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Cornell is probably a fine program but I do think that the overall talent it attracts is not as competitive as the talent going into the top 5 MFE programs (Princeton, Baruch, Berkeley, CMU, Columbia, can potentially replace Columbia with MIT). I just haven't seen many Cornell MFE alumni in the buyside quant industry, and unfortunately at least in my cohort, Cornell MFE was used as a backup before we got our Princeton/CMU/Columbia offers.Model validation and trading are two fairly different career paths. The best way to learn more would be to search through LinkedIn, find Cornell MFE alumni in your desired roles, and reaching out to them to ask more. It's actually fairly tricky to answer the role your program plays in your interview/internship opportunities. On one hand, you should be applying to internships before you even officially start the MFE program (so there is more emphasis on your undergrad accomplishments). On the other hand, if you didn't come from a well known undergrad program, admittance to certain MFE programs like Baruch or Princeton indicate that you have already passed a fairly high bar recruiting process which acts as a positive signal to your profile (Cornell is easier to get into so does not provide as strong of a signal). Certain companies have certain preferences to certain programs and it does make sense that HR would allocate the most recruitment resources to the programs with the highest concentration of talent (so yes, program reputation and concentration of talent does matter more than some would like to think but obviously this is just one signal that recruitors use out of multiple).
Cornell is probably a fine program but I do think that the overall talent it attracts is not as competitive as the talent going into the top 5 MFE programs (Princeton, Baruch, Berkeley, CMU, Columbia, can potentially replace Columbia with MIT). I just haven't seen many Cornell MFE alumni in the buyside quant industry, and unfortunately at least in my cohort, Cornell MFE was used as a backup before we got our Princeton/CMU/Columbia offers.
Model validation and trading are two fairly different career paths. The best way to learn more would be to search through LinkedIn, find Cornell MFE alumni in your desired roles, and reaching out to them to ask more. It's actually fairly tricky to answer the role your program plays in your interview/internship opportunities. On one hand, you should be applying to internships before you even officially start the MFE program (so there is more emphasis on your undergrad accomplishments). On the other hand, if you didn't come from a well known undergrad program, admittance to certain MFE programs like Baruch or Princeton indicate that you have already passed a fairly high bar recruiting process which acts as a positive signal to your profile (Cornell is easier to get into so does not provide as strong of a signal). Certain companies have certain preferences to certain programs and it does make sense that HR would allocate the most recruitment resources to the programs with the highest concentration of talent (so yes, program reputation and concentration of talent does matter more than some would like to think but obviously this is just one signal that recruitors use out of multiple).
