University of Illinois Urbana Champaign - Master of Financial Engineering

The MSFE program emphasizes practical, technical skill development, and the program director is highly responsible and supportive of students’ career goals. The existing practicum is valuable, but more opportunities for industry-level projects would make the experience even stronger. Students may get less competitive when applying for positions in New York because of the location and the existing high competitions near New York area.

Currently working as an part-time intern Options Trader. My experience with the program was very positive. We have a dedicated Director who genuinely cares about his students and is always willing to help them succeed in their future careers. The overall pacing of the program was intense but very manageable. The first semester starts with foundational courses to get your feet wet, while the second semester is where your skills, passion, and resilience are truly put to the test. This is also when most students enroll in the “Practicum Project,” where we work on practical projects sponsored by well-known companies like JP Morgan and CME.

In my opinion, the practicum project is what makes the program stand out, as not many MFE-type programs offer students a similar opportunity. It’s a win-win no matter what — you gain practical coursework you can showcase on your resume and have the chance to network with industry professionals. The quality of students is varied, but I see this as an advantage: if you truly stand out, your chances of landing a job are even greater relative to your cohort.

The core courses of the program are very rich in derivatives, so if that’s something you’re interested in (as I am), you’ll find yourself constantly eager to learn more.

With that, I want to conclude by saying this: as long as you have the passion and discipline to better yourself every day, you will truly be successful in this program — and you will be rewarded. Taking courses alone will not land you a job, but applying what you’ve learned and putting in the work beyond university coursework will.

The overall experience within UIUC's MSFE program is very positive. I've had gotten the opportunity to get hands on experience with projects that are far more closely tied to real world applications than what I would've expected within a Master's program. The application process was more straightforward for me as I have done my undergraduate within UIUC as well. What most surprises me about this program is that with specific courses like IE421 and FIN556, you get access to real CME and NYSE data which you can create strategies for. The unique thing is that it is the actual packet data, letting you dig really close into what really goes on in executing fast HFT trading strategies that can be optimized within a few nanoseconds. I think this alone grants this program is a pretty good spot but additionally, getting to work with industry professionals with the practicum projects is really helpful in learning how quantitative research work is like in the professional space. If you are interested in doing a more techincal career in quant, be it in technology within quant or HFT, I think this program is a pretty good fit for you.

I am one of the Class of 2025.

This is an overall a good program. The courses are all good, covering from risk, quant research, to derivatives pricing(structure notes). If you are interested in quant development, you can also find a place here.

The director is really pushing us to find a job, and providing real opportunities. For now, the students who have found us summer internships, got either referral by director or recommended to alumni. Also, I talked about the program size with our director, and he insisted that he would control the program size in a reasonable number, making sure that every student is taking good care of.

I have to mention that, during the second semester we have a practicum project, which allows us to do a thesis sponsored by some famous companies, which is definitely an outstanding experience that you can talk about when you interview.

I would recommend the High Frequency Trading Tech course.It builds me an experience to land a quant dev intern.
Also the HackerIllinois is the activity I highly recommend.
Do more project or real trading practice is the thing i have learned.

I would highly recommend this program for student who cares about career, courses and program size.

The MSFE program is now led by professor Feng, who is the best director I have ever seen. I think most issues previously mentioned no longer seem to be a concern. While many enrolled students may not initially appear exceptional enough to secure top market positions, the program still provides equal/more opportunities to enter prestigious banks and hedge funds.

In the second semester, there is a practicum project where HR and R&D departments from top banks like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs,etc.. give projects to students and guide them to achieve specific industry targets.(In our class there is 6 projects given by differnt companies) Four students from our class were hired directly by HRs from top companies immediately after completing the project. Please note that the job position was difficult to find than normal because of covid19, but they still did it. Such opportunities are very very rare in other colleges in my understanding.

For those bad reviewers: Before you criticize this program for not being good enough or having poor job placement rates, ask yourself why you weren't admitted to NYU, Baruch College, or any other "good" MSFE project. Is it because you didn't want to go? No, it's because you weren't good enough. Reflect on your own shortcomings. If you believe your abilities are on par with students from those top schools, this program offers you ample opportunities, or even more additional opportunities, to achieve your quantitative finance goal in your career plan.

I would rate the quality of students as 3 or 4 stars because you will have roughly 5-6 very good colleagues, but there are some poor students, like most ones who provided the negative review. I don't think that's an issue, at least for me 3-4 friend with excellent ability is sufficient for me. You are the master to decide where your future should go.

