Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Master of Finance

I had my apprehensions going into this program due to its high tuition, but I believed that the school name was worth the premium.
This program has exceeded my expectations, and I'm glad I chose to be an MIT MFin.

I genuinely underestimated the flexibility of this program even after hearing tons about it. You can literally design this degree in a way that suits you.

Wanna learn financial mathematics? Wanna learn macroeconomics? Wanna learn M&A? You can take all of these courses at Sloan.

Wanna improve your CS or math skills? You can take courses in the CS or math department at MIT. And all of these would probably count towards your degree requirements, so you would not have to do 'unnecessary' courses that you find redundant for your career needs.

The courses are HARD, though. Whether you're doing a more quant-y course or a more corporate finance course, you should expect that it will be rigorous and challenging, but you'd have ample resources and support. The professors are top-notch, highly revered in their fields, but also extremely approachable.

I did not have a lot of expectations with the Career Development Office, but I can safely say that I've found it to be very useful. You do have to do your due diligence and work hard on applications (you're an adult and the job market is tough) but the CDO team will get you any resource they could possibly help you with. There will be so many networking events and opportunities to make use of (you'll literally be having lunch with MDs of a division), thanks to the CDO, provided you show up and market yourself to the company speakers.

Lastly, the Sloan network is priceless. You'll not only get to connect easily with Sloan alumni who are leading quant firms in the country, but also an amazing student group at the school, including MBAs and PhDs. Your classes will consist of people vying for various career paths, from quant to macroeconomic research to private equity. While it is great to have a good network of people in the quant industry, it's just as important to connect with people in other sectors of finance.

TL;DR: MIT MFin does a great job of letting you identify what career path you want to take and provides you with all the resources to excel in it, from academics to networks to career opportunities.

Just wanted to share some insights on the MIT Master of Finance program .

What really stands out about the program is its flexibility. The ability to tailor your coursework and explore a wide range of subjects is a significant plus, especially in such a dynamic field as finance. This flexibility extends to taking classes at Harvard, which is a unique opportunity in itself. The program is known for its strong quantitative focus, offering a deep dive into financial theory and practice.

Another major highlight is the quality of peers you'll be studying with. The student body is not only academically impressive but also diverse in experiences and backgrounds, offering a rich learning environment. There’s a lot to learn from classmates, and the networking opportunities are tremendous.

The career prospects post-graduation are another strong point. Many students have had great success during the summer recruiting season, landing roles in prestigious firms across various sectors of finance. The program’s reputation and MIT's strong industry connections play a crucial role here.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing. The program does have its challenges. One of the most frequently mentioned is the large class size, which could potentially impact the level of individual attention and support you might receive. The cost of the program is another significant consideration – it's quite steep, but that's expected from a program of this caliber.

The academic rigor is another factor to be prepared for. The coursework is demanding, and the program's pace can be intense, especially during the summer term. This intensity, while a challenge, is also part of what makes the program so robust and rewarding.

In conclusion, while the MIT MFin program comes with its set of challenges, such as the class size, cost, and intense workload, its strengths in providing a flexible, diverse, and rigorous educational experience, combined with excellent career opportunities, make it a compelling choice. If you're someone who thrives in a challenging and dynamic academic environment and are looking for a program that can provide a strong launchpad into the finance industry, this could be a great fit.

Pros:
1. Great flexibility in terms of course. You can take basically any courses you like from the entire MIT course catalog and also cross reg at Harvard. Many people from FE track took courses like PHD level Machine Learning, High-dim Stats, Times Series and Econometrics.
2. Classmates are solid for sure
3. Great track record for summer recruiting: Constant inflow into Citadel, Jump, BAM and most of the IB in Quant, IB and Trading divisions.

Cons:
1. Class Size was too large
2. Expensive Tuition Fees

Pros:

Reputation: It's MIT.
Customizable: You can tweak the program based on what you're into, which is super cool.
Job Opportunities: career fairs and good support from CDO
Real-World Learning: Fin-lab/proseminars and other hands-on projects

Cons:
Heavy Workload in the Summer
Tuition Costs, etc.

I honestly think they should get rid of Corporate Finance track and combine MFE and Capital Market into 1 thing. Classes are too big and not super concentrated. Don't see much synergy in mixing the bankers/consultant with quant/coders. MIT is by its core an engineering school so stay focused at what it's good at. From the school's perspective, Accounting/ M&A/ corporate finance related courses basically overlap with the MBA ones and doesn't add to its course offering. From the students' perspective, 1. US IB don't really recruit from Mfin 2. why not find an OK job first then do MBA from Sloan?
Overall good experience and decent career planning. kinda wished classes were smaller.

I feel really disappointed about the classmates that I had. Cheating/teaming up during online exams, Free riding during group projects, breaking COVID protocols just to throw a party aren't things that you would expect from MIT graduate students, but they occur more than you imagine, and it is unfair for us that always followed the rules. I certainly expected that I would learn more from my classmates

Sometimes I felt that some people were admitted in the program just because they come from a rich family, even though it was clear that they weren't qualified to be admitted in the program . MIT should be a meritocracy, and this program is not a meritocracy.

I would urge the MFin admissions commitee to not base their admissions desicions only on the likeness that a possible candidate can donate money to the endownment in the future or whether the candidate has a brandname on their resume. There are other things that also matter: Personality, Willigness to have an impact in society, coming from a background of adversity and managing to succeed, being a decent human being, having manners, among others. Life is more than bradnames and money and I believe that most people in the program are focused only on that. The MFin program is contributing to the continuing of the stigma that people have of the finance industry: an industry full of people that only care about making money, without having any decency as human beings. By giving a prestigious degree, you're inflating the egos of already egocentric and self entitled people, and that is a disservice to society.

There wasn't any diversity in the class. About 94 out of 136 people where from one nationality, while most of the others were from Europe. I was one of the very few that wasn't in none of these groups, and honestly, there wasn't any openess of them for me to hang out with them. People in the program seclude themselves in groups by nationality/ethnicity, which is really disappointing. I understand the program can't do much about that, but at least they could try and make the class more diverse. It would make the experience better for everyone.

Was hoping for a better experience. Students bunch into country groups pretty fast. Learned less than I thought I would from them. Good name brand but MIT Sloan seems more set up for MBAs, especially recruiting.12 month program feels jammed, no internship - but 18 month program costs a lot. BIG program - hard to get to know profs.

The good: Brand name, Faculty, Curriculum
- MIT reputation and brand name
- Access to main campus classes (if you're interested in CS/Math) and HBS
- Best diversity of students amongst other financial engineering programs (with the possible exception of Princeton), even with the large Chinese population, there's amazing people from all over the world here.
- Very flexible curriculum (if 18 month) and great choices of classes, with stellar faculty who are the most accomplished in finance

The bad: OCR & Accessibility to Prof's
- On campus recruiting is a goddamn mess, nobody seems interested in MFins, few to none dedicated setup of coffee chats with companies tailored to resume/backgrounds. For the amount this program costs, Emily and Laura (CDO advisors) should personally take my resume and hand it to companies that are a tailored fit to my background (See Linda Kreitzman, Berkeley).
- Professors are hard to know outside of class- they're always busy with PhD students/projects, most interactions out of classroom with TA only. Office hours are mostly with TA's.
- Scholarships/Fellowships seem to be awarded really weirdly/randomly, it's supposedly based on "diversity" but I know a lot of really accomplished and smart individuals who add so much diversity to the program yet never got a single $.

The ugly: Class Size and Sloan Brand Dilution
- I believe the new class size is as large as >140, which is a 25% increase from the previous class size of 116, which by itself was massive. The way the adcoms are diluting the class sizes is tanking the program's reputation and ratings.
- Recruiting is an awful slobbery mess, and the dilution of Sloan's brand and introduction of a new micromasters program makes the whole thing NPV negative. Honestly, there's little to suggest this program is anything but a cash cow if it weren't for the stellar faculty and piggybacking on MIT's reputation.

The Positives:
- The curriculum is extremely flexible, you can gear your academic experience as you see fit, much more than other programs out there. It gives you a space to take on risks academically.
- Access to MIT's engineering school, Harvard's Law and Business Schools, MIT PhD level electives, you will not run out of challenges.
- The faculty is superb. It feels like they're a little unavailable in the sense of being extremely busy with their PhD students, outside projects, etc. But if you show interest, go to their office hours and engage you'll tap into that amazing resource. You have to go for it though.
- Fellow classmates are beyond bright, oftentimes intimidating. From an academic standpoint there's a lot to be learned from sharing. Every TA, PhD student, Sloan Fellow or MBA you interact with is bathed in a culture of integrity and excellence that it just pours into everything. I think MIT benefits greatly from attracting exceptional people.
- The networking opportunities, companies visiting the campus, MIT connections & alumni network (which is extremely helpful), career events and resources are just vast and constantly available. There's something going on every day. Skipping class can be the best choice any given day with all that's goin on all of the time. You must prioritize and you must dedicate yourself to career activities as it is not going to be just handed out in a silver plate.


The Negatives:
- Career Office works extremely hard but has gone through many changes in the past few years and it feels like they're still finding their direction. Expect to put on a little extra work in preparing for finding a job.
- As a pre-work experience degree, there's diverse range of backgrounds but not a diverse range of profiles. Most students are 22 y/olds with little to contribute to a classroom experience.
- Students are (almost naturally) secluded into groups (mostly by geography) and you don't get to see much openness to mixing within. The class is also large and even with different cohorts the bonding experience is nowhere near like the MBAs
- The 12 month version is way too tight and packed to benefit from the flexibility of the curriculum and the opportunity to take electives. Requirements are the same between 12 and 18 month programs so you can enjoy all of this in the 18 month version.
- It is a pricey degree, specially for a pre-experience degree that aims to insert one to the highly competitive financial labor market. The cost is steep and from what I believe, not a lot of aid is handed out.

Overall the experience was amazing to me. I was able to enjoy all of the gifts and opportunities the program had to offer.

The good:
smart fellow students from all around the world (w China /ABC concentration)
Dedicated TAs
Cambridge / Boston =Great college town
It's MIT!!!

The bad:
v large program, hard to stand out compared to other students, hard to get to know profs
Profs could be a lot more dynamic
Very little on-campus recruiting, interviewing etc - recruiters seem way more interested in MBAs
Cambridge Boston = expensive
Program costs a lot for what you get

The ugly:
Major cultural problems persist at the school
New Micromasters...kinda makes it even harder to justify >$100k tuition

Pros:
- Good administrative support
- International students from everywhere in the world, mostly China though
- Good TA's
- Great city - Boston

Cons:
- Poor grading, ie grade deflation/poor curves if any, enough complaints can change grades
- Big program, pretty competitive - difficult to stand apart from the rest and excel
-Recruitng efforts not strong - seem to be more focused on MBAs
- Professors seem to be busy with other things, hard for them to know you
- Expensive city - Boston

Could, Should be better...

MIT has a great reputation, but it seems like the school is trading on this reputation with the MFin program. The professors are solid but seem to have a lot going on outside of MIT - investment funds etc - so you end up getting to know the TAs a lot better. Not a huge deal but can be a problem if you ever need a reference. Program is pretty big too, hard to get to know everyone. Fun to take classes with students from other programs. Not as much recruiting as youd expect, especially compared to MBAs and MBAns. Hard to believe the Media Lab stayed involved with Epstein so long, pretty disappointing.

Something seems to be broken with the culture at MIT Sloan MFin. They push group assignments in almost all the courses, but don't seem to care if people are simply copying the answers from their group-mates. Faculty don't want to get involved with any discussions about cheating. It is a no win situation for them. Students who don't like their grades can simply keep arguing with the professor to get it changed. The admin people make sure to tell the professors what grade a student needs to avoid failing out - guess what happens then?

Finally, recent disclosures of MIT's connections with Jeffrey Epstein, particularly after his first conviction as a sex offender, point to something really missing from the schools value system.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein

Program is OK but plenty of room for improvement

++ Program is big - there are around 150 MFins on campus in the fall - challenging on a lot of levels - probably toughest is that it's harder to get to know the professors, make a good impression

++High cost - given above

++A lot less recruiting on campus than expected - MBAs still getting the best treatment from employers - I guess that's the way it is

++Tough to get to know your classmates - students seem to fall into social groups by country pretty early on - not sure if the school can do much about this

Pluses:
fellow students are very sharp academically, you will learn a lot from them - sometimes a bit intimidating! but many are super generous sharing what they know.

