time again) that the quality of education that we receive at CGU is far better than in other schools. The CGU program brings complete soundness to a student’s knowledge base. There have been times when students from other schools approach me (or my classmates) to ask questions about finance, the industry and even their career paths. It is always a great feeling to be able to help in some way, and this is partly because of the knowledge and understanding that CGU has provided me with.

What are the weakest things about the program?
The cost of the program is quite high. However, it is relatively easy to get scholarships and fellowships at CGU that help a great deal in this issue.

Career Services
Being a smaller school, CGU does not have the resources of a big school. However, there are seven universities that together form the Claremont Consortium. They all share resources (that in the aggregate amount to vast means), including career development services. I actually got my summer internship through one of the shared tools that we enjoy here at CGU. Also, the career development team is devoting more and more time and effort to the Financial Engineering program, as the school is realizing how good the program actually is. I am sure that this service will only get better every year.

Student Body
The student body is relatively small and but diverse. There are people from Asia, Latin America, North America, etc. There is also an exchange program with the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, which every year brings some European students. The benefit of having a small class, in addition to being more united, is that the faculty and resources are always available to you whenever you might have questions or need help.