2017 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

[pingu]

Ranking doesn't make sense for some of the schools in the list. Placement Success Score can be fabricated as it doesn't consider quality of employers.

When you see this ranking, only consider Peer Assessment Score and Selectivity. They are the most reliable and consistent with the industry reputation, don't and can't cheat.

For which schools doesn't make sense?

What do you call "quality" of employer?

 

[Ilya W]

Ranking doesn't make sense for some of the schools in the list. Placement Success Score can be fabricated as it doesn't consider quality of employers.

To say true, totally disagree with that statement. Just tell me please which employer with "bad quality" can pay you more than 100K on average?

Also just IMO selectivity is kind of very biased estimator. But in any case average GRE score for all top programs is almost the same so does not matter much in the total results. Job placement on other hand is estimator which does not depend on someone opinion, it is kind of market estimator, so the biggest weight into that makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[IntoDarkness]

To say true, totally disagree with that statement. Just tell me please which employer with "bad quality" can pay you more than 100K on average?

Also just IMO selectivity is kind of very biased estimator. But in any case average GRE score for all top programs is almost the same so does not matter much in the total results. Job placement on other hand is estimator which does not depend on someone opinion, it is kind of market estimator, so the biggest weight into that makes a lot of sense to me.

but 100k in new york is merely 70k everywhere else...

 

[IntoDarkness]

For which schools doesn't make sense?

What do you call "quality" of employer?

quality == front office! if the job is not trading or portfolio management, the job has no quality!

 

[pingu]

quality == front office! if the job is not trading or portfolio management, the job has no quality!

S#!t, let me look at the list again then. Only a few of these schools sent students to the front office. I know Baruch and CMU do. Don't know about the rest.

 

[Ilya W]

quality == front office! if the job is not trading or portfolio management, the job has no quality!

I think a lot of guys working on risk side might disagree with you Again just for me, quality job == job that allows you to live by your own standard (which of course very subjective)

 

[MRoss]

I think a lot of guys working on risk side might disagree with you Again just for me, quality job == job that allows you to live by your own standard (which of course very subjective)

Big +1.

I'm in risk. I definitely lose some yummy bonus money but the QoL here is amazing:

1. 8:30-5:30 (at my place)
2. Base is nearly on par with front office
3. Very low stress
4. Extremely accommodating with family/religious issues and events
5. Job stability - MUCH lower firing rate than front office jobs

I wouldn't trade this for front office if you paid me in gold.

 

[Philip_Mitterrand]

Baruch has the honorary position like Queen Elizabeth on this forum. By virtue of owning the Quantnet Kingdom you are top of the hierarchy and the masses can all cry. Said that, Dan stefanica does a good job of marketing and placing the students unlike other program directors who are like ghosts missing in action after pocketing the money. The fact that Boston/Claremont/John Hopkins/ charges same fees like top programs is the height of fraud when you will end up in some shitty middle/backoffice job and hardly there's a recognizable name on the faculty lineup as well.

I highly doubt the ranking of Baruch program. Although it is undoubtedly a sound program, it is nowhere close to CMU's program(or other top 5). I see that from 2016, Quantnet has been tweaking percentages to bump up Baruch's ranking, such as increasing weight for GRE quant score, and pushing down survey score, etc. Compare the weights vs 2013-2014. Somehow 2015 record is missing.

Everyone knows that GRE quant test is a high school level joke unless it's a math subject test. Those who didn't get 170 probably didn't even bother to take it twice. Yet, you increased its weight so that Baruch can go up.

Hmm.... why? I'm sure it absolutely has nothing to do with the fact that 1) Andy, who runs this site, is from Baruch, and 2) this site constantly advertises Baruch's C++ program.

When you publish standardized measures like rankings, your objectivity should not be compromised.

 

[mhy]

I mean if you're going to rely on century old history then this ranking is useless, and you just need to pick an Ivy league school. Problem Solved.

Seems to me in the case of financial engineering, you have to see how much better is CMU/Princeton/Berkeley compared to Baruch. If in fact there is not much difference, you're free to make the decision based on your own personal biais. Like If I got an offer from Berkeley, Baruch, or CMU I would consider CMU because of location, cost of life etc...
Ranking is just one variable.

Baruch's FE program is top quality. But the overall school is not well known outside of its financial engineering program. A MFin/MFE graduate from Princeton/Columbia/CMU/Berkeley would have a much easier time finding non-financial engineering jobs just by virtue of the fact that they went to Princeton/Columbai/CMU/Berkeley which are top ranked schools in other disciplines and not just financial engineering.

 

[alenPavlovic]

Any comment on European Quant masters ? Because they are not covered in this rank list

 

[Sonny D]

Baruch runs the rankings and runs the site. Why wouldn't they make themselves #1. They even named the rankings after their program (MFE) rankings. But who cares. No real quant group hires any of their grads

 

[matt_]

Student selectivity (25%)

• GRE Scores (15%)
  This is the average ETS GRE quantitative scores of students accepted in the most recent incoming cohort.

• 
  Who cares GRE score?

• Undergraduate GPA (7.5%)
  This is the average undergraduate grade-point average of those most recent incoming cohort of the program.

• 
  Is it on average harder to get good GPA from more selective colleges?

• 
  
• Acceptance Rate (2.5%)
  This is the percent of applicants to the program who were accepted.

• 
  To me this part is the most import, especially for the fact that these programs are accepting the same pool of students. It has only 2.5%, meanwhile, GRE has 15%. 6 times.

100% agree. I did not know that NYU Tandon and JHU are much more selective than Princeton.

Student Selectivity Score
Princeton University: 91
NYU Tandon School of Engineering: 98
Johns Hopkins University: 99

 

[FlappyBIRD]

Totally nonsense to put 15% on GRE-Q.
actually it worth thousands of time getting one more year of professional experience than getting 170 on GRE.
I believe that work experience does matter.

 

[rajanS]

Baruch runs the rankings and runs the site. Why wouldn't they make themselves #1. They even named the rankings after their program (MFE) rankings. But who cares. No real quant group hires any of their grads

That's a wrong statement. Baruch has placed many students in "strats" group at MS, Jpm, etc. Aren't they extremely quantitative group? Some of the students in the program were smart. These are the guys that end up getting quant jobs. Also, there's this whole visa issue. As majority are international students, they can't afford to be too picky as many banks don't want to sponsor. It costs 15-25k per person on average to sponsor.

 

[s.sy]

quality == front office! if the job is not trading or portfolio management, the job has no quality!

That's what it's meant for.

100% agree. I did not know that NYU Tandon and JHU are much more selective than Princeton.

Student Selectivity Score
Princeton University: 91
NYU Tandon School of Engineering: 98
Johns Hopkins University: 99

Princeton's program is not an MFE (wannabe) program per se. Even so it is ranked much higher. Doesn't matter.

 

[matt_]

Princeton's program is not an MFE (wannabe) program per se. Even so it is ranked much higher. Doesn't matter.

That is not my point. I believe you are just kidding.

 

[Ken Abbott]

I think a lot of guys working on risk side might disagree with you Again just for me, quality job == job that allows you to live by your own standard (which of course very subjective)

Well said.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Well said.

Indeed. At some stage, people have to stop worrying and start living.

 

[Philip_Mitterrand]

and that's the rarest thing...as the saying goes, all life is a dispute over taste and tasting

Indeed. At some stage, people have to stop worrying and start living.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

and that's the rarest thing...as the saying goes, all life is a dispute over taste and tasting

"Youth is wasted on the young" Oscar Wilde.