MSFE in UIUC has great course arrangement and the course has great improvement of my skills in quant, data analyst, risk modeling those field. Besides, the program has practicum which means intern opportunity provided by the program to work in practice situation and that opportunity may give return offer when you act perfectly impressed the company staff.

I’m a current student in MSFE, and I will graduate in December 2020. From my experience in UIUC, I believe the program provides a great opportunity for students who are seeking to make contributions in financial engineering industry but don’t have comprehensive knowledge on finance or computer science background. The curriculum setting is very helpful that includes various topics that follow the popular trend in financial industry. Such as risk management, derivative pricing, machine learning, and more relevant topics that many companies in financial industry focus on. MSFE provides essential knowledge in financial engineering, and the flexibility for students to explore their interests of specific area in financial engineering. Except the require classes are set in first two classes, you can also choose the class you like in third semester. After enrolled in this program, I certainly have improvement on my academic path!

I am an alumni graduated at December 2018, and after 2 months then I landed a job in Chicago. The general employment rate is good for our class. Most of our classmates received offers from January to March. Quite a lot concentrated in quantitative finance related positions, others include like sales and trade, data science and analytic roles etc. U of I is quite competitive in great chicago area, where many big-name finance companies located at. In recent years, we witnessed some continuous progress and changes in this MSFE program, e.g. some courses are more focusing on industry related topics, other than just theory and formula based courses. Honestly, there are still long way to go for this program to be a top level one. But my recommendation is, if you can get admission or offer from a MFE program in CMU, MIT and Princeton or other programs at this level, definitely go to these programs. If you choose U of I, don't get frustrated, you still have a great chance to land a good job!

I looked at other FE program's reviews too but didn't find a program that has reviews like here. The reviews are attacking each other and some are highly subjective. A bit of everything makes the curriculum sound very balanced but it basically means nothing for a second thought. We all know that we need some concentration instead of brief knowledge of everything. Yes please give HONEST and FAIR feedback. And don't get it too emotional. A bad review doesn't mean a lack of honesty and fairness. Instead bad reviews let people think, adjust and make the program better. When I was comparing different Quantitative finance programs, I also looked at the data that got published. At lease the employment rates of recent graduates revealed that this program has a long way to go.

I graduated in 2015 and currently work in Chicago. Here's my two cents on the program:
Strength:
- Well rounded curriculum
Having graduated and met with other people of similar programs, I feel our program offers a very well-balanced academic curriculum: a bit of statistics, a bit of programming, and a bit of finance, all in the first semester. I've read reviews where people think the finance courses are useless, but in my experience, those courses gave me good small talk material during interviews to show my interest in the field.
- U of I has strong pull on employers
This is different from our program's career services, more on that later. Most people come to a Masters program with one thing in mind: a better job. In this sense, U of I has plenty of resources available for that: in my day, there were 3 career fairs a semester, with more than 200 companies coming to each of them. Having been on the hiring side going to other schools in my recent years, I can tell you UofI's pull is as strong as any of them.
Weakness:
-Career Services
So it was surprising to me when the students are not exactly taking advantage of the career opportunities provided. I think it could have been a combination of the student demographic and negligence of the program on career counselling; but when school started I was one of the few people that went to career fairs in September. Given that most companies finish intern hiring in the fall nowadays, when spring comes many of my peers were scrambling to find an internship.
-Location
Situated in Champagne makes it difficult network with alum and professionals. The programs does try to remedy this with a colloquium set in Chicago, but I don't think it's enough. With that being said, the curriculum did give you enough time to network on your own though: I flew myself to New York to meet with people, and met up with alum in Chicago for coffee chats when I could. Like all things in life, you just have to make the right trade offs: getting important industry knowledge outweighed missing one assignment mark.

Final thoughts:
For the initiated student, UofI has a lot of opportunities to offer; but none of them will be spoon-fed to you. I think the program can strengthen itself in terms of alumni connections, and educating students on the job market during orientation. I don't think having a lot of international students is a problem (I was one), but their expectations needs to be adjusted.

I can't believe there's a review calling this program a fraud. Hey, I don't know what universe you are from, but in this one, it's a fabulous Master's program, where you can learn much more than what's enough to get you a decent job in quantitative finance. And Dr. Lane is always doing his best to make great use of our tuition, providing networking opportunities, elective classes and even hotel accommodations in Chicago.

