2011-2012 Quantnet Ranking of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

[Anthony DeAngelis]

I don't think anyone is looking at this as an attack on the school. I never had an issue with people debating the ranking or methodology. The issue came about when personal attacks were made. Baruch came in 5th, not 1st or 2nd. People need to relax. I don't think it is inconceivable that Baruch could be the 5th best. How much difference is there really between 5th and 6th (which was 2 or 3 schools, tied)?

 

[koupparis]

nesense: I was merely pointing out the fallacy in your blanket statement. Baruch is in fact ranked and placed by many entities. Now you're fixated on one particular ranking that you don't find "good enough". Would you like to further modify and clarify your statement? I suggest a simple google search beforehand.

Oh and what's wrong with SSRN? A vast amount of research papers, especially in finance and economics, are pre-published there first. That doesn't seem like a credible website/organization to you because Baruch was ranked? L oh L.

And to your first point, no one asked if Harvard would need to publish a ranking of anything. Wrong question to answer. But you did answer the correct question later on, which clearly shows your subjective view of the ranking.

Secondly, if I did see a Harvard grad listing some rankings, in which he claims their med school is better than John Hopkins, I'd obviously question it (if i wanted to go to med school/ was a John Hopkins graduate)

So you'd only question the ranking if it placed your school below theirs? If you weren't from John Hopkins you would ignore the ranking? That's not an ideal was to digest any information.

 

[Michelle]

Global derivatives is dead, long live quantnet :p

What happened to it? A website can't just die without a good reason. There was lot of discussion there in 2007-2008 when I looked into MFE programs.
I honestly haven't been around these quant forums for a while so I don't get the latest cool things. Just heard a few co-workers been talking about the new Quantnet ranking so I thought I would check back here.

The 2009 ranking discussion only has 111 posts after 2 years and this 2011 ranking already racked up 275 posts? When will the next ranking be? Next year or every two years?

 

[koupparis]

It's a compounding effect I believe. Quantnet has drastically increased it's presence everywhere both online and offline. In addition to that, all the people that knew about the 2009 rankings, and have found out about them since, have spread the word and came back for the 2011 rankings.

 

[lv_hk]

i would suggest we also look at things like "total compensation levels after two years of graduation" or something... cause say, junior traders and risk dudes can have similar starting salary... but bonus wont be the same, also future income wont be same... wont be easy to get the information though.

Quality of placement is more important and what prospective students care about, but hard to capture and quantify in a ranking like this.

 

[bigbadwolf]

It seems the ranking of a school does matter; an example from the legal profession:

Having yet to even pay off all her law school debt, Carla was laid off in 2009.

"Did I ever think I'd be taking my top off for rent money? No. I was in my mid-30s and had never danced before," Carla told msnbc.com, who asked the website to use her stage name and withhold her identity. "As a little girl, I never thought to myself, 'I just want to grow up and be a stripper,' or, 'All I ever wanted to do in life is climb in the lap of sweaty stranger and take my top off.'"

Carla didn't share where she studied law, but legal observers have noted the difference between going to a top tier school and not in the new legal world can be the difference between the corner office, and the strip club.

 

[Sanket Patel]

Sanket, I have been searching for fellow Frank Herbert fans

Frank Herbert is by far my favorite (fiction) author. In my opinion, Frank Herbert's Arrakis is rivaled only by Tolkien's Middle Earth.

 

[Sanket Patel]

Has anyone read the Dune prequels that flesh out the story a bit? My favorite character is Baron Harkonnen's twisted mentat (Piter de Vries).

I've only read House Harkonnen and I was pleasantly surprised. I was initially skeptical of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's ability to continue the saga but they did a damn good job. Hopefully, one of these days I'll find the time to go back and finish the remaining prequels.

 

[nesense]

LOL... this is what I found on wiki.

"Baruch has been ranked #5 in the Top MFE programs in the US, by a website QuantNet, which is sponsored by Baruch and the founder of the website who conducted the ranking is a Baruch alumni."

Nice, I appreciate you guys made the disclaimer atleast.

 

[physEcon]

I don't think anyone is looking at this as an attack on the school. I never had an issue with people debating the ranking or methodology. The issue came about when personal attacks were made. Baruch came in 5th, not 1st or 2nd. People need to relax. I don't think it is inconceivable that Baruch could be the 5th best. How much difference is there really between 5th and 6th (which was 2 or 3 schools, tied)?

We don't know because Andy won't tell us....

 

[atreides]

Has anyone read the Dune prequels that flesh out the story a bit? My favorite character is Baron Harkonnen's twisted mentat (Piter de Vries).

I've only read House Harkonnen and I was pleasantly surprised. I was initially skeptical of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's ability to continue the saga but they did a damn good job. Hopefully, one of these days I'll find the time to go back and finish the remaining prequels.

We should probably take this to a separate thread... I've read Dune and Children of Dune. Paul Muad'Dib was always my favorite character. Hoping to read the rest of the series in the not too distant future

 

[Anthony DeAngelis]

We don't know because Andy won't tell us....

Andy has clearly explained that the information was provided in confidentiality.

 

[zhuanyi]

Surprised the Master of Quant Finance program in University of Waterloo is not included, how do people think about that one in the industry? (http://mfinance.ca/ if you need more info)

 

[physEcon]

Andy has clearly explained that the information was provided in confidentiality.

There is a plethora of non-confidential information that is also not being revealed.

 

[Sherlock]

Just ask the universities for the information. I doubt it it is that secretive having in mind they already gave it to someone to make a ranking out of it

 

[NuBie]

Something online I found

"I was admitted by Columbia, Cornell, CMU, Baruch, Michigan, and Stanford (rejected by Princeton). Baruch was the last on my list and the only people I know who have chosen Baruch over the others have done so because of financial constraints.
With that said, it's still a high quality education with really great ROI. But the QN guys really need to get real about how hard they push Baruch onto the people who post in the forums."

 

[Tom Maloney]

Hershey's which is one of the best chocolate brands out there.

Hershey's is a great brand, but it is a poor quality chocolate.

 

[NuBie]

But point being that just because someone claims something doesn't mean it's real.

What if what he said IS indeed true?

 

[Alexander Krosky]

I have read that too einstein. Trust me, there is no way he would have been accepted to Baruch and even if he was, I am glad he is not a part of the community.

As another Baruch student, I think this post is totally uncalled for and reflects poorly on our program. The guy that you are referring to isn't even involved in this thread. He merely made a ranking of his personal preferences and exercised his right to free speech.

The entire attitude of Baruch students in this thread is probably really off-putting to outsiders. People have a right to question ranking methodologies or to share their personal opinions. A lot of the people posting questions about the methodologies (void of any personal attacks) have been ganged up on and censored. The ironic part is that as this thread has continued, it has only strengthened the dissenters' arguments of a Baruch bias on quantnet.

 

[Alexander Krosky]

I have ran into at least one case of someone claiming to be accepted to Baruch on these forums who in fact wasn't. Keep in mind I haven't exactly kept my eyes wide open, but this individual asked me about comparisons of Baruch to Cornell. In the process of the conversation (I forget what exactly gave it away) it became apparent that despite the individual's claims on QN, he was indeed a reject and at best had only Cornell to choose from (which is a great university imo... nothing against them...). Actually I don't even know if he ever applied. I just know he was never admitted. What the point of lying was, I have no idea.

But point being that just because someone claims something doesn't mean it's real.

Why is it so hard for you to believe it might be real? In fact, when I was applying last year, I would have preferred half of those schools to Baruch if the tuitions were all equal.