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2016 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

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1) Reputation creates selectivity. There are simply more qualified people applying to Columbia (for example) than to Baruch, just for the brandname of the program. Same thing goes for Princeton, Berkeley, etc... So, in these kind of schools (Ivy types, well known domestically and abroad), you'll get better students who on average will perform better in interviews and therefore will get placed more easily to better positions.
I don't blame Baruch for trying to break the cycle: increasing their reputation through this ranking (which is the only one available?) and getting better applicants to little by little improve the quality of their cohorts.
But I'm not sure it's very fair to somehow misguide prospective applicants who don't have their foot in the door yet by telling them Baruch is the 2nd program in the country. Where I work (top tier bank) , it's simple, you have mainly NYU, Columbia and UCB MFE grads in quant positions (plus tons of PhDs). I think I talked to one Baruch intern once, no clue if he got an offer. I don't think there's one Baruch alum on my floor. I'm not saying there are absolutely no Baruch alumns in top banks, I'm just saying there aren't a lot of them compared to the other top programs. Baruch has great placement statistics but do they place their students in as "good" positions as the other top programs ?

2) I think if you look at the profiles from UCB/Princeton/Columbia students vs Baruch students, you will see that the former have in general much better profiles/CV. For example, at these programs, Indian students will mainly come from IIT, French students will come from the best "Grandes Ecoles", you'll see domestic students with very good undergrads / sometimes PhD from very good schools, etc... They are just better students on average and that's what banks/HF are looking for.

Being surrounded by very good students makes a big difference too. In terms of courses quality, I doubt there is much difference between all these programs, we all learn about the same stuff, we all have good teachers. But are you being as challenged intellectually by your classmates at Baruch than at Princeton ? I'm not so sure. That's another thing to consider.
 
NEW YORK, October 6th, 2015 – QuantNet today released its 4th rankings, selecting the Best 30 Master Programs in Financial Engineering, Mathematical Finance, Quantitative Finance in North America.

QuantNet surveyed programs administrators, hiring managers, corporate recruiters, and finance professionals to get the information used in the 2015 rankings.

In additional to the top 30 rankings, this year we rank the top 10 programs with the best employment outcomes and the 3 most improved programs.

2015-QUANTNET-RANKING-TOP-30-BADGE.png


2015 Quantnet Ranking of MFE programs
Why not allow people to choose from a list of parameters that matter to them - e.g assisted internship placement, average age, % internationals - to generate custom rankings?
 
In my opinion, Columbia's MAFN is quite special. Programs ranking higher than it should be in Tier 1 while those ranking lower than it but still in top 10 should be in Tier 2. In this case, Columbia's MAFN has to be in Tier 1.5
Why?
 
1) Reputation creates selectivity. There are simply more qualified people applying to Columbia (for example) than to Baruch, just for the brandname of the program. Same thing goes for Princeton, Berkeley, etc... So, in these kind of schools (Ivy types, well known domestically and abroad), you'll get better students who on average will perform better in interviews and therefore will get placed more easily to better positions.
I don't blame Baruch for trying to break the cycle: increasing their reputation through this ranking (which is the only one available?) and getting better applicants to little by little improve the quality of their cohorts.
But I'm not sure it's very fair to somehow misguide prospective applicants who don't have their foot in the door yet by telling them Baruch is the 2nd program in the country. Where I work (top tier bank) , it's simple, you have mainly NYU, Columbia and UCB MFE grads in quant positions (plus tons of PhDs). I think I talked to one Baruch intern once, no clue if he got an offer. I don't think there's one Baruch alum on my floor. I'm not saying there are absolutely no Baruch alumns in top banks, I'm just saying there aren't a lot of them compared to the other top programs. Baruch has great placement statistics but do they place their students in as "good" positions as the other top programs ?

2) I think if you look at the profiles from UCB/Princeton/Columbia students vs Baruch students, you will see that the former have in general much better profiles/CV. For example, at these programs, Indian students will mainly come from IIT, French students will come from the best "Grandes Ecoles", you'll see domestic students with very good undergrads / sometimes PhD from very good schools, etc... They are just better students on average and that's what banks/HF are looking for.

