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UCB MFE Berkeley MFE Interaction with MBA students

Smirnoff

Joined
1/26/13
Messages
3
Points
11
MFE program is a part of Haas Business School and the website claims that MFE grads receive an access to the business network of UCB.

Can anyone studying there comment on interaction between MFE and MBA students?
Do you get to have classes together? What about network (on-campus and/or off-campus) events?
What about job interviews? Do you happen to be referred (or even interviewed) by MBA students?

Thanks
 
Great questions. Would love to know the answer to them
 
Let me try the questions one at a time:

Can anyone studying there comment on interaction between MFE and MBA students?

- The interaction can be as little or as much as you want..We are in the same building and practically have same common areas, lecture halls etc to use...You will find MBA students around you all the time...However, mind it that the MFE calendar is very different from the MBA calendar...Like in summers, we have classes while MBAs go for internships..similarly during winter, we go for internships while these guys have classes.

Do you get to have classes together? What about network (on-campus and/or off-campus) events?

- You can take classes from the MBA program. You can audit them at no extra cost and they do not contribute towards your graduation requirements. A couple of guys did that from my class. However, the MFE workload is pretty huge..there is usually little time left to pursue other courses...

What about job interviews? Do you happen to be referred (or even interviewed) by MBA students?
-No..Why would an MBA interview/refer an MFE student/aspirant? