North Carolina State University - Master in Financial Mathematics

When entering a financial engineering or mathematics program, many students aspire to become quantitative researchers or traders. While this is a reasonable goal, I've learned it's important to understand what each program specifically prepares you for. NCSU's MFM program is particularly well-suited for those interested in risk management and related career paths, rather than primarily QR or QT roles.

One of the program's standout features is its career services. The support begins even before classes start, with the team proactively reaching out to understand each student's background and career goals. They work individually with students to structure resumes that best highlight existing skills for target roles, providing personalized guidance rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. The interview preparation is comprehensive, including multiple mock interview sessions that build confidence and refine our presentation. A particularly valuable component is the semester-long practicum project, where students apply their learning under the mentorship of senior students. This experience, I believe, bridges the gap between academic concepts and real-world application. The program also regularly brings in industry guests to speak with students, offering authentic insights into day-to-day work in various quantitative finance roles. These sessions were invaluable in helping us understand the realities of different career paths and what to expect as we transition from academia to industry.

The program begins with Probability Theory and Options Pricing courses that provide a solid foundation. For students newer to these topics, they offer valuable grounding; those with prior exposure will find them a good refresher that ensures everyone starts on equal footing.
I opted to take the Fixed Income elective rather than the ML course, choosing instead to supplement my machine learning education through resources like StatQuest and various textbooks. This self-directed approach worked well for me in connecting theory to financial applications. The Fixed Income course provided strong coverage of various instruments, though I found myself wanting deeper exploration of the mathematical frameworks and tools used in actual pricing, something I supplemented through independent study.

The second semester ramps up significantly with Monte Carlo Simulations, Stochastic Calculus, and Statistical Inference. I also took the Statistical Learning elective, which I found to be very helpful as it offered a thorough treatment of ML through the ISL textbook. Having gained comfort with foundational concepts during my first semester, I was able to supplement the coursework with the more advanced ESL (Elements of Statistical Learning) textbook, which deepened my understanding considerably.

Monte Carlo Simulations stood out for its comprehensive coverage of pricing techniques and tools. Stochastic Calculus covered the essential concepts, though I would have benefited from a more gradual transition from deterministic to stochastic frameworks at the beginning. The course concluded with Feynman-Kac, and I found myself pursuing additional independent study to learn techniques for pricing American options, interest rate products, and other modeling approaches. Given the breadth of material - from fixed income to equity derivatives - I can see how a multi-semester treatment of stochastic calculus might allow for deeper immersion and more extensive practice with different securities and model calibration.

Like many graduate students, I supplemented my coursework with significant self-study, particularly for interview preparation. This included practicing programming problems, working through interview specific probability questions, and diving deeper into topics like yield curve calibration, and understanding the pricing and modeling of products in Fixed Income like MBS and ABS. While the program's curriculum doesn't extensively cover all these areas, this reflects its focus - preparing students thoroughly for risk management roles where practical application is emphasized over theoretical depth in pricing.

The program delivers on its value proposition: preparing students well for careers in risk management and adjacent fields, supported by truly outstanding career services that give students a significant advantage in the job market. For those specifically seeking deep expertise in pricing complex derivatives across all asset classes, supplementary self-study or a different program focus might be necessary. However, for students aligned with the program's strengths in risk management and who value strong career support, it provides solid preparation and a practical skill set that translates well to industry roles.

I am currently studying Financial Mathematics from NCSU. My journey so far has been pretty good. Before joining this program, I have over seven years of experience in derivatives trading. This program enhanced my skills to a new level. The icing on the cake, through Friday's seminar I am able to make connections from industry professionals

Pros
CECL and Backtesting engine - these two projects improved my coding skills on python and give more insight into the current/upcoming risk management practice.

Program director Dr Tao Pang understand each student needs and always try to meet the current industry demand by conducting webinars, workshop and so on. For example- python, SAS and R workshop conducted for students who want to improve their coding skills.

Cons
The program is very intense, sometimes we have to do multiple things at the same time.
To get a degree we have to score minimum B in cores subject this constraint which I think can be relaxed as it is possible that some


Overall, I am happy with the program and I am giving 4star ratings
because nothing is perfect in the world and there is always scope for improvement

The Financial Mathematics program here at NC State offers the best courses available. Overall, you have to take 7 core courses and 3 electives and the electives can be chosen based on the different career tracks provided by the department. This way the students will have a clear picture to get to know their area of interest. Another best part is students are trained to get the BASE SAS certification in the first semester itself and are assigned projects. The course work will help you to get the knowledge of SAS, R , Matlab, C++ and MS-tools, which will be very helpful during the job search.
The program has a career development program, which helps the students to improve soft skills. The Friday seminars is one of the biggest strength to the program. It helps the students to improve their communication skills through mock interviews, presentations and many more. Also, the Friday seminars stand to be a very good platform for networking with industry professionals. Overall, I would say that, the program not only helped to enhance my finance knowledge but also it helped a lot in improving my people skills, which is very important to land in a good job

As a current student, I found this program focus on statistic and math more than finance. May be because it is based on math department. These rigorous courses could help you launch a job in data mining, risk management etc
With the help of career service , many international student found their internships/full-time jobs. Of course, good location with low living cost is a big plus.

The NC State Financial Math program is getting better and better from what i see，students have over 30 classes to take from five different departments though i do hope more finance classes w i l l be offered. Everyone is working hard here. Now the program has strong connection with the industry which provides many opportunities for students to meet and talk with professionals. Three December graduates all find their jobs and I believe this program is really worth it.

As a current student, at the Financial Mathematics program at NC State, what I like most is the interest that the faculty take in student development.

Core courses of the program focus on Mathematics and Statistics thus building a solid foundation of fundamental principles of Risk and Investments. Elective courses of the program are oriented towards the computational aspect with emphasis on MATLAB programming, SAS programming (Base SAS) and SAS Enterprise Miner, making it relevant to the industry especially jobs requiring data mining, data manipulation and analysis and business analytics.

A recent addition to the program is the course ‘C++ for financial mathematics’ conducted by the director of the program. This course is a major milestone in making students competent at programming and thus more job-ready.

Keeping in mind the importance of summer internships and full-time placements, the program has added to its team a new ‘Director of Career Services’ to attract employers to campus. The Director of Career Services brings with her prior experience of serving as a liaison between the industry and the students.

The students in this program also benefit from various alumni interactions that are arranged from time to time. The students not only get an insight into working of the industry but it also helps them identify their field of interest and choose their career path accordingly.

As a first-year student in this program. So far I find that there is a lot of resources and space for every student to research which track of quantitative finance they really want to follow.
NCSU is strong at mathematics, there are many excellent courses that can help students develop solid mathematical background and apply mathematical skills in finance.
Besides, advisors are really care about students. They follow up every student's progress and try to provide resources to help students move forward in both study and career development.

The Financial Math program in NSCU focus more on mathematics and statistics compared with other programs. And this is my favorite part. You can find a lots of courses which can help you build solid foundation for math and statistics. Another advantage of this program is that the cost is relatively low.