Being surrounded by very good students makes a big difference too. In terms of courses quality, I doubt there is much difference between all these programs, we all learn about the same stuff, we all have good teachers. But are you being as challenged intellectually by your classmates at Baruch than at Princeton ? I'm not so sure. That's another thing to consider.

Thats one side of the coin. However the brand names (perhaps lower tier 1?) also attract a certain type some of whom may have little to offer but a faithful delivery of what is expected of them. Those wishing to challenge mainstream assumptions - thinking out of the box is where the real money is - may need to look elsewhere, or at least look for a degree with a strong real-life angle.
 
NEW YORK, October 6th, 2015 – QuantNet today released its 4th rankings, selecting the Best 30 Master Programs in Financial Engineering, Mathematical Finance, Quantitative Finance in North America.

QuantNet surveyed programs administrators, hiring managers, corporate recruiters, and finance professionals to get the information used in the 2015 rankings.

In additional to the top 30 rankings, this year we rank the top 10 programs with the best employment outcomes and the 3 most improved programs.

Hi everyone, what do you think about Imperial's program in risk management & financial engineering, and its program in mathematical finance; kings college also had a program in mathematical finance. Are these programs good, are recruiters interested in placing graduates from these schools?
 
Hi everyone, what do you think about Imperial's program in risk management & financial engineering, and its program in mathematical finance; kings college also had a program in mathematical finance. Are these programs good, are recruiters interested in placing graduates from these schools?
ask the same question @ wilmott.com forum, quantnet is US centric so you will get more reliable information on North american programs.
 
@Andy Nguyen
I happen to see a section named Top 10 MFE Programs with Best Employment Outcomes. Does it completely depend on Pay Scale or something else ??
 
If I get into Princeton and Baruch, I'm still choosing Princeton...
 
@Andy Nguyen
I happen to see a section named Top 10 MFE Programs with Best Employment Outcomes. Does it completely depend on Pay Scale or something else ??
That section is based on the Employment data.
https://www.quantnet.com/2015-mfe-programs-rankings-methodology/
As far as I know, QuantNet is the only place that obtains detailed statistics directly from the administrators of the programs we rank.
Given MFE salary/admission info is not publicly available for most programs, I would not give any consideration to any other rankings that claim to have such data.
 
But I'm not sure it's very fair to somehow misguide prospective applicants who don't have their foot in the door yet by telling them Baruch is the 2nd program in the country.

At this point in time, the Baruch MFE Program holds 1st Place in both the Rotman International Trading Competition (Rotman International Trading Competition) and the IAQF financial case competition (News Details).
 
At this point in time, the Baruch MFE Program holds 1st Place in both the Rotman International Trading Competition (Rotman International Trading Competition) and the IAQF financial case competition (News Details).
Thanks. This is tangible information. Shows the quality of the students and the commitment of the faculty to have a top program.

I like this is factual and not something based on opinion and gut feel.
 
Thanks. This is tangible information. Shows the quality of the students and the commitment of the faculty to have a top program.

I like this is factual and not something based on opinion and gut feel.

Then perhaps these trading competition results should be used as inputs into the 2017 BaruchNet rankings?
 
Then perhaps these trading competition results should be used as inputs into the 2017 BaruchNet rankings?

Sour grapes from NYU?! I saw you were 8 this year at Rotman, you should be happy about that.

I graduated from Berkeley MFE a few years ago and did not like the Quantnet ranking much. I think it got much better and Linda is now providing the information to Quantnet. She would not do it if she did not think it was a balanced ranking.

I would like to have competition results weigh in - we won the IAFE competition every year, and was second last year in Rotman; very proud of our students. How to use these results in the ranking is not easy and people (from NYU? ;) ) will complain anyway.

