Northeastern University - MS in Quantitative Finance

This degree program lags behind most other MFE/Quantitative Finance masters programs by most metrics. Though the tuition is considerably lower than many other programs, particularly at other private universities, the poor quality of academics and career prospects make it difficult to recommend even considering this advantage.

Coursework/academics:

The standard first-semester courses consist of Corporate Finance, Investment Analysis, and Financial Mathematics. The former two primarily provide a foundation in fundamental finance, while the latter feels more like a crash course on statistics, linear algebra, calculus, and basic optimization. For students without a quantitative background, the Financial Mathematics course provides intro-level knowledge on these topics, but those coming from math-oriented undergrad majors will not see much benefit.

The required second-semester courses begin to scratch the surface of skills necessary for the quantitative finance industry, but go little beyond that. Furthermore, there is a lack of electives available that thoroughly develop these skills. The highest-level math course available, Computational Methods in Finance, rehashes much of Financial Mathematics while providing only a slightly deeper dive into optimization and introduces stochastic processes. The issue is that the course only introduces you to these more advanced topics without requiring true knowledge of them - they show up only trivially, if at all, on exams, meaning many of the students passing the course have not gained these skills.

Most of the other electives available stay within the fundamental finance domain. They would be passable curriculum for a non-quantitative finance degree, but the content is still not particularly rigorous and generous grading curves mean that most students can obtain their degrees without being knowledgeable about the topics studied.

Students:

Unfortunately, Northeastern relies on their reputation gained from the impressive career placements of its undergraduate students. However, its masters programs are much less selective and rely mainly on full-tuition-paying international students as a source of revenue for other departments. MSQF is no exception.

Most students come from non-quantitative backgrounds with the vast majority being undergraduate business majors. Rather than selecting more qualified applicants and creating a more rigorous curriculum, the university instead reduces the intensity of coursework to be suitable for the students it accepts. The instructors and generally highly credentialed practitioners and/or academics, but teach in accordance with what students are able to digest. One professor indicated that they wished they could teach more in-depth concepts but couldn't due to the students' abilities; another that they taught the same material to their graduate and undergraduate students.

In project groups, it became apparent that my partners had very little knowledge of the course material as well as the basic mathematical/statistical tools used. Additionally, they failed to catch glaring errors in the data they produced - the type that should be obvious to a lay person looking at the graph, let alone a qualified quantitative analyst. Nevertheless, high grades were handed out.

Many students lack clarity and knowledge about the industry, mentioning that they hope to break into IB despite pursuing a quantitative finance degree. Many of the international students indicated that they are taking the program only to facilitate working in the US.

Unfortunately, the program operates this way as a cash cow with little regard to the quality of the students.

Careers:

Northeastern markets heavily on their career prospects, which is a reputation well earned at the undergraduate level. However, placements for this program are abysmal. The program is intended to be completed in three semesters - Fall-Spring-Fall - allowing students to pursue summer internships before graduating. However, most students struggle to obtain relevant internships. The ones who achieve the best outcomes typically work in FP&A. A handful of students end up taking jobs in administrative functions with the university. I have not heard of any students breaking into quant research/trading/development.

Career services are almost non-existent and insourced networking opportunities are negligible. Additionally, the program is only a few years old, meaning there is not an expansive alumni network.

Overall:

This program offers little benefit for students looking to advance their careers, and almost no chance of developing the necessary skills for the quant industry. The only conceivable benefit would be for international students trying to find work in the US - but this degree will not help obtain a job in the relevant industries. If your goal is to break into quantitative finance, you will be sorely disappointed and $60k in the hole.

It's disappointing because Northeastern has the resources and potential to turn this into a high-quality program, but chooses instead to use it as a source of easy cash.