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Best online programming certificate for admission to MFE programs!
C++ PROGRAMMING for FINANCIAL ENGINEERING
(self-paced, up to 16 weeks, no prior programming required)
Latest reviews
- ErinLu
- 5.00 star(s)
I can't believe there's a review calling this program a fraud. Hey, I don't know what universe you are from, but in this one, it's a fabulous Master's program, where you can learn much more than what's enough to get you a decent job in quantitative finance. And Dr. Lane is always doing his best to make great use of our tuition, providing networking opportunities, elective classes and even hotel accommodations in Chicago.
Sorry if I got a bit too emotional here, but my point is, MSFE at UIUC is a great program where you have a well selected list of courses covering a wide range of knowledge in quantitative finance, such as statistics, derivatives, risk management, etc. The academic training is also paired with professional projects from industry partners. Most professors are extremely good at teaching and even world-famous. To be honest, I did encounter one professor not so dedicated in the course, but the problem got well-addressed by the program. In that case, giving HONEST and FAIR feedback is important, and naturally it takes time for the program to address the problem, and that doesn't mean the director does't take it seriously.
Also it's not true that we only have 1 elective. in the third semester you choose all your 4 courses from a list of finance and engineering courses...including courses from UIUC's well-respected CS department.
A bit more flexibility in the first 2 semesters sounds good, but honestly in the first 2 semesters, the required courses are all fundamental ones in quantitative finance, and you really need to take them if you want to understand what your colleagues are talking about later in the work place.
Overall, great program with dedicated crew, decent professors, and a lot to offer for the tuition. It's also a great place to make some lifelong friends.
Sorry if I got a bit too emotional here, but my point is, MSFE at UIUC is a great program where you have a well selected list of courses covering a wide range of knowledge in quantitative finance, such as statistics, derivatives, risk management, etc. The academic training is also paired with professional projects from industry partners. Most professors are extremely good at teaching and even world-famous. To be honest, I did encounter one professor not so dedicated in the course, but the problem got well-addressed by the program. In that case, giving HONEST and FAIR feedback is important, and naturally it takes time for the program to address the problem, and that doesn't mean the director does't take it seriously.
Also it's not true that we only have 1 elective. in the third semester you choose all your 4 courses from a list of finance and engineering courses...including courses from UIUC's well-respected CS department.
A bit more flexibility in the first 2 semesters sounds good, but honestly in the first 2 semesters, the required courses are all fundamental ones in quantitative finance, and you really need to take them if you want to understand what your colleagues are talking about later in the work place.
Overall, great program with dedicated crew, decent professors, and a lot to offer for the tuition. It's also a great place to make some lifelong friends.
Good to see an honest review on this page about MSCF (talking about the post before mine) Worst decision of my life to join MSCF. Reasons are perfectly given by the previous review. Rick Bryant doesn't seem to care about students learning and despite having great professors the program is unable to give a good level of academics. I know the difference because I along with a few students took the ML course from cs dept and the difference in level of academics is clearly evident.
Advice to management: Improve coursework and add more courses from SCS department and increase scope of electives. Also improve career services and ask Sondi to not act like she is doing us a favour but that she is just doing her job cause we paid for career services.
Final word: Don't come here
Advice to management: Improve coursework and add more courses from SCS department and increase scope of electives. Also improve career services and ask Sondi to not act like she is doing us a favour but that she is just doing her job cause we paid for career services.
Final word: Don't come here
Hi Current Student here,
Please don't join this course if you have an offer from any of the top 10 programs. Honestly this is one of the worst Financial engineering/ Computational Finance programs in the US. Let me list down the reasons:
1. Outdated courses / Rigid coursework: except the financial data science courses every other course is practically worthless. Also the worst part is that there are no electives except in the last semester and even they are eqully bad if not worse. Its absolutely hilarious that despite having the best CS dept in the world right next to us we can leverage those resources.
2. Director is absolutely clueless: Rick Bryant is absolutely clueless about what the industry wants and is unwilling to update the coursework based on the industry preferences. He is not a technical person so it's hard for him to understand what is needed to succeed in the quant industry. Honestly the program would be a lot better without him. Steering committee please take note.
3. Non existent "career services": If you are coming to this course bexause of career services then boy did you make a mistake coz there is absolutely no career services. The most they do is list down companies which honesty is not career services.
This just the tip of the iceberg. Please reach out to me at my alternate email address marizcharles420@gmail.com. I will be happy to share more information and also put you in touch with other current students who feel the same way.
Also honestly I would suggest joining a strong data science or statistics program if you want to succeed in quant research.
Feel free to reach out guys.
Please don't join this course if you have an offer from any of the top 10 programs. Honestly this is one of the worst Financial engineering/ Computational Finance programs in the US. Let me list down the reasons:
1. Outdated courses / Rigid coursework: except the financial data science courses every other course is practically worthless. Also the worst part is that there are no electives except in the last semester and even they are eqully bad if not worse. Its absolutely hilarious that despite having the best CS dept in the world right next to us we can leverage those resources.
2. Director is absolutely clueless: Rick Bryant is absolutely clueless about what the industry wants and is unwilling to update the coursework based on the industry preferences. He is not a technical person so it's hard for him to understand what is needed to succeed in the quant industry. Honestly the program would be a lot better without him. Steering committee please take note.
3. Non existent "career services": If you are coming to this course bexause of career services then boy did you make a mistake coz there is absolutely no career services. The most they do is list down companies which honesty is not career services.
This just the tip of the iceberg. Please reach out to me at my alternate email address marizcharles420@gmail.com. I will be happy to share more information and also put you in touch with other current students who feel the same way.
Also honestly I would suggest joining a strong data science or statistics program if you want to succeed in quant research.
Feel free to reach out guys.
- MichaelYue
- 5.00 star(s)
I would like to share a few things for incoming or prospective NYU MFE students!
1. We have a large number of courses you can choose from for each semester, like machine learning, derivatives pricing, risk, quantitative trading, portfolio management... I want make it more specific, for machine learning, we have different courses like Machine Learning for Finance, Advanced Machine Learning, News Analysis.... If you like trading, we have Algorithmic and High Frequency Trading, Active Portfolio Management, Fixed Income Quantitative Trading, Quantitative Trading Strategies, Quantitative Equity Investment, and etc. I believe you will find the courses you like! These courses are all taught by professors from industry with senior title.
2. We have two Career Websites. One is by NYU, the other one is by MFE department. Most of the time, we use our department career net. Our career replacement director, Sara, is the most helpful career director I have ever met. She organizes many on-campus recruiting events for our students, post many "only for NYU MFE student" jobs, provides helps from resume to interviews, literally, everything. She is not only helping you with job findings, but also "pushing" you to find a job. If you do not apply jobs through MFE career net, she would send you an email to understand why and she would be more than willing to help you with any problems! She even contacted many international companies, like securities company and funds in China to give more opportunities to students who want to work outside US.
3. The third one is for students who would like to apply for PhD in the future. As we all know, most of students get a MFE degree and then go to the industry. But it is not uncommon that MFE students in our department decide to pursue a PhD. We have capstone research projects, thesis, industry research opportunities, and other research opportunities which can equip you with a strong research ability. I really appreciate Professor Carr's time and helps! It was an honor to be his student! He helped me with everything regarding my PhD application. For this semester, he is working with 4 students who apply for PhD. We all got offers, like Johns Hopkins University, NYU Courant, University of California, Santa Barbara, Boston University, and University of Utah. Without Professor Carr's help, we could not even make this happen! So I would say, our department is not only helping students get into industry, but also providing numerous helps to students who want to get a PhD!
1. We have a large number of courses you can choose from for each semester, like machine learning, derivatives pricing, risk, quantitative trading, portfolio management... I want make it more specific, for machine learning, we have different courses like Machine Learning for Finance, Advanced Machine Learning, News Analysis.... If you like trading, we have Algorithmic and High Frequency Trading, Active Portfolio Management, Fixed Income Quantitative Trading, Quantitative Trading Strategies, Quantitative Equity Investment, and etc. I believe you will find the courses you like! These courses are all taught by professors from industry with senior title.
2. We have two Career Websites. One is by NYU, the other one is by MFE department. Most of the time, we use our department career net. Our career replacement director, Sara, is the most helpful career director I have ever met. She organizes many on-campus recruiting events for our students, post many "only for NYU MFE student" jobs, provides helps from resume to interviews, literally, everything. She is not only helping you with job findings, but also "pushing" you to find a job. If you do not apply jobs through MFE career net, she would send you an email to understand why and she would be more than willing to help you with any problems! She even contacted many international companies, like securities company and funds in China to give more opportunities to students who want to work outside US.
3. The third one is for students who would like to apply for PhD in the future. As we all know, most of students get a MFE degree and then go to the industry. But it is not uncommon that MFE students in our department decide to pursue a PhD. We have capstone research projects, thesis, industry research opportunities, and other research opportunities which can equip you with a strong research ability. I really appreciate Professor Carr's time and helps! It was an honor to be his student! He helped me with everything regarding my PhD application. For this semester, he is working with 4 students who apply for PhD. We all got offers, like Johns Hopkins University, NYU Courant, University of California, Santa Barbara, Boston University, and University of Utah. Without Professor Carr's help, we could not even make this happen! So I would say, our department is not only helping students get into industry, but also providing numerous helps to students who want to get a PhD!
- Xinyue Zhang
- 5.00 star(s)
I got enrolled in the program in 2017 and graduated in December 2018 (one can choose to graduate in 1 year and a half or in 2 years). I highly and sincerely recommend this program and in my opinion, the pros and cons for this program are as follows.
Several reasons for recommending this program:
1. Great mandatory curriculum, staff and professors. The professors are all really nice, professional and funny, and the staff members are all helpful and care about students. Our program coordinator is an excellent lady who always helps us with resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation and alumni networking by coordinating quant seminars with Michigan alumni and forwarding possible working opportunities from alumni's companies. To be honest, the curriculum is challenging since some of them are PhD classes, but this is exactly why we all have a solid theoretical understanding of financial mathematics, and exactly how the program is designed -- our director for the program believes that sold math knowledge is the reason that lots of Math PhDs could end up having a quantitative job. So here we go.
2. Flexible elective curriculum and tons of studying opportunities with Department of Mathematics and with other departments. You can almost always choose whatever interests you as an elective course, such as a course in Ross School of Business, or in College of Engineering, or in School of Information, and even get enrolled in another master's program. I know some friends in this program choose to pursue a Master's in Statistics at the same time, or a Master's in Engineering to learning more about programming. I myself got enrolled in Multidisciplinary Development Program (MDP) to have more practical experience. In a summary, as long as you want to learn something, getting enrolled in this program can and always will serve you as a first step.
3. Wonderful campus culture and lots of chances to get involved and make a contribution to the community. This program is with University of Michigan, and U-Michigan always goes with great alumni network, academic excellence, and especially rich tradition in football! When you walk on campus, you will always feel as if you were part of something bigger than yourself and had the ability to make a difference. With International Student Lunch Conversation, Women In Mathematics, Women's Ultimate Frisbee etc. (just a few examples; these are the ones I was quite often enrolled in), you'll feel welcomed and you'll always have the chance to learn more and contribute more.
4. Job hunting assistance. I suppose most students who want to get enrolled in these Financial Engineering programs are looking for an excellent job afterwards, and definitely you're in for a treat! Not only does this program have an experienced program coordinator for resume and cover letter revision, but we as U-M students also have U-Michigan Career Center for FREE mock interview, FREE professional clothes closet, and everything you can think of related to internship or job hunting for FREE! Just remember to ask for help, and you'll get it for sure.
The biggest con for this program, which I must admit, is that it doesn't have the geographical advantage, as it's not in New York or Boston or any other big city. Ann Arbor is quite possibly the quaintest, funkiest, most cosmopolitan college town in the US, but it doesn't have that many employers. However, we have Career Fairs where tons of employers all over the country will show up and want us -- because we are in University of Michigan and we are in Quantitative Finance!
This is a really young program, and it needs each one of us to take care of and make it become better. Hope you can be one of the Wolverines!!
Whoever is reading this, thanks for your time and patience! Wish you the best luck in the future, and forever Go Blue!!!
Several reasons for recommending this program:
1. Great mandatory curriculum, staff and professors. The professors are all really nice, professional and funny, and the staff members are all helpful and care about students. Our program coordinator is an excellent lady who always helps us with resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation and alumni networking by coordinating quant seminars with Michigan alumni and forwarding possible working opportunities from alumni's companies. To be honest, the curriculum is challenging since some of them are PhD classes, but this is exactly why we all have a solid theoretical understanding of financial mathematics, and exactly how the program is designed -- our director for the program believes that sold math knowledge is the reason that lots of Math PhDs could end up having a quantitative job. So here we go.
2. Flexible elective curriculum and tons of studying opportunities with Department of Mathematics and with other departments. You can almost always choose whatever interests you as an elective course, such as a course in Ross School of Business, or in College of Engineering, or in School of Information, and even get enrolled in another master's program. I know some friends in this program choose to pursue a Master's in Statistics at the same time, or a Master's in Engineering to learning more about programming. I myself got enrolled in Multidisciplinary Development Program (MDP) to have more practical experience. In a summary, as long as you want to learn something, getting enrolled in this program can and always will serve you as a first step.
3. Wonderful campus culture and lots of chances to get involved and make a contribution to the community. This program is with University of Michigan, and U-Michigan always goes with great alumni network, academic excellence, and especially rich tradition in football! When you walk on campus, you will always feel as if you were part of something bigger than yourself and had the ability to make a difference. With International Student Lunch Conversation, Women In Mathematics, Women's Ultimate Frisbee etc. (just a few examples; these are the ones I was quite often enrolled in), you'll feel welcomed and you'll always have the chance to learn more and contribute more.
4. Job hunting assistance. I suppose most students who want to get enrolled in these Financial Engineering programs are looking for an excellent job afterwards, and definitely you're in for a treat! Not only does this program have an experienced program coordinator for resume and cover letter revision, but we as U-M students also have U-Michigan Career Center for FREE mock interview, FREE professional clothes closet, and everything you can think of related to internship or job hunting for FREE! Just remember to ask for help, and you'll get it for sure.
The biggest con for this program, which I must admit, is that it doesn't have the geographical advantage, as it's not in New York or Boston or any other big city. Ann Arbor is quite possibly the quaintest, funkiest, most cosmopolitan college town in the US, but it doesn't have that many employers. However, we have Career Fairs where tons of employers all over the country will show up and want us -- because we are in University of Michigan and we are in Quantitative Finance!
This is a really young program, and it needs each one of us to take care of and make it become better. Hope you can be one of the Wolverines!!
Whoever is reading this, thanks for your time and patience! Wish you the best luck in the future, and forever Go Blue!!!
- wksisbs
- 1.00 star(s)
Worst program ever existed. Program's director is a super tough guy, caring about nothing regarding students' placement. He does not even respect students. Courses are badly designed. They simply used previous PhD courses to open this master program.Core courses are not practical at all.
We're from 2017 class, which is the best group of people they ever admitted. However, our placement record is worse than some programs that we reject offers from back in 2017.
Plus, tuition is ridiculously high, they just use students as cash cows. Don't donate your money to them!
We're from 2017 class, which is the best group of people they ever admitted. However, our placement record is worse than some programs that we reject offers from back in 2017.
Plus, tuition is ridiculously high, they just use students as cash cows. Don't donate your money to them!
- jingyi huang
- 5.00 star(s)
I graduated last year in May and got an offer in US within 2 months after graduation. I know some of you might have heard people saying "if you want to find a job in US, then choose the schools located in NY or so", which is not so true from my stand of point, you still have many good chances here, and we have quite a lot successful examples as proof.
I have a bachelor degree of applied mathematics. even so, I have largely expanded my mathematical knowledge. Also, the programming class 5091/5092 as well as other practical coding trainings in 5031/5032, will give you a prepared programming skill of being a quant.
I have a bachelor degree of applied mathematics. even so, I have largely expanded my mathematical knowledge. Also, the programming class 5091/5092 as well as other practical coding trainings in 5031/5032, will give you a prepared programming skill of being a quant.
- jacqueline-cai
- 5.00 star(s)
I will be graduating this May and I really appreciate all the help I got through this program.
Academically, MFM has a well set system of courses, ranging from deep math to necessary coding and quant finance knowledge. In addition, you always have your choices to choose a minor or just register for some classes of your interest.
Aside from the coursework, we are a top program in Minnesota and we have an excellent alumni network nationwide and especially locally. Teachers and seniors are always willing to share their experience, which helped me a lot to decide where my interest lies in the quant field and also build my personality. My coffee meetings with alumni have taught me to always be grateful and contribute, which I believe will benefit my whole life.
Academically, MFM has a well set system of courses, ranging from deep math to necessary coding and quant finance knowledge. In addition, you always have your choices to choose a minor or just register for some classes of your interest.
Aside from the coursework, we are a top program in Minnesota and we have an excellent alumni network nationwide and especially locally. Teachers and seniors are always willing to share their experience, which helped me a lot to decide where my interest lies in the quant field and also build my personality. My coffee meetings with alumni have taught me to always be grateful and contribute, which I believe will benefit my whole life.
Many courses are designed only for MSFE students, and cover wide range of topics, such as risk, derivatives, programming. Practicum can also help gain much precious experience from industry.
Professors: Solid, though several no longer doing cutting-edge work
Curriculum: Liked the flexibility, but had to spend more time explaining courses to employers
Cost: High. It's one of the more expensive programs, with one of the larger classes - up to 150 MFINs in the fall now - not sure why still so expensive
Jobs: A lot fewer companies coming to MIT Sloan recruiting for MFINs than I expected - you often find yourself going up against MIT undergrads.
Students: Very smart. Hard to 'bond' with such a big class - lots of 'clicks' esp by ethnic group
Location: Amazing, great to be in Boston / Cambridge area
Overall, a solid program, but feels very costly relative to many of its competition, hard to stand out as a student to employers in such a big class.
Curriculum: Liked the flexibility, but had to spend more time explaining courses to employers
Cost: High. It's one of the more expensive programs, with one of the larger classes - up to 150 MFINs in the fall now - not sure why still so expensive
Jobs: A lot fewer companies coming to MIT Sloan recruiting for MFINs than I expected - you often find yourself going up against MIT undergrads.
Students: Very smart. Hard to 'bond' with such a big class - lots of 'clicks' esp by ethnic group
Location: Amazing, great to be in Boston / Cambridge area
Overall, a solid program, but feels very costly relative to many of its competition, hard to stand out as a student to employers in such a big class.