Latest reviews

To give a summary of the program's main features and bugs:

Good:
- Highly flexible. You can truly do whatever you want with this degree -- whether you want it to be completely quant focused, or basically an MBA.

- Extremely sharp cohort. Many of your classmates will be among the best in their country academically. This includes countries like India and China with very intense competition. As a result, you will constantly be surrounded by excellence. Pro tip: even if someone seems unassuming, they probably much more talented than you realize.

-Very strong professors. Admittedly, you have to find out who the good ones are, but you have some of the best people in the world teaching you certain subjects. We've had former heads of institutions like the SEC, IMF, etc come and teach. Also heads of divisions at major hedge funds. Many parts of modern finance theory were invented at MIT, and the professors who developed them still teach here.

-Value from other programs. If you are early career/pre experience, most of the other people in Sloan will have much more work experience than you. This means you get a disproportionate amount of value talking to these people, especially those in your target industry. It's business school access for pre-experience folks.

-MIT Sloan brand name.

-Boston as a city is awesome. Beautiful and walkable. Just very expensive.

Bad:
-you have to guide your own recruiting journey. Not much handholding here (as there is sometimes in some other programs) -- figure out your timelines, do your coffee chats, and send in your applications. You should really aim to connect with other students in the field here if you can.

-not as many resources around quant prep. No one else at Sloan recruits for this, so there's not many resources around it. Your best bet is talking to other MFins, potentially in the class above you.

-initial summer classes suck. Way too much work and not enough reward. Especially since it's during recruiting season. It sucks but is not representative of the rest of your time at MIT.

Pro tips:
- Judge a course by 1. the professor and 2. the content, in that order. A good professor can completely change your experience (and understanding) of a course. Make sure to gather info on the best professors before you start the program!! This is probably the most important things you can do to make sure that you get the best value out of this program academically.

-Less is more. look around if you want, but at some point, choose no more than 2 student clubs and 4-5 classes to focus on. Do them well. If you get greedy and try to do more, you will not learn any of them properly.

-Take advantage of clubs for recruiting. Especially traditional fields like IB/PE/Consulting. People in these clubs (MBAs) probably work at your target firms. Talk to them.

-prioritize recruiting above classes the first summer. Eat the B, focus on your applications. Trust me, they matter a lot more -- the effort to reward ratio is not high in the initial term.

-Don't stay in the Sloan bubble. Get involved with main MIT campus (whether through class, clubs, etc). Take a Harvard course. There's cool stuff there and is worth checking out while you have the opportunity to do so.

-get winter clothes. Black Friday is a good time to do so.

The end goal here should be to get set up for a good career and to enjoy your time here. Make sure to not ignore that second point by over-focusing on the first point.

Do what needs to be done, then do what you genuinely would like to do.

As a Financial Technology and Analytics student, I have found the Stevens FTA (Financial Engineering Stream) program to be both rigorous and rewarding. The curriculum has a strong balance of finance, programming, and applied analytics, which has allowed me to build a solid technical foundation while also gaining exposure to real-world applications.

Professors Hatzakis and Florescu have been excellent mentors throughout the program, both highly knowledgeable and approachable. Their teaching style goes beyond theory, making sure students understand the intuition behind complex models and how they connect to practical finance and risk management problems.

One of the biggest strengths of the program is its emphasis on hands-on learning. Access to the Hanlon Financial Systems Lab and exposure to real market data has been invaluable in developing the technical and analytical skills needed for today’s industry.

Career development support is also strong, resume reviews, interview prep, and networking events have been helpful in aligning academic experience with career goals. Being so close to New York City adds another advantage, with plenty of internship and networking opportunities on Wall Street and in fintech.

While the workload can be intense, the experience overall is highly rewarding, and the program is constantly evolving to stay aligned with industry needs. I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to combine finance, technology, and analytics for a career in quantitative finance or fintech.

The Financial Engineering program at Stevens offers a strong blend of quantitative finance, programming, and risk modeling, with a clear focus on industry-relevant skills, including machine learning and advanced analytics. The coursework is highly applied, featuring projects and case studies that mirror real-world financial challenges. The Hanlon Financial Systems Lab provides excellent hands-on exposure to market data and trading tools. Being right across the river from New York City, students benefit from direct access to Wall Street internships, networking, and career opportunities. The growing alumni network in finance and fintech is another major strength, offering valuable support in job placement and career advancement. Overall, this program provides a solid balance of theory, practice, and industry connections, making it a strong choice for aspiring quants.

This program, in terms of how much you will learn, how much opportunity you will gain, and how many connections you will make is unrivaled until the top 3. The only thing it lacks is a widely recognized name. However, I truly believe you are making a severe mistake to choose a program like Columbia's over this. Going to Columbia’s program may sound more impressive to your friends and family; however, you will be doing a disservice to your career. The teachers here care, the career services care, the whole department cares. You will learn rigorous math, statistics, machine learning, foundational finance, c++, python, and even LLMs. With its extensive offerings the world is your oyster at Fordham MSQF. Just make sure you seize your chance.

If I had to pick some negatives I would say the IT department is god awful and because there are lots of adjunct professors scheduling and grading can be disorganized.