University of Washington - MS Computational Finance & Risk Management

Please provide information about your background.
3.54/5 overall, 4.1/5 professional. Major in Financial Engineering.
Did you get admitted to other programs?
Yes, Fordham, Rutgers, SMU, Alabama, Uconn
Why did you choose this program?
The program has strong applied Math background and Statistic oriented. Also faculties are very awesome.
Tell us about the quality of teaching.
Very good. Workload is a little overwhelming, However, I got a lot coding experiences, which is very useful in job hunting.
What is unique about this program?
1. Focus on R programming, which is increasingly popular and very cool.
2. Practical oriented curriculum set. We do some practical oriented project, such as designing a portfolio strategy, doing becktesting and competing final return with classmates, also pricing options by numeric.
What are any weaknesses in this program?
Workload is heavy and study pace is really fast. I didn’t have enough time to deeply dig some point you interested in. Also, if you didn’t have a good schedule and strong motivation to push you executing your plan, you may feel bad.
What was your experience like with career services?
I thinks the career services is good enough. It truly provide me and my classmates a lot of opportunities, even though the companies are not all big names and the positions are not all what you like. I have to admit the career services of our program do their best with the limited recourses.
What is the student body like?
Math, Engineering and stats is primary. One or two are finance
Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Let the students close to live markets and pay an attention to the markest. Maybe set up a trading floor and let all the students form a mock assets management company, each acting as a role in that company and running a mock fund continuously from every beginning to their graduate.

Before joining the CFRM program, I had a Bachelor of Science major in Statistics, minor in Mathematics. I felt the basic statistics skills were not enough for me, I wanted to apply my statistics and mathematics knowledge in my favorite field - finance. Since I studied my undergraduate degree in the University of Washington, I got chance to sit in the CFRM classes, the live discussion and materials taught there were really appealing to me. My friend who was a PhD at UW was taking the CFRM classes and gave me very positive feedback too. CFRM program became my top choice.

Quality of teaching is great, the instructors are very helpful. Instructors use class time very efficiently and assign meaningful assignments. Outside classroom instructors and TAs give a lot of extra help. All the lectures are recorded and available online, which becomes very handy for review.

CFRM program offers us seminars, career coaching events, networking events, student clubs. Those activities outside classroom provide different perspectives of learning knowledge, connecting us with what is happening in the world. Students like me who like to participate in organizing such events also get a chance to gain leadership skills.

My classmates were friendly and with different backgrounds, which allow us always have something to learn from each other. Faculties and staffs were very helpful, especially when students look for internships and jobs. I got my first internship in a financial company during my second quarter in CFRM program, after 3 months of internship I was offered a full time job. Because the flexibility of CFRM curriculum, I could work full time in the day and go to classes at night, the materials were also available online. Without the things I learn from the program and the help from professors, I could not be offered a job while I was still studying the degree especially during years when economy was not that good. I was really thankful to everybody in the program.

After obtaining my Master's degree from CFRM, I got an even better job offer from Microsoft. I am current a forecasting model specialist, leveraging many things I learned in CFRM program such as financial modeling, I think the 2 years I spent with CFRM were definitely worthy and significant to my future.

The well-balanced blend of theoretical and practical finance which comprises the University of Washington's M.S. program in Computational Finance and Risk Management resoundingly met my objective of pursuing a quantitatively based career in finance. The curriculum is highly analytical and rigorous without being overly abstract. Theory is combined with application to ensure that concepts are not only deeply understood, but also can be used in the field. I found that the mix of academics and industry professionals in the faculty was extremely helpful in preparing for a wide range of positions in the finance industry while remaining on the cutting edge of financial theory and statistical applications. The program focus on portfolio analysis and risk management (using R) is one of several aspects that sets the CFRM program apart from many other quantitative finance programs. The CFRM faculty and staff are committed to providing students with a comprehensive experience: offering seminars from leading academics and practitioners, bringing in outside consultants to prepare students for the process of finding and getting a job, and sponsoring finance-based events in the community. My participation in this program has undoubtedly enhanced my financial research and analysis skills. I highly recommend the M.S. program to someone looking to develop or improve their knowledge and abilities in quantitative finance and financial programming.