good teaching, especially from the course assistants / grad students - very accessible and helpful especially coming up to midterms and finals - they really try hard to teach you every thing you need

MIT reputation :0

Very good location / Boston is a great college town, able to meet so many young people from other schools too


Minuses:
Size of program - it's really big! can feel very hard to make an impression especially on professors - can be a little easy to get lost

On campus recruiting is really weak for such a large program. Career office tries hard, but typical 'recruiting' for MFins is a meet-and-greet event with a dozen students surrounding someone from a firm - meanwhile the MBA students have targeted recruiting presentations from employers visiting sloan with many staff members, dedicated interview schedules just for them, actual employers coming to interview them - the difference is kinda shocking. you're a lot more 'on your own' for your job search than you'd think.

Cost - $100k for the 18mo program just seems so high, before all your living costs - with all the students attending, and not a whole lot of financial aid, kinda felt a bit like a money grab...

Group Work Free Riders - big emphasis on group work throughout sloan, but not a lot of interest in preventing 'free riders' slacking off - school seems to want to push that task back on the students - so it happens a lot more than it should. Try to get to know the folk you're going to be in teams with, especially for longer / intense courses.

Solid academics - fellow students very smart - but it's hard to make relationships with professors - a lot of teaching done by grad students - not a huge surprise generally but not what I expected for a program that cost this much.

Very very few recruiters come to campus for MFins - kinda crazy considering how large the program is - seems like almost all recruiting activity is for MBA students.

Hard to mix with other students - MBAs do their own thing, and MFins tend to socialize by country / continent - not as social as I thought it would be.

Good to be in Boston - great college town.

Overall, not a bad program, but a lot of room to improve I guess, especially with getting recruiters on campus.

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.

As one of the current MFin students at MIT Sloan, I've had a fantastic experience at the school so far. There are so many great things to say about the program and the school, and I've listed a few important reasons below regarding why I chose MIT Sloan:

• MFin verus MFE (or other pure-quant programs): The MFin degree at MIT Sloan offers a lot of flexibility in the curriculum and is designed to help you tailor an academic training that best fits your career passion. It is a graduate finance degree that offers a solid foundation in modern finance theory, and besides the initial mandatory courses over the Summer Semester and Analytics of Finance/Action-Learning requirements, one is free to take other elective courses as you wish and customize the curriculum to meet your own career/academic objective. For example, I realized that I'm more interested in the Capital Market/Investment Management side of finance, so I specifically took courses that are more public market oriented such as Fixed Income, Options/Derivations, Investment Management etc. as opposed to some of my other friends who are pursuing a career in quant finance/trading, and therefore are taking more quant-heavy courses such as Dynamtic Programming, Stochastic Calculus, and other PhD level courses at both Sloan and the Engineering Department at MIT. Compared with other MFE programs, which have a stricter set of curriculum requirement and are more engineering/quantitative by design, I felt that the MFin degree offered me a greater Option Value because I could tailor my curriculum to be super quantitative and engineering focused by taking a lot of PhD level/quant classes offered at Sloan and Engineering department, but at the same time if ones decided that they turned out to be more interested in corporate finance or the capital market like I did, they would have the option to take more finance courses. So in a way, the MFin degree can be seen as a graduate finance degree or an engineering degree depending on how you take your classes, which to me at the time was a big advantage because I liked the option value whereas it might be more diffcult to do so at a MFE program.

• Top Business School + Top Engineering School: The MFin program is housed out of MIT's Sloan School of Management, which itself is a world-class business school that has an outstanding track record in management training and modern finance theory. What this means is that you would have access to some of the best professors in finance/business here at Sloan and would be able to network with MBA students and other senior corporate executives around the globe during and after your time at Sloan.This is a very valuable thing as you start your career and to me, having the opportunity to take classes with star professors such as Robert Merton and Andrew Lo etc. and join a very accomplished alumni network of MIT Sloan afterwards are life-time opportunities. Moreover, one would also be able to take courses at the Engineering School at MIT as mentioned earlier and have access to some of the best engineering minds in the world. Afterall, your Graduate Student experience at MIT can be very comprehensive and diverse, and being able to make friends from all over the schools at MIT are a great life-learning opportunity itself.

