2017 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

[MRoss]

Baruch and similar are if you want to be a sell-side quant and top out at $200K.

Princeton and Berkeley are if you actually want to make bank.

Brand == Value

This is possibly the poorest advice I have ever heard on QuantNet.

MFE programs don't dictate your future, they help you land your FIRST quant job. After that it is all up to how you navigate your career. Will you do a mediocre job and stay with the same team because you don't have the drive to move around? Will you network within and outside your firm aggressively, work extra hard, and eventually move to a more desirable role? Will you constantly ask your manager for advice on how to best advance your career?

It is all up to you, not what school you went to.

 

[Daido]

This is possibly the poorest advice I have ever heard on QuantNet.

MFE programs don't dictate your future, they help you land your FIRST quant job. After that it is all up to how you navigate your career. Will you do a mediocre job and stay with the same team because you don't have the drive to move around? Will you network within and outside your firm aggressively, work extra hard, and eventually move to a more desirable role? Will you constantly ask your manager for advice on how to best advance your career?

It is all up to you, not what school you went to.

Or just not start at the bottom and skip all those steps to the buy-side...

But by all means, if you want to work terrible hours doing menial work at some bank, there's more than enough of those jobs to go around.

 

[MRoss]

Or just not start at the bottom and skip all those steps to the buy-side...

But by all means, if you want to work terrible hours doing menial work at some bank, there's more than enough of those jobs to go around.

Wow. Where to begin...

1. "Skip those steps to the buy-side" - Who said everyone wants to go to the buy-side? I don't. Hedge Funds are no longer the money paradise they used to be. Bonuses are down unless your fund performs extremely well, and job security is almost NULL. I'm on an S&T desk where everyone is making above your quoted figure, has been with the desk for over 10 years (majority of folks), and have an excellent working relationship with one another.

2. Princeton is one of the two you mentioned to get to the buy-side. Have you even checked their placement stats? Continuing on your example, Baruch actually has a HIGHER buy-side placement record than Princeton, so...

3. " if you want to work terrible hours doing menial work" - What jobs have you had? I have worked in IT, risk, client analytics, and S&T, all at sell-side. Nearly all have the same hours: 8:00-6:00 (give or take an hour). Hedge funds are the same based on the many funds I had interviewed with while in my MFE program. Terrible sell-side hours are in investment banking which is not an MFE job.

 

[TehRaio]

There are so many wannabe smartasses but who are true idiots in finance, lmao
thank you @MRoss

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You guys should just wait for our 2018 MFE rankings. It will be the most transparent and the best rankings that QuantNet has ever produced.
This has taken so much work so it will be produced later than past years but will be well worth the wait.

 

[pingu]

You guys should just wait for our 2018 MFE rankings. It will be the most transparent and the best rankings that QuantNet has ever produced.
This has taken so much work so it will be produced later than past years but will be well worth the wait.

When do you expect to publish it?

I can bet you that no matter what you do, people are going to complain.

 

[Daido]

3. " if you want to work terrible hours doing menial work" - What jobs have you had? I have worked in IT, risk, client analytics, and S&T, all at sell-side. Nearly all have the same hours: 8:00-6:00 (give or take an hour). Hedge funds are the same based on the many funds I had interviewed with while in my MFE program. Terrible sell-side hours are in investment banking which is not an MFE job.

Lol - why didn't you say so. If you want to work in Risk / IT / Analytics, then sure, go get some cut-rate MFE. That certainly wasn't my goal, and I doubt the goal of a lot people looking at these rankings. For those jobs, a CS degree would probably be more helpful anyway, or perhaps applied math.

 

[optionsDelta]

No 2018 MFE rankings yet?

 

[pingu]

No 2018 MFE rankings yet?

I think we need to wait to 2018

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The 2018 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering programs will be released to the public on Tues 19th, Dec 2017.
As a big part of our effort to make our ranking of MFE programs similar in transparency to US News rankings, we will make public placement data for the first time this year.

 

[CN Chen]

The 2018 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering programs will be released to the public on Tues, Dec 2017.
As a big part of our effort to make our ranking of MFE programs similar in transparency to US News rankings, we will make public placement data for the first time this year.

Andy, can you reveal to us which Tuesday in December?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Andy, can you reveal to us which Tuesday in December?

The 19th.
Edited the post to correct the oversight.

 

[pingu]

The 2018 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering programs will be released to the public on Tues 19th, Dec 2017.
As a big part of our effort to make our ranking of MFE programs similar in transparency to US News rankings, we will make public placement data for the first time this year.

This is going to be fun.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

This is going to be fun.

You bet. Hopefully we will see an active discussion when they see the placement numbers for the first time