Anyone heading to Columbia Open House?

[mcgruber]

hey thanks...quite informative...good to hear that they will be hiring 2 placement experts....just in case if you can help with some details regarding the placement scene for Asian students, it will be very helpful...

@Moksha, this is all that I remember. If you want specifics and have some concerns, contacting the depratment would be your best bet..

 

[Forza]

@mcgruber,

Just for clarification, MSOR and MFE students have separate career services, correct? Also, was anything mentioned for the MSOR program? Thanks for your help and insight.

 

[mcgruber]

@mcgruber,

Just for clarification, MSOR and MFE students have separate career services, correct? Also, was anything mentioned for the MSOR program? Thanks for your help and insight.

@Forza,

yes, that's the impression I got but there might be some commingling there..also, things are poised to change especially in placements (this was emphasized)..so things might be little bit different from how they are now. One MSOR person (out of the 2 present) did ask about OR PhD, but no direct comparisons were made between MSFE and MSOR curriculum and placements.

 

[Forza]

@mcgruber,

Thanks for the great info! Yea I figured sooner or later they will start emphasizing the MFE program more in terms of recruiting. It makes sense. Do you have a point of contact for the career services office? I would like to contact that person to see if there are more info for MSOR specifically. Thanks again!

 

[mcgruber]

@Forza,

Try contacting Adina Brooks

http://www.ieor.columbia.edu/directory/staff.html

She might be the best person to answer any queries for both MSFE and MSOR

 

[Forza]

Thanks, I will go from here.

 

[mcgruber]

Thanks, I will go from here.

@Forza, hope to see you there in July..

 

[Forza]

Hi mcgruber,

I am actually in the MSOR program since that's a better fit with my background. But hopefully I willget a chance to meet you around campus/other events.

 

[mcgruber]

Oh..right.. It would have been great if you were there as well as you might have asked some interesting questions about MSOR and hence this forum. The Open House discussion was almost all about MSFE, as there were only 2 MSOR would-be students in the group.And the reason for this mentioned by Prof. Kachani was that MSOR program is still in the process of making decisions.

Anyways, hope to see you in some MFE electives at least.

 

[Forza]

Yea we are still waiting for our welcome packages since we are not starting until early Sept. If they have an open house for MSOR students, I will more than likely be there and post some info on here afterward.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Vixus]

OK... some important points

1) The department is in the process of hiring 2 full-time placement experts for MSFE in Spring 2011
2) The salary range on the MSFE website does not give the complete picture (this will be updated on the new IEOR website in the coming few weeks). The difference between Associate and Analyst salary levels was discussed. Top 10-15 % students (salary wise) got base salary of 120K-140K plus + bonus. Although no median salary was mentioned, the next group of students falls in 90K - 110k range. This group was the biggest. Rest were in 60K-80K band. The bonus % depended on the role and the firm.(This is what I inferred from the lengthy and sometimes divergent discussion. Others who were there, please comment if I am mistaken)
3) Out of 46 students who graduated in 2010, 5-6 got trading roles. A good number of others got related front-office roles. Some got developer-type and Risk Management roles. Very few got pure research roles as those roles are in the PhD territory.
4) Placement was easier for US Citizens/US Permanent Residents/Canadian Citizens more so if they had prior financial experience. International students from East/South Asia had some difficulty in getting placements.
5) Strong correlation with past work experience and placement out of MSFE and importance of individual personality traits were discussed.
6) Comparisons with Stanford and Princeton programs and how Columbia's MSFE is different from the offerings at NYU, Berkeley and CMU were also mentioned
7) Long-term impact of Columbia University's Ivy League brand combined with large and well-placed group of MSFE Alumni on one's career path and options
8) Weekly Financial Engineering seminars having industry practitioners as speakers and invitees provide ample networking opportunities for students

I think McGruber pretty much sums up the main points discussed during Open House.

Some additional points:
- Prof. Kachani is a very charismatic professor. It was a blast listening to him answer some of the more poignant questions (We were unable to get through most of the slides because of the number of great questions being asked by prospective students.)
- Columbia started the interview process to determine student's English proficiency as they felt that good communication skills were a necessity to be successful in this field.
- Practitioner's Seminar every Monday given by Prof. Derman. These seminars are mainly filled with industry practitioners from Wall Street.
- Internships seem to be strongly encouraged for those without prior experience. Students can either do a part-time or full-time internships. Part-time internships were recommended as being only 1 to 1.5 days of work out of the week as to not disrupt school work.
- We were told that there were quarterly happy hours for faculty and Alumni members. These events are closed for students, but it goes to show how close of a tie faculty keeps with industry contacts.

I also took the liberty to scan some of the information in our Open House packets.