I was working as a Managing Director of Research at Parametric and decided to try the CFRM program. My background is in Physics and even with 15 years experience and a CFA I found the program at the UW to be extremely useful at work. The MS in Computational Finance and Risk Management at the UW has the Applied Mathematics department as its home, and consequently provides a very strong foundation in the statistical and analytical concepts of quantitative finance. However, the ability to solve a partial differential equation or derive the Black-Scholes model alone won't land you a job or help you keep it. What this program does to help prepare students for a successful career in quantitative finance is create a solid link between theory and practice. It accomplishes this through a focus on R programming, a specific course on electronic trading, and through the faculty which are a healthy mix of academics with industry experience and leading industry professionals contributing their knowledge and experience as Affiliate Instructors. Highly recommended to people who are new to investing and to those who have significant experience.

I had an undergraduate degree in Math/Econ before joining the CFRM program. I was admitted to other programs, but I choose CFRM for the Impressive curriculum, the experienced faculties, and since I’ve set my vocational goal in China, I’m thankful that I could explore the local market and at the same time have the opportunity to be able to achieve the same MS degree as on-campus UW students.

The Computational Finance Certificate program has been very intense, and I was overwhelmed at first. Because I live in China it was a little hard at first for me to be as in-sync as other on-campus MS-CFRM degree students, especially with the group projects. But later on with the help of my group members and other peers, and with all the discussions we had in the online General Discussion Forum and emails, I was able to catch up and understand.

The TA recorded office hours were particularly helpful. This is because the time difference between China and Seattle made it almost impossible for me to attend the live online hours. I could always watch the recordings of the TA sessions and email the TA’s or professors whenever I was confused. The instructors and the TAs were very quick to respond and as a consequence I always able to get my problems solved in time.

The course projects experience was very helpful in my intern and job hunting, including the last project in AMATH 543 which helped me impress the recruiter. I really love the fact that we get to practice on real-market problems. It is good to see that one of my suggestions for improvement by adding more courses with a more balanced workload has been incorporated into the curriculum.

The CFRM definitely deserves a 5-star rating, I have just completed this degree and these past 1.5 years in the program have prepared me well for the industry.

• Please provide information about your background.
Before joining the CFRM program, I had a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering degree and I had been working in that field for 3 years.

• Did you get admitted to other programs?
No

• Why did you choose this program?
Tuition fee was among the least as compared to other programs. One of my friends was already doing a PhD at UW when I applied, so I thought it would be easy for me live in Seattle.

• Tell us about the quality of teaching.
Quality of Teaching is great. Instructors are really helpful. Large emphasis is given to the homework assignments which are meaningful and add a lot to the learning. The program offers almost a perfect balance of breadth and depth in the field of quantitative finance.

• What is unique about this program?
All the lectures are recorded and available online. This becomes really handy later on, as you can continue to do internship/work and attend the school at the same time.

• What are any weaknesses in this program?
When I was attending this program, it was still evolving and the syllabus of some courses wasn't very comprehensive. Now, with feedback from students, it's more thorough and offers several elective courses.

• What was your experience like with career services?
Being a new program, there is a slight disadvantage when you apply for jobs and the career fair at UW doesn't get many finance firms. But the faculty and program adviser work hard to get you interviews and get placed. Overall, my experience with the career services was good.

• What is the student body like?
I was shy and didn't interact much with my class in person, but the online discussion forums were great. Several online students were working professionals and their perspective added a lot to the knowledge.

• Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Most of the courses in first year have smaller assignments and no big projects. So when you apply for internships, you don't have much to write on your resume. It's difficult to implement, but I feel if there was a way of doing some meaningful projects in the first year itself then it would add a lot of value to the resume and give you a great point to talk about in an interview.

• What is your current job status?
Currently, I'm working as an intern at Research Affiliates LLC, Newport Beach, CA.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I had an undergraduate degree in EE, a MS degree in Transportation Planning and worked as a consultant in transportation infrastructure planning for 2 years before joining the CFRM program.

Did you get admitted to other programs?
I applied for CFRM program only.

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Initially, I chose this program because my family was in Seattle, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Tell us about the application process at this program.
Just submitted application material according to the instructions listed on the program website and the result came by email.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
The program offers a variety of refresher courses, including probability & statistics, R programming and introduction to capital markets so that students coming from different backgrounds can be better prepared for the program.

