University of Chicago - Master in Finance

Biggest Value-Add

The most valuable part of the Booth MiF experience is the network it unlocks. Booth’s alumni base is deeply embedded across all top firms in finance, and they are incredibly responsive and willing to help. Before even starting my program, I ran a broad networking campaign and was able to get on calls with roughly 15–20% of the people I reached out to - which is virtually unheard of, even when compared with top undergraduate finance clubs at elite schools. The Booth name truly opens doors, and people go out of their way to pay it forward.

Because the program is still in its early stages, the placement outcomes are spread widely across high finance - investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, quant trading, corporate development, and beyond. It’s not narrowly defined as an “IB” or “Quant” feeder yet, but that diversity is a strength. Booth MiF students are landing roles across the full spectrum of finance.

I also speak with 4–5 prospective or incoming students every week, and many are international. Booth has done an exceptional job supporting them - from setting up expedited admissions timelines so they can recruit at major firms earlier, to offering dedicated visa guidance, sponsorship strategy sessions, and targeted career workshops. The infrastructure for international students here is among the best I’ve seen.

Lastly, Booth’s career services are world-class. Scheduling is seamless, the coaches are industry veterans, and they genuinely invest in your success. They even met with me before the program started - outside normal hours - to fine-tune my interview prep ahead of my EB Superday. Their insights made a real difference.

Program is decent but mostly on your own. I interviewed 30+ firms this cycle (JS, 2 Sigma, Citadel, DE Shaw, IMC, AQR, SIG, BH etc), and received 8 offers including two from top hedge funds mentioned above.

For the Summer of 2025, we have people recruiting for quant roles received offers from firms like Point72, Two Sigma, Citi, Goldman Sachs, BAML, DB, and top commodities trading houses like CCI and Gerald.

In my case, I was allocated two internal referrals for quant roles, and most people around me also received some resources such as exclusive 1-on-1 mock interviews, 1-1 coffee chats with senior member of the firm like the MD of citadel or jump, and internal referrals. All these are from the program’s dedicated career support.

I would say the support coming from the program is 35%, which is still quiet high, and the rest is on my own.

Curriculums:

4 required courses (ACCT, Investment, Corp Fin, ML). The ML course is pretty useful and cover basically all you need for QR interviews. It's taught by Dacheng Xiu, literally the best financial ML scholar today.

For electives, you can tailor your classes to fit any track you’re interested in. I'm for quant and all in PhD-level courses in statistics, finance, and OM, all of which are excellent. PhD Courses like Asset Pricing taught by LPH, Probability and stats, Stochastic Optimization, and Convex Optimization are particularly useful for interviews. They also leave some options for PhD, which is great.

Job Placement and support:

Program received $60M in funding from AQR, which provides some preferential opportunities for our students. also internal referrals from top mutual funds and Booth alumni hedge funds. However, beyond these , job support is fairly average. We dont have program career fairs but can only participate in the Uni-wise. Some info and network session though with Seniors from Citadel, GS, KKR, BX, AQR, NorthernTrust but still mostly will not have any meratialized benefits. Most students are on their own for the majority of the job search process.


Peers:

Overall great but with extremely high variance. Many classmates come from like Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Uchicago, and with impressive internships at BB Snt, BB QR, BB IBD, Top 3 PE etc. But there are also peers from relatively poor background who struggle to secure interviews and keep up with the coursework, which is common ofc.


Overall:

Booth has a wide alu base and great reputation in HF and mutual funds. That says, if you are good enough and have been trained rigorously during undergrad, you will get plenty of interviews for sure particularly from top HFs and a good chance of landing a position. Howe