I look at it this way: rankings are what they are, but competitions show who is best - Berkeley :)
 
1) Reputation creates selectivity. There are simply more qualified people applying to Columbia (for example) than to Baruch, just for the brandname of the program. Same thing goes for Princeton, Berkeley, etc... So, in these kind of schools (Ivy types, well known domestically and abroad), you'll get better students who on average will perform better in interviews and therefore will get placed more easily to better positions.
I don't blame Baruch for trying to break the cycle: increasing their reputation through this ranking (which is the only one available?) and getting better applicants to little by little improve the quality of their cohorts.
But I'm not sure it's very fair to somehow misguide prospective applicants who don't have their foot in the door yet by telling them Baruch is the 2nd program in the country. Where I work (top tier bank) , it's simple, you have mainly NYU, Columbia and UCB MFE grads in quant positions (plus tons of PhDs). I think I talked to one Baruch intern once, no clue if he got an offer. I don't think there's one Baruch alum on my floor. I'm not saying there are absolutely no Baruch alumns in top banks, I'm just saying there aren't a lot of them compared to the other top programs. Baruch has great placement statistics but do they place their students in as "good" positions as the other top programs ?

2) I think if you look at the profiles from UCB/Princeton/Columbia students vs Baruch students, you will see that the former have in general much better profiles/CV. For example, at these programs, Indian students will mainly come from IIT, French students will come from the best "Grandes Ecoles", you'll see domestic students with very good undergrads / sometimes PhD from very good schools, etc... They are just better students on average and that's what banks/HF are looking for.

Being surrounded by very good students makes a big difference too. In terms of courses quality, I doubt there is much difference between all these programs, we all learn about the same stuff, we all have good teachers. But are you being as challenged intellectually by your classmates at Baruch than at Princeton ? I'm not so sure. That's another thing to consider.

This is basically a Baruch run site, hence the ranking. I have never met a Baruch student either (3 top tier IB's). Not really a fan of these trading competitions either. Really never hear much about them. I think they are on the level of hackernet competitions
 
Why dont you post the individual data points? Seems like a lot of this ranking can be easily skewed.
10% for "emplorer survey" (I guess it depends who you ask)

2.5% for acceptence rate. If I charge 1/3 the price, I will get a lot more people to apply, and more to reject

20% for staring salary, excluding base. If you get a back office type job, your base should be higher, but total comp much lower. Our new joiners got really nice sign on's, relocation and bonuses

25% Eployment rates: Does this count people that have received offers, or are getting paid?

7.5% Undergrad GPA. Is a 4.0 from IIT in MIS (or whatever their scale is) better than a 3.8 from Stanford in economics?

15% GRE scores: Only look at Quantatative scores, but who is going to hire someone with poor communication skills?
 
Does the ranking take into account of the
faculty-to-students ratio, and classroom capacity?
I'm in a FE program in uptown NYC that assigns us to a classroom with capacity of 60 students for a class of close to 90 students. Is that even legal?
 
Does the ranking take into account of the
faculty-to-students ratio, and classroom capacity?
I'm in a FE program in uptown NYC that assigns us to a classroom with capacity of 60 students for a class of close to 90 students. Is that even legal?
Columbia?
 
Imperial>>> Kings
The quality of students at Imperial is no match compared to top US schools however the faculty line is powerhouse Bingham, Rama Cont, Brigo, Lipton and in tune with top 4 US schools or maybe even better.

Hi everyone, what do you think about Imperial's program in risk management & financial engineering, and its program in mathematical finance; kings college also had a program in mathematical finance. Are these programs good, are recruiters interested in placing graduates from these schools?
 
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Imperial>>> Kings
The quality of students at Imperial is no match compared to top US schools however the faculty line is powerhouse Bingham, Rama Cont, Brigo, Lipton and in tune with top 4 US schools.

Yes, great faculty mentioned there. Does the ranking take the faculty line into account?
 
Totally...Baruch has an illusion of prestige just being close to Wall Street. As an University itself it has no brand value and hardly any catch. Tell someone in Shanghai or Singapore you went to Baruch and they wont bat an eyelid.



This is basically a Baruch run site, hence the ranking. I have never met a Baruch student either (3 top tier IB's). Not really a fan of these trading competitions either. Really never hear much about them. I think they are on the level of hackernet competitions
 
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