Tell us about the quality of teaching.
The more theoretical courses are taught by professors from the academia while the practically-oriented courses are mostly taught by experienced professionals from the industry. The instructors are very familiar with the topics they are teaching and often offer insights of their own besides covering the standard textbook material.

What is unique about this program?
The program is extremely flexible in that aside from a few core courses, the student is free to choose their combination of elective courses to achieve their own goals under the assistance of the program advisor, such as a computing pathway or a risk management pathway. As the name of the program suggests, the program has an abundance of courses concerning risk management, which has become a central topic in the industry after the financial crisis.

What are any weaknesses in this program?
This is a relatively new program so the alumni network may not be as developed as some of the older programs. However, the program has been working very hard at building networks with the industry.

What was your experience like with career services?
Besides the standard career services, such as job postings and resume revising, the program also have a 3-day interview coaching session given by professional interview coaches. The program is especially active in marketing the students to local firms for internship and full-time employment opportunities.

Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Regarding the course material, I would like to see an addition of operational risk management course in the curriculum.

What is your current job status?
I am currently a PhD student in Applied Mathematics at University of Washington focusing on the understanding and quantitative modeling of systemic risk in the financial system. The inspiration, knowledge and skill sets I acquired from the CFRM program definitely prepared me well to study this exciting area with both theoretical and practical implications.

To be direct, the Computational Finance & Risk Management program at the University of Washington was worth every penny. The program helped me learn the tools required to succeed as a financial modeler while helping me find an internship and a full time job in an interesting industry.

I was first enrolled during June of 2011 and I graduated in June of 2013 for a total of two years in the program. I started as a full time in class student, transitioned to a full time online student and then transitioned again to a part time online student after I started working full time. Overall, the University of Washington was very accommodating as my personal situation evolved.

The difference between the online path and the in class path is minimal, with the only real differences being in communication (online vs in person) and test taking. The drawback in test taking is the inability to ask real time questions during the exams as the questions need to be routed through a proctor and a response is usually not immediate. Lectures are recorded and available to both online and in class students. Discussion sessions and office hours are also recorded and posted online. Real time chat is available during all sessions for online students and the instructors are very responsive to the chat. Homework is typically submitted online and there is very active and helpful homework discussion in the online discussion forum. As a student who spent time in person and online, I am very happy with my online experience and I do not feel like I missed anything due to that situation.

The program did a great job in teaching the most relevant skills for use right out of school. Courses cover both practical and theoretical concepts so I could apply the tools I was taught while understanding their theoretical limitations and nuances. Instruction started by talking about what the typical methodologies are, then it covered the shortfalls in those methodologies and then solutions were presented that overcome the shortfalls and result in theoretically sound models that are decently accurate in practice. Since so much of quantitative finance deals with uncertainty, quite a bit of statistical theory is covered. Proofs of theorems and equations are required but only to the extent that they help with the understanding of the topic. I never felt like I was being forced to do busy work that wasn’t helping me learn.

In additional to finance and statistics, a fair amount of programming concepts are introduced. In this program I learned how to program in C++ (which covered most relevant object oriented programming concepts) and in R. In fact, this program allowed me to gain such proficiency in R that I am now considered to be the resident R expert in our team of about 25 people.

The faculty is world class. They are genuinely interested in the coursework and they are committed to helping students succeed. Plus they’re just really, really smart people.

This program provided me with sound education in the topics of finance, statistics and programming that allowed me to secure a job that offers interesting work at a pay rate far above what I could have obtained with a standard undergraduate degree. I am very happy with my outcome from this program.

I have always been fascinated about the use of the technology and math in practice and how it drives innovation and makes things happen. Financial Engineering, as such a field, best fits to my professional goals. After thorough research, I have decided on the University of Washington's CFRM program that provides a certificate as well as a Master’s program (offered by prestigious Department of Applied Math at UW). I thought it would be great to enter the field through a certificate program and then move onto Masters if I find it fitting my education and career goals. The certificate program was very rewarding and challenging. It utilizes both theory and practice in a balanced and engaging way. The program provides a strong foundation especially for those like me with no finance background and I found it very rewarding to learn new technology like R. The course instructors were extremely competent in their field of expertise and enabled a positive and interactive learning environment. I decided to further my education in the Masters program and I am very excited to pursue the challenge.