• Boston/Cambridge Is Just Awesome: Location is also another important factor to me and the fact that MIT is located in a major city on the East Coast and Boston/Cambridge are home to a number of other great college/universities would allow me the opportunity to make new friends and expand my network. Its faily close proximity and easy commute to NYC also allows students fast access to the capital center of the world! Boston/Cambridge are simply amazing places with lots of good restaurants/bars/social actilities, and I would say besides the weather in the winter (sometimes but not always that bad), your time here will be very fun.

• Amazing Students: Lastly I just want to mention how smart and friendly students at MIT and Sloan are. The caliber of the students I've interacted with are incredible and it's just really fun to be around smart/fun people who you can share an interesting and intelligient conversations with. To me that's very important and was also another factor that attracted me to MIT.

I don’t usually write reviews, but I read a lot of them before coming to the MFin program, and I know how important these reviews were on my decision process.

Therefore and for all of you reading this, I gave the five stars because:
There is something unusual about this university. Once you come to MIT and you’re surrounded with extraordinary people and an extraordinary campus, something will happen to you. It will not be up to you anymore to decide whether you want to push yourself to become a better person, it will happen automatically.

To be more concrete, I will share some examples about my MFin experience at MIT Sloan.

1- Flexibility: As much as the coursework is rigorous, the program is designed in a way to give students flexibility. I was able to tailor my program effortlessly and according to my initial plan.

2- Clubs: I was enrolled in many clubs such as Finance, Investment Management, Management Consulting, Sales, Public Speaking, Entrepreneurship, African, European, Asian, Middle East, and more! Did I have time to attend all of these club meetings? Definitely not! However, I was very selective and attended every event that was appealing to me. It is important to note that I learned from the sales club and public speaking club as much as I learned from the finance club and investment management club.

3- Unlimited Network: There are numerous talks happening around the MIT Sloan and MIT community. Also, MIT and Harvard club members organize conferences together, so there is no limit to the network you can gain while you’re here. Personally, I was not 100% sure prior coming to MIT about what is it that I really wanted to do with my life, and I found the answer in one of these finance conferences.

Since other reviews have discussed in details about the finance courses and curriculum, I hope that I have left you today with a new viewpoint about this unique education.
Best of luck to all of you.

I had an amazing experience over the past 11 months at MFin program. Looking back, I have learned a lot academically, and solidified my finance foundation. Even though I had a finance related background prior to coming to MIT, MIT classes have given me a different (practical) perspective and an innovative view on finance. I have learned not only the theory, but more importantly how to apply the theories to the real world through classes (Finance Research Practicum and Proseminar) and projects. Analytics of Finance is a rather quantitative course, but it taught me more of how to learn things fast and under pressure than the stochastic calculus itself. I have also learned how to get out of my comfort zone, expand my comfort zone and push myself further. I developed close relationships with my classmates/faculty members and made life-long friends, who are more of family members than friends! Overall, I absolutely loved the master of finance experience at MIT Sloan and I would highly recommend this program to everyone!

I was frequently asked the following questions, and here is what I think:

Why did you choose to come to MIT Sloan?
I chose Sloan because of its international reputation, world-class professors (Andrew Lo, Bob Merton, Stewart Myers, Eric Rosenfeld, to name just a few), the action learning programs (Proseminar, Finance Research Practicum, and many practical class projects), and most importantly, the opportunity to learn from the best of the very best! I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience over the past year. Coming to Sloan is probably the best decision I have ever made and I am really glad that I am here.


How accessible are the professors here?
Extremely so. The hardest class I took was Analytics of Finance. Professor Kogan was really wonderful about rescheduling individual office hours for me when I couldn’t make it to the regular ones. And I heard that he tutored one of my classmates to bring him up-to-speed on the material.


What was your favorite class or professor?
Andrew Lo is the best. He told us that his goal is not to teach us finance but to change the way we think about finance and he really succeeds in this. He really builds a wide foundation (e.g. with the connection to neuroscience). Before I wasn’t interested in biology, but now I eagerly read papers on the subject. Professor Lo is so stimulating that the three-hour class goes by very quickly.

How would you sum up your experience in the MFin Program?
It was unforgettable and the people I met were just incredible. I was nervous before I arrived, but it’s actually a very happy, supportive, and honest environment. It broadened my horizons and I made lifelong friends.