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Hmm I'm a bit confused. Was it not only last year that there were accusations that the UC Berkeley placement stats were so good that they must be fake? And yet in a ranking that apparently places a 50% weight on placement, the school scores below 4 others and level with one more. Am I missing...

A fair few have guaranteed bonuses, and pretty much nobody is entry level (I know of only 3 out of over 50 people placed at anything like entry-level). Of the others, some are reported by the student, and most of those are what is "expected" as defined by the employer. In addition, the program...

Stefan, 50% is not out of the ordinary in FO for a first year associate and is perhaps even a little on the low side from my experience. The vast majority of people from the UCB MFE end up in front office (at least this year), and a not insignificant proportion of those are traders or...

I am friends with 62 others on the MFE program. They tell me things...! Whether it is slight exaggeration or slight underestimation I don't know, but it is at least more accurate than second hand information that "so many people are on 80-90k". I don't think there is any "crisis" here. Just...

I'm on no admissions committee or anything like that for UCB, but given that I've already refuted the claim as an independent party with special knowledge of the situation, I find that poll a little insulting. As I said, I already refuted the claim. What do you expect the official guys to do...

Toeing what line, Tigga? Everything posted by the Berkeley MFE is factually accurate, as is everything I have said (and as far as I know I am the only one defending the program by referring to statistics / numbers). All I have seen is one post doubting the accuracy of the numbers, and that...

Yes fortunately (for me) you are being a touch naive - my story is entirely true! And yes I have been accused of being too picky...

Hi all. I've copied a reply I made on GD to "Newgraduate" below: ======= I am a graduate of the 2010 class. There is a not insignificant chance that I know you in person. If you do know me, you will know that I am a pretty nosy chap. In fact, I have compiled the complete list of students and...

Obviously this has already been taken into account in the ranking of job preferences. If one program places all its students in a position that is the second favourite job out there it will do well. And naturally any model will be an abstraction of reality so will not rank the programs in the...

One random example off the top of my head: gather consensus views on preference rankings of job industry, title, location, firm etc. Score each publicised job on a program by its weighted average based on these rankings (e.g. 5 points for a number 1, 4 for a 2 etc). Take the simple average of...

Well I'm sure imaginative people can find various ways to quantify it - anything can be put into numbers - I'm sure folks on here believe that! Lack of information will always be an issue, but if any ranking becomes highly valued by prospective candidates then programs with success in a...

A very impressive list of internship companies has just been released by UCB. The companies include sell-side firms such as: Goldman Sachs JPMorgan Morgan Stanley Credit Suisse Deutsche Bank BoA/Merrill Citigroup BNP Paribas Barclays Capital UBS A pretty comprehensive list of the top IBs...

I think the old regime paid enough to make up for the workload (although I can't vouch for the quant blitz periods - I did a more consistent 12-14 hour day every day). The new regime, if bonuses and base pay are suppressed as much as has been demanded by a largely ignorant public, will not...

Wait a minute, I've seen a number of individuals arguing that quants will no longer be required at all, or at least no new quants. In which case may I assume that quant work levels are going to slide dramatically over the coming years? And Prozac prescriptions will plummet?

Andy, I can tell you that you are totally right, but potentially in the wrong direction... Probably not a good idea to talk anymore about this!

I shall wait and see with interest..... Can you really shut down a large bank? It doesn't look like they are that keen to do that - nor would it be advisable at all! Still, would it be any worse than following in Lehman's footsteps?

Something to think about: The people who make these decisions are running a business. They have to take into account a multitude of factors, and usually their end goal is a stable and increasing share price. So, do they really HAVE to mark to "market" or "model"? Suppose they consider the...

I would be very curious to hear a response to this article from those who are presently engaged in MFE programs as either students or directors! It seems to me that the mathematics of derivatives pricing has failed to evolve as quickly as the desire for complexity to enhance returns. The...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that at the end of this, there will still be a BofA, a JPMorgan, a Goldman Sachs, a Morgan Stanley, a Credit Suisse, a BNP Paribas, a Nomura, an HSBC and a Barclays. That's as bold as I'm going to be on the big banks/securities firms. The only thing...

fcandeli, I worked in a small team trading exotic products. Whilst everyone in the team had similar basic responsibilities, the combination of their personalities was interesting. In our four man trading team, there was one trader, one trader-quant (myself), one quant-trader and one quant, if...

Hi all I'm Mark. I've just left my job as an exotic ABS trader at a European Bank, at least partly because there was nobody left to trade with! I'm looking to study for an MFE next year despite the derision I received from the rest of my team, who told me that if they had had their time again...