 

[zhonglin]

I think McGruber pretty much sums up the main points discussed during Open House.

Some additional points:
- Prof. Kachani is a very charismatic professor. It was a blast listening to him answer some of the more poignant questions (We were unable to get through most of the slides because of the number of great questions being asked by prospective students.)
- Columbia started the interview process to determine student's English proficiency as they felt that good communication skills were a necessity to be successful in this field.
- Practitioner's Seminar every Monday given by Prof. Derman. These seminars are mainly filled with industry practitioners from Wall Street.
- Internships seem to be strongly encouraged for those without prior experience. Students can either do a part-time or full-time internships. Part-time internships were recommended as being only 1 to 1.5 days of work out of the week as to not disrupt school work.
- We were told that there were quarterly happy hours for faculty and Alumni members. These events are closed for students, but it goes to show how close of a tie faculty keeps with industry contacts.

I also took the liberty to scan some of the information in our Open House packets.

I just want to add some points regarding their career service and class size:

- Adina mentioned that in August, they will give each student a mock interview and film it to help you assess your presentation during an interview. They also have workshops to help their students refine their resumes, polish interview skills and land a job. (The new hiring expert will most likely add more job leads, so some improvements there.)

- The faculty in Columbia seem quite approachable (at least Kachani and Derman). Despite the relatively big class size, it seems the department do make a sincere effort to give the students as much individual attention as possible. Though, you do need to be proactive and engage them. Quiet mouth won't get fed.

 

[mcgruber]

One more point:

It was mentioned in the general open house (for all Engineering Graduate Students) that it's rare for Masters students to get University Housing (PhD's preferred)

 

[onthesc]

One more point:

It was mentioned in the general open house (for all Engineering Graduate Students) that it's rare for Masters students to get University Housing (PhD's preferred)

thats certainly a problem. how are you guys dealing with the housing situation in uws?

 

[Forza]

@onthesc,

I went ahead and put in my application anyways even though I heard the some thing from the IEOR department housing liaison. Not betting on it even though I am going after couple housing. From what I am seeing on Craigslist tho, there are tons of options in a variety of price ranges.

Everyone else,

Great info! How did you guys/gals hear about the open house? Curious if there is one for MSOR students or if I am too late on this....

 

[onthesc]

@onthesc,

I went ahead and put in my application anyways even though I heard the some thing from the IEOR department housing liaison. Not betting on it even though I am going after couple housing. From what I am seeing on Craigslist tho, there are tons of options in a variety of price ranges.

Everyone else,

Great info! How did you guys/gals hear about the open house? Curious if there is one for MSOR students or if I am too late on this....

@Forza,

dont you need a login info from Columbia?

 

[Forza]

For housing application? Yes, but you can contact Jonathan Stark, the Assistant Dean of Graduate Student and Post-Doctoral Affairs (who I guess takes care of housing stuff too for IEOR students) at jrs2139@columbia.edu and he will hook you up with the login (I found him through the main housing office). Great guy who gave me a lot of great tips on where to look for an apartment. On the open house topic, do you know where we can find more info on that? If not, I might just contact Adina and see if she can fill me in.

 

[mcgruber]

@onthesc,

I went ahead and put in my application anyways even though I heard the some thing from the IEOR department housing liaison. Not betting on it even though I am going after couple housing. From what I am seeing on Craigslist tho, there are tons of options in a variety of price ranges.

Everyone else,

Great info! How did you guys/gals hear about the open house? Curious if there is one for MSOR students or if I am too late on this....

@Forza,

I received an invitation email from the Office of Graduate Student Services on 03/28/11 for Admitted Students Open House‏. Did you receive your MSOR decision after 03/28 ?

 

[Forza]

@mcgruber,

Ah, got it. I received my decision on the 30th, so maybe they will have another one then. I will contact Adina too see if there is another one coming up. Thanks again!

 

[maver]

I just want to add some points regarding their career service and class size:

- Adina mentioned that in August, they will give each student a mock interview and film it to help you assess your presentation during an interview. They also have workshops to help their students refine their resumes, polish interview skills and land a job. (The new hiring expert will most likely add more job leads, so some improvements there.)

- The faculty in Columbia seem quite approachable (at least Kachani and Derman). Despite the relatively big class size, it seems the department do make a sincere effort to give the students as much individual attention as possible. Though, you do need to be proactive and engage them. Quiet mouth won't get fed.

...

Thanks to all the guys who made an effort to sum up all the key points discussed during open house and post it on the forum....That really is helpful for those who missed out on open house. Also It feels great to see university putting up extra effort and hiring resources to better their placement services.

It would be great if someone (who attended the open house) could give me an idea of the experience profile of the last batch (if it was mentioned in the open house).