I have finished all of my course work for a Masters in Computational Finance and Risk Management at the University of Washington. I will be getting my degree in December of 2013. I have completed this degree while working at full time job in California.

I have been fascinated by finance for many years. For two years I worked in computational finance. Although I did a lot of reading, looking back after my Masters work at the University of Washington, I realize that I knew very little then.

The Computational Finance and Risk Management (CFRM) at the University of Washington has given me a solid foundation that I will use for many years in the future. The course work has been extremely rigorous and challenging. In every course my professors have also been there to help me succeed. I feel extremely lucky to have had such fine teachers.

The CFRM program has given me a very solid education in financial statistics, derivatives and computer techniques for derivatives pricing. The program offers a Monte Carlo modeling class for derivatives pricing which is one of the best and most challenging courses I have ever taken.

The program focuses heavily on R programming and they have recently expanded their software offerings, which is critical for anyone working in finance.

The CFRM program is a pioneer in distance education. The CFRM education is the same for distance students as it is for those on the Seattle campus. The courses are all recorded and available on-line. The TA sessions are also on-line and, in some cases the professors office hours are offered on-line as well. The professors and the TAs also answer questions on the class discussion board. A few other schools are only now starting to catch up in providing a distance learning environment.

I have enjoyed getting to know my fellow students. They are all, without exception, extremely smart and dedicated students.

I will always be grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a graduate student in the CFRM program.

Early in my investment career I knew that I would benefit from going back to graduate school, but I didn’t find a program that matched my interests focusing on risk, portfolio construction, and statistics. Several years later I read about UW Applied Mathematics offering an online Certificate in Computational Finance. UW distinguished itself from other programs by focusing on exactly on these areas of interest. I looked carefully into the quality of the instructors and faculty and was impressed by their academics and business experience, so I signed up for the Certificate program, taking one class at a time. My first two classes vastly exceeded my expectations for both course contents and instructor quality. One thing that I hadn’t expected was the high quality of students in my classes, which included many industry professionals. Based on my very positive experience in the certificate program, I applied for and was admitted to the first cohort in the online version of the new MS-degree program in Computational Finance and Risk Management. During the MS program I studied portfolio construction under Doug Martin, financial econometrics from Eric Zivot, investment modeling from Guy Yollin, and risk management from three practitioners. UW’s MS-CFRM program has already opened new doors for me. I was fortunate to simultaneously have two very good buy-side job offers to choose between. I’m currently working at a large well-known firm and every day I’m leveraging the combination of my prior professional experience and what I learned in the UW programs. I couldn’t be happier with my experience.

B. Ertley, Senior Risk Manager

The University of Washington Computational Finance and Risk Management (CFRM) M.S. program rates “five stars”.

I am a "distance student" from New York State who began in the computational finance program and am now completing requirements for the M.S. degree in CFRM.

As an actuarial student and an employee of a global investment firm, I was looking for a quantitative finance program with intensive training in R programming. That is what led me to enter the Computational Finance Certificate Program at UW. The professors and teaching assistants are outstanding, really dedicated to education. The culture of teachers and students is tremendously supportive, giving needed help to students to pass through "mind stretching" exercises of both a theoretical and practical nature. It was this culture that empowered me to succeed in my coursework and in finding new opportunities to contribute at work. In a period of “white-water” change with “big data” rapidly transforming the world of business, I find I have the skills I need to analyze complex problems. The mathematical, statistical and programming skills I can now bring to the table as a result of my UW education allow me to navigate in new and developing areas of data analytics. I find I am equipped for success.

In addition to the very clear and outstanding benefits of this UW education already and very ably addressed by others who have been in the CFRM program, I would like to mention some "intangibles" that really add value to an already great UW education. There is a pervasive environment of ethics and integrity that helps one focus on the importance of good values in addition to technical proficiency. This is a very important part of a financial education that cannot be stressed enough. And this ethics extends into a culture of people really going the “extra mile” to help others. There is a sense of teachers and students really reaching out to help one another. My UW experience has been simply the best educational experience I have ever had.

