2018 QuantNet Rankings of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

[Andy Nguyen]

The 2018 QuantNet ranking of Financial Engineering, Quantitative Finance masters programs in North America provides detailed information on placement and admission statistics from top programs the region, making it uniquely valuable to the quant finance community at large.

The 2018 QuantNet rankings are best positioned to help prospective applicants decide where to apply and enroll in those master quantitative programs.

Want to know the average starting base salary of graduates from the top Financial Engineering, Quantitative Finance, etc (MFE ) programs in North America?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The rankings have been pre-released to programs. The public release will be available tomorrow in the AM.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The 2018 QuantNet ranking has been published online. Check it out at 2018 Rankings of Best Financial Engineering Programs

 

[Mike Jones]

Georgia Tech has innovative curriculum, excellent placement, and world class engineering resources. It hovers in the top 10 every year, but the peer assessment score still lags. GT beats UChicago & Cornell in nearly every category except peer assessment. These are all of course fantastic programs, but it would be nice if more emphasis was placed on unbiased measures.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks @Mike Jones
Would be nice if alumni of the Georgia Tech program can leave a review. It only has 4 reviews, the latest one on 2011.
Georgia Institute of Technology Quantitative and Computational Finance (QCF) program

 

[ApolloChariot]

Wow... 43% placement rate at graduation for NYU Tandon. Any context for these numbers? Only program under 50% in the top 20.

 

[ironmanx]

How is employment at graduation defined? Some schools may have graduation at about the same time the classes were finished, other schools have graduation ceremony a few months after the classes are finished.

 

[unclear]

Why is JHU on this list even though it's unranked (NR)? Can we have some explanation on the JHU page?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

How is employment at graduation defined? Some schools may have graduation at about the same time the classes were finished, other schools have graduation ceremony a few months after the classes are finished.

All the placement numbers reported are based on the last graduation cycle and concern only full-time students graduated, accepted full-time job offers at graduation and within 3 months of graduation, respectively.

Why is JHU on this list even though it's unranked (NR)? Can we have some explanation on the JHU page?

Programs that did not provide enough data will be denoted as NR (not ranked).

 

[Levine Push]

Carnegie Mellon 68%/85% sits No.3? Just curious...

 

[Ilya W]

Andy, I surprised that Princeton with 100/100 job placement ratio is only 5th. Is it because of peer assessment score is lower than for other programs?

 

[IntoDarkness]

As far as i can see, princeton is the best and baruch is the second. Just get rid of that peer assessment score already

 

[twentyfifteen]

How come CMU MSCF program's placement rate so low this year? This program was ranked #1 for the past couple of years.

 

[Michelle]

I'm really surprised at the lack of controversy at each ranking that QuantNet released. Where have they gone?
I just searched and the 2012 ranking got over 300 comments, then the 2016 ranking got 125 comments and 2017 ranking got only over 110 comments.

I wonder if it's a sign of how much better the rankings got over the years?

 

[IntoDarkness]

How come CMU MSCF program's placement rate so low this year? This program was ranked #1 for the past couple of years.

words on the street saying cmu has been traditionally strong in the "c++ coding" part but since c++ related quant jobs suffered a decline for the past couple years while python and r jobs are popping up everywhere, cmu kinda lost its edge a bit.

but its 85% placement 3m post graduation is not bad. i suspect many students have high expectation of front office jobs and do not want to settle on back office roles...

 

[BruceWDZ]

Why is the average salary gap so big between two programs offered by Rutgers？

 

[TehRaio]

I'm really surprised at the lack of controversy at each ranking that QuantNet released. Where have they gone?
I just searched and the 2012 ranking got over 300 comments, then the 2016 ranking got 125 comments and 2017 ranking got only over 110 comments.

I wonder if it's a sign of how much better the rankings got over the years?

probably because the trolls got bored and went away. at the end of the day a ranking just gives you an idea of the best programs out there. if you're lucky to get admitted to multiple programs then it might be useful. if not, then you just go to the program that admitted you...

 

[twentyfifteen]

words on the street saying cmu has been traditionally strong in the "c++ coding" part but since c++ related quant jobs suffered a decline for the past couple years while python and r jobs are popping up everywhere, cmu kinda lost its edge a bit.

but its 85% placement 3m post graduation is not bad. i suspect many students have high expectation of front office jobs and do not want to settle on back office roles...

R and Python are much easier than C++. A good C++ programmer can easily pick up R or Python, and not vice versa.

I suspect the validity of his data source.

 

[IntoDarkness]

i re-ranke

R and Python are much easier than C++. A good C++ programmer can easily pick up R or Python, and not vice versa.

I suspect the validity of his data source.

not really true... i believe the data source is from the respective school itself

 

[Ilya W]

I wonder if it's a sign of how much better the rankings got over the years?

My guess it is very hard to give arguments when all numbers are right in-front of your eyes. Great job Andy! The only discussion we can have is how much weight should be there for peer assessment score or selectivity score ( just imho there are too much ) .