Princeton University - Master in Finance

I’ll divide this review into two parts — the recruitment side (career services) and the academic environment.

Recruitment Side:
The career services team does a solid job. They bring a lot of companies to campus throughout the year, and even outside the MFin program, plenty of top trading and quant firms show up during university-wide career fairs. It’s a great chance to connect directly with people from those firms. They also post new openings pretty frequently and help with interview prep. Princeton MFin alumni are literally everywhere — at all the top firms — and that network can really help if you reach out.

Academic Environment:
This was the main reason I chose Princeton. The professors here are incredible — some of them are the ones who wrote the textbooks or research papers we study from. The program is very rigorous and theory-heavy, which I personally like. You also get a ton of flexibility: you can take classes from applied math, economics, computer science, and pretty much any other area you’re interested in.

If you want to get a flavor for research, you can do that in your second year too — one of the advantages of it being a two-year program.

That said, a few things could be improved — for example, I wish Corporate Finance was optional since most students don’t get much out of it. You can also make a case that the program can be wrapped up within 1.5 years as well and 2 years is long. And to be completely transparent, the atmosphere can sometimes get a bit toxic, especially during recruiting season. People are competing for top-paying roles, and conversations often end up revolving around offers and comp. It’s not constant, but it’s noticeable. Still, most people are genuinely nice and helpful — at least in my experience.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time here so far.

I chose to attend this program over other top quant finance programs in the US I was admitted to. It combines strong brand name, vast selection of courses across different disciplines, strong alumni network and manageable class size which allows for individual attention. Stellar reputation on Wall Street.

Disclaimer:
Purely my opinion, and purely based on my experience in my cohort.

Very decent program:
(1) Strong reputation, both among potential applicants and on the street.
(2) Great faculty & staff. Professors and career service are fantastic and knowledgeable.
(3) Great flexibility in terms of curriculum.

But one star off the overall rating, and two stars off student quality because of the toxic social atmosphere. My definition of high quality is not high GPA, high test scores, BB/top fund work experience. If you disagree with the standard/definition of high quality, that's OK, I'll keep mine and you'll keep scrolling.

My background - Math degree from top college in India, 2 years as a trading quant at BB.

Other admits - MIT, Columbia MFE, Chicago, NYU Courant

1. Great peer group with diverse experiences - Students from the program are from diverse backgrounds with expertise in both quant and macro, so there is a great avenue to learn from your peers

2. Flexibility - Only 5 of your 16 courses are compulsory, and the rest can be chosen independently. Princeton is a top college with one of the best Econ and Math departments (also ORFE and SPIA, among others) and the opportunity to tailor the program is a great feature which sets it apart from the other top programs. Really feels like a proper university experience rather than a training program where you're only doing preset courses.

3. Career Services (speaking only from internship recruiting experience, not sure personally about 2nd year recruiting) - Great career services. Career Services set up all my interviews for my internship, it was pretty difficult to get interviews independently this year. So I feel it was quite important. The website has a list of BCF partners who come to campus every year. In many cases, a company would bring a team of 5 or 10 to present to a batch of 20 BCF students which really gives you a chance to interact with the firm. There were also boot camps but I guess that isn't really the main role of career services

Cons

1. Core courses - The core courses, although well structured in terms of content, were not very good apart from maybe 2 (out of 5). There isn't too much focus given to the core courses, and the professors teaching them usually have their expertise in other fields. So although a good chance to interact with great professors, the classes really aren't too helpful to learn the material. Core courses are less than a third of your courses however so not a huge deal

2. Misc - No particular cons as such, but some general concerns people have are around the cost and the length of program. Also, probably it's not as intense as CMU or Baruch if you really want to specialize in the computer science or ML aspects.

I joined this program after having worked for 6 six years on the sell side as a derivatives trader and structurer with the main idea of getting a more updated set of technical skills that could be broadly applied on the buy and sell side upon graduation. After Princeton, I took a job as a quant trader at a global macro hedge fund on the buy side and am still currently there.

I chose the program first and foremost because of the Princeton brand, strong alumni base, and its general reputation within the finance community. I did not apply anywhere else.

Specific points that I liked about the program:

1) Broad curriculum which potentially allows you to focus if you're in the two year version of program

2) Small classes and helpful Professor's and TA's

3) Proximity to New York for recruiting

4) Advanced academic standards and strong level of peer aptitude


Materials Used:

Mostly professor's notes but I did utilize many of the reference textbooks for certain parts


Programming Component:

R (used more frequently through program)
C++ (if you take the class)


Suggestions to make program better:

1) I took the 1 year track for program but I think the ideal length is 18 months

2) It would have been useful to have some more industry practical seminars (even if not for credit)

Coursework Taken:

Asset Pricing parts 1 and 2 with Stochastic Calculus
Econometrics 1 and 2
Risk Management
Options
Portfolio Theory
Computational Finance (C ++)

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I joined this program right after college. I studied full-time in the program from 9/2008-06/2010

Did you get admitted to other programs?
NYU Courant
Stanford FinMath
Columbia MFE
Harvard Applied Math
Berkeley Haas MFE

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Job placements / Average first year starting salary.
Brand name.
Quality of professors / Courses offered.