Although the outstanding nature of the professors has been mentioned, I would like to share one anecdote regarding that topic. Many years ago, when I was in high school or early in college I became discouraged at my seemingly slow progress in mathematics. Somewhere I read a quote that the great statistician John Tukey sometimes took an hour to read a page of mathematics and it inspired me to continue. It turns out that CFRM director Professor Doug Martin was a student and colleague of John Tukey's. It seemed as if John Tukey was still there inspiring me to continue through the encouraging help of the professors at UW. It has been wonderful.

I will be completing the online MS CFRM in a few months. The level of help and support given by almost all the faculty in courses have exceeded my expectations. The curriculum includes many rigorous courses which help a student gain strong knowledge of quantitative finance. Providing same level of support to Online students as on campus students is something i greatly like about this course.

I am about to complete the online MS-CFRM with many years of experience working on quantitative analysis in different fields. In what regards to finance programs, there are many good options, but I feel the M.S. Degree in Computational Finance and Risk Management in Washington University is unique and perfect in many aspects. Impressive curriculum, no better way to learn than by practicing with R, very convenient by allowing me to watch the classes at any time and review them as needed, highly qualified professors, excellent support with Teacher Assistants, share knowledge/questions/answers with other students, and finally and very important, in a prestigious university. It is a challenging program and I enjoy learning from it. Definitely, this M.S. Degree has been one of the best decision in my life. There are no words to express my gratitude to my Professors and Teaching Assistants.

I recently (Spring 2013) completed the online CFRM certificate program and I am now enrolled in the full-time MS-CFRM program. My background is engineering where I received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and have worked as an energy engineer for the past 5 years. I had always been interested in quantitative finance and decided to make the career move and attend the University of Washington to prepare me. I could not be happier with my decision.

My first interaction with staff and students of the program was at the R/Finance conference in 2012. They were a sponsor of the conference and several students were at the conference as well. The staff I spoke with were very helpful answering my questions and the students had nothing but good things to say about the program. The R/Finance is a great opportunity to speak with folks in the finance industry as well as meet students and professors from the program.

I started the certificate program in Fall 2012 and completed it in Spring 2013. I completed the certificate program online while I was working full time. As an online student, I never felt like I was on an island or disconnected from the rest of the class. The lectures were streamed live as well as recorded so that students could watch the lectures at a later date. I watched some lectures live and was able to ask questions via a chat window which was a very helpful feature. The professors and teaching assistants were very accommodating to the online students and would hold office hours on evenings and over the weekends so that it did not interfere with work schedules. The TAs and professors were very active and engaged in the online discussion forums with students, which led to some excellent discussions that expanded on the material we learned in class through lectures and how some were applying it in practice in the industry.

The certificate program challenged me to develop a stronger understanding of the theoretical concepts and then apply that theory using sophisticated concepts and techniques in R using packages that are developed and used by industry practitioners. The applications in R programming included everything from time series modeling to modern portfolio optimization. Through the certificate program, I had the opportunity to participate in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and contribute to an R package developed for portfolio optimization called PortfolioAnalytics. My experience in GSoC far exceeded my expectations, I learned a lot from the project mentors about portfolio optimization using standard linear and quadratic programming solvers as well as using differential evolution and random portfolios to solve complex portfolio optimization problems. The project was mentored by two UW CFRM professors and an industry practitioner.

The certificate program did an excellent job teaching R. I was familiar with R before I started the program, but learned a lot in terms of good program design and how to use R for applications in quantitative finance. With a good foundation of R, I was able to understand basic C++ fairly quickly and even contributed a few articles to the Rcpp gallery.

In Fall 2013, I left my full-time engineering job and moved to Seattle for the on campus MS-CFRM program. It has been a great move so far and I am enjoying the classes. The professors, teaching assistants, and students are very friendly and welcoming. I had some reservations about leaving my job to go back to school, but it is one of the best decisions I have made. The CFRM Certificate Program was an excellent stepping stone to prepare me for the full time MS-CFRM.

I am a recent graduate from the CF&RM at UW (class of 2012) and I am currently working at a pension fund in Texas. In my view, the CF&RM is a 5-star program. It is a 5-star program because it offers eveything a student would need to pursue a career in the financial industry. The program equips students with a very strong background in mathematics, statistics, programming and the financial concepts required in industry; which I believe are essential skillsets needed when starting a career in this field. Students will learn both theoretical concepts and will be exposed to practical applications taught by academic professors and industry practitioners alike.
The knowledge base learned at school has made me feel very comfortable and at ease when applying it at work. I have found this to be especially true when working in areas that demanded strong and deep knowledge in portfolio optimization, asset allocation and quantitative risk management.
Having attended the CF&RM at the University of Washington has been one of the best decisions I have made in my career! I would highly recommend prospective students give the CF&RM at the University of Washington a hard look!