Sorry if I got a bit too emotional here, but my point is, MSFE at UIUC is a great program where you have a well selected list of courses covering a wide range of knowledge in quantitative finance, such as statistics, derivatives, risk management, etc. The academic training is also paired with professional projects from industry partners. Most professors are extremely good at teaching and even world-famous. To be honest, I did encounter one professor not so dedicated in the course, but the problem got well-addressed by the program. In that case, giving HONEST and FAIR feedback is important, and naturally it takes time for the program to address the problem, and that doesn't mean the director does't take it seriously.

Also it's not true that we only have 1 elective. in the third semester you choose all your 4 courses from a list of finance and engineering courses...including courses from UIUC's well-respected CS department.
A bit more flexibility in the first 2 semesters sounds good, but honestly in the first 2 semesters, the required courses are all fundamental ones in quantitative finance, and you really need to take them if you want to understand what your colleagues are talking about later in the work place.

Overall, great program with dedicated crew, decent professors, and a lot to offer for the tuition. It's also a great place to make some lifelong friends.

Many courses are designed only for MSFE students, and cover wide range of topics, such as risk, derivatives, programming. Practicum can also help gain much precious experience from industry.

The overall program is fine. However, I would have to agree with the review below about elective courses. According to my best knowledge, a lot of MFE programs nowadays offer different tracks for students with different interest in the industry. UIUC is a decent school (especially when we are talking about computer science) with many great courses offered, making it quite a shame that MSFE students could not customize their own tracks and take courses in their own interest in the first two semesters. I believe it would be really beneficial if future batches of students can get more electives.

If I could, I will give a zero to this program. The director of the program is a fraud. The whole program is a way he cheats money. The whole project is of no help to professionalism. What you do every day is just taking class. Besides, the quality of the teacher is bad, and even widely criticized on the Internet, but he still insists that every student must take this class. For non financial majors, though you can apply, he will also admit you for money. But you don't get the promotion you want because they think you're an expert in finance and unfairness to different majors is a performance of a "professional program". After this program, you are still a novice in finance, and you will continue unable to code well.

1. Two fundamental courses provided on first semester waste so much time and they are actually not so useful.
2. The statistics and computing courses are actually "touch" so many fields. Without a detailed explanation with how and why we use these, I am wondering if anyone could still know how to do these when they really take interviews or work.
3. Extremely expensive tuition. U of I actually is located in a small town and we got no advantages when finding jobs but the tuition is incredible high and almost the same with most private U.
4. Too much international student(including me) and homeworks that everybody works on the homework every week. Students really need some freedom to work on their weak. Some needs to work on programming while some need time to passing CFA or FRM exams.Students are actually exhausted and have no time to develop.
5. Some of the professors gave no patient to students while some even do not show up in the office hours.

As a current MSFE student, I really like this program. Class size is relatively small. The curriculum is very well structured. The program is very intense. Dr. Lane and other staff members are doing their best to provide us networking opportunities.

Intensive coursework, excellent professors, can learn everything needed. There are cutting edge stuffs including most advanced derivative valuation models, most prevailing numerical methods, machine learning technics and so on while very fundamental yet profound knowledges in programing, finance, math, stat and economics are also provided.

As a current student, I am finding this program extremely well structured. There is a specific focus and attention given to the program in terms of what is taught and how the curriculum can be directly linked to the current financial world.
The program gives access to both engineering and business career fairs with a widest range of options in positions and companies to choose from.
Morton Lane is the director and is pro actively involved in creating networking opportunities for students. The practitioner series is one step in that direction.
The program is rigorous, tough and demanding but I definitely see excellent prospects for students.

Excellent experience.
The practicum choice in the second semester gives MSFE students a valuable opportunity to cooperate with companies and gain real world experience in financial engineering industry. It is really helpful for MSFE students to find an internship or a full time job in US. A lot of students of class 2014 have found internships in US this summer.

I graduated from the program in 2011. Since after then, I have met people from other comparable programs through work or social networking.

I would like the comment that this program really hits the sweet spot in terms of elegantly balancing course work between academic rigorousness and industrial practicality by connecting world class engineering school resource with strong (and evolving) exposure to financial industry experience in Chicago as well as elsewhere. I am very glad to have made such a decision to go to UIUC MSFE.