Tell us about the application process at this program
Reasonable application process. Interview required for final part of application.

Does this program offer refrsher courses? How useful was it?
Yes, math refresher camp. Not so useful for me since I came straight from college, but well taught.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Fixed income (very rigorous)
Risk management
Financial crises
Behavioral finance
Stochastic calculus

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Great professors, both academic and professionals. Great help from motivated TAs.

Materials used in the program
Not so many textbooks, mostly notes and slides from Professors.

Programming component of the program
R
C++
Matlab
VBA

Projects
All sort of projects, both individual and in groups. Can do an independent project (1 or 2 semesters) with possibility of being published if you work hard enough.

Career service
Princeton career services and Bendheim Center staff.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Very diversified, people from all over the world: North America, South America, Europe, Asia.

What do you like about the program?
Small class size, high standard, job placement, tuition support.

What DON’T you like about the program?
More flexibility in course selection for the 1st year (6 core courses out of 8).

Suggestions for the program to make it better
Shrink the length to 1.5y instead of 2y.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Associate position, Interest Rate Trading.

Besides the program's websites, what alternative sources of info you used to learn more about the program?
Quantnet.com
Globalderivatives.com
Alumni

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Undergraduate: one of the top universities in China, majoring in Economics
Work experience: summer intern in Citibank
I studied full-time from 9/2009-6/2011

Did you get admitted to other programs?
Chicago: MSc of Financial Mathematics
LSE: MSc of Finance & Economics
USC: MSc in Mathematical Finance
UCLA: Ph.D. in Economics

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
It is definitely my top choice. Besides the brand name of Princeton University, this program has been keeping a excellent placement record throughout good times and bad times.
Plus, this program provides greater flexibility in choosing courses, compared to most of other Financial Engineering programs that focuses mostly on quantitative skills.
And the duration of two years would better prepare me for the prospective job in financial industry.

Admission process
After submitting all the required material, the top 100 applicants would be invited to interviews. For students from China, there are normally two rounds of phone interviews, conducted by faculty members of Bendheim Center for Finance. Then one would expect to hear back from admission committee by the end of February.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Yes. This program offers Math Refresher courses as well as Boot Camp, through which students would hear from many financial industry practitioners.
It is quite useful for me who has little working experiences before joining this program.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
We have a vast number of courses to choose from. Besides the 6 core courses, we could tailor our own curricular according to our interests. Courses from the Department of Economics, Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science are mostly chosen by MFin students.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Most of the faculty members of this program are professors from Department of Economics and Engineering. We have practitioners and visiting professors from other universities to teach too. TA would hold Precept every week and grade our homework. They are quite helpful and dedicated.

Materials used in the program
Options, Futures and Financial Derivatives--John Hull
Derivatives Markets--Mcdonald
Intermediate Financial Theory--Danthine & Donaldson
Introduction to the Economics and Mathematics of Financial Markets--Jaska Cvitanic & Fernando Zapatero
Microfoundations of Financial Economics An Introduction to General Equilibrium Asset Pricing--Yvan Lengwiler
Principles of Financial Economics--Leroy and Werner
A Random Walk Down Wall Street--Malkiel
Investments--BKM
Statistical Analysis of Financial Data in S-Plus—Carmona
etc.

Programming component of the program
We need to use R and S-Plus for some courses.
Many students choose courses in C++ as well.

Projects
We have both individual and group projects. For example, some courses would require a research paper by the end of the semester and some courses would ask students to give presentations.

Career services
We would get a lot of information from career service and whenever we want, we could always have mock interviews.

What do you like about the program?
A good combination of academic studies and preparation for future career.

What don't you like about the program?
The township is little bit too quiet, compared to NYC and other big cities.

Suggestion to the program
Provide fellowship.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Will do a summer internship in IBD.

Student body
Very diversified students background. There are a lot of interations between different ethnics groups.

Besides the program's websites, what alternative sources of info you used to learn more about the program?
Forum: Global Derivatives-Higher Education

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
12 years of work experience in private equity and venture capital.
I studied full-time in the program from 9/2008-5/2010

Did you get admitted to other programs?
Columbia
MIT

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Quality of professors.
Course options.
Past career placement success.

Tell us about the application process at this program
Reasonable application process. Interview required for final part of application.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Yes. Math boot camp. Particularly useful for me as I had been away from school for so long.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Fixed income (very rigorous)
Risk management
Financial crises
Behavioral finance
Stochastic calculus

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Fantastic professors. Excellent TA's (very helpful with homework).

Materials used in the program
A few textbooks. Mostly faculty notes and academic papers.

Programming component of the program
C++
R
Matlab
Mathematica
Programming requirements vary based upon curriculum choices.

Projects
Both individual and group projects.
Option of conducting independent research with a professor for 1 or 2 terms.

Career service
Dedicated career service staff.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Group very international (<20% from U.S.) Strong representation from Europe, Asia and South America.

What do you like about the program?
Small class so very personalized service from the faculty and staff.

What DON’T you like about the program?
More course flexibility in the first year.

Suggestions for the program to make it better
With small class size, could probably offer more scholarships for tuition.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Asset and Portfolio Management
Offer pending.