I was admitted into the program in 2012. The program has been excellent thus far and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. The classes were interactive and professors are very supportive and encouraging. They are not only helping us with the course work, but also provide excellent advice in career planning. In fact, they have a dedicated staff to help students find right internships and full-time offers. We also have industry faculty from Blackrock, and Russell Investments, which was very helpful in understanding real world examples of the financial models. With the quarter system in University of Washington, the course can get intense towards the end of the quarter.

Overall, I’m very happy to have gone through the program and now I’m working as a Risk Management Intern in the risk oversight division of a public utility company. I’d highly recommend to anyone who has a strong background in mathematics and has a keen interest in finance.

UW CF&RM program definitely deserves a 5-star rating for its well-designed curriculum, excellent faculty and great career service. I came from a pure finance background with limited programming skills. CF&RM program offered me a way to R, SQL, VBA, C++ programming which is credential for future job-hunting. We can work closely with excellent faculty from academia or industry in each course. Our faculty and staff did a lot of effort to career service, from tutoring the interview preparation to extending connections with the industry. I never regret choosing this program.

This is a great program under the UW applied mathematics department, which has a good reputation across the U.S.. The program is quite mathematically rigorous, and it equips the students with solid theoretical and practical knowledge in quantitative finance.

I had several choices when I got the admission from UW last year, and finally I chose this program because of its curriculum and faculty. First of all, the curriculum is well balanced and very suitable for the students who already have some background in finance (like me) and those who don’t have. The program delivers not only basic courses but also many advanced topics in computational finance, which arm students with enough knowledge and strong skills to pursue a career in the industry. Compared with many other mathematical finance programs, it focuses more on the statistics and the applications, which, I think, are extremely important in the modern finance. Throughout the entire program, R programming is integrated with each course and enables students to implement theories and ideas in practice. It was also very helpful in my pursuit of the internship. Moreover, the faculty is excellent and the career service is wonderful. The program has a high teaching quality and the staffs here also provide very useful career-related guidance and training; they also actively build connections with the industry, and help students finding internships and full-time jobs.

Although the program is young, it is very promising. I really think that my choice is right and recommend it to those who want to have a career in quantitative finance industry.

I have been very fascinated by the rapidly changing financial industry for a while. With my Electrical Engineering undergraduate background, I decided to pursue a quantitative finance advanced degree and the Computational Finance and Risk Management program at University of Washington came to my eye at that time. After evaluating several other options, I decided to relocate to west coast to start the program and it turns out that the CFRM program and UW have never let me down.

The curriculum is intense and equipped me with applicable knowledge of finance. As a student with engineering background, I picked up my sense of finance and economics here. One reason why I especially love the curriculum is that there are many courses taught by working professionals in the real financial industry and their insights offered me much more than what I could have learnt from textbooks. Another key feature of the curriculum is the use of R programming, which I believe is a successful attempt and benefited me a lot when I was trying to search for internships. Instead of just learning ‘knowledge’, the program also teaches us ‘skills’ that can be leveraged in daily work. We have learnt how to implement ideas into products whatever we prefer to use R, SQL, VBA, C++ or Excel. Equipped with programming skills and financial knowledge learnt in the program, we get better prepared for future job hunting.

The career services are also excellent. The program assigned a dedicated staff to help students launch internships and full-time positions. Faculty and other staff have also tried to help students build connections with local financial industry and provide useful advice for their career path. Almost all of my classmates successfully found a summer internship during this year and some of them luckily get their internships extended to year-long or full-time positions.

The CFRM program is relatively new but promising. The program director tried to offer students more options to fit their objectives. Students can choose to take a regular path, a Risk Management path or a Computing path based on their interest and background. I have witnessed the efforts that our faculty and staff have devoted into the program and the growing of the CFRM program. I highly encourage students who want to learn quantitative finace to consider the CFRM program at UW. I look forward to seeing a bigger success for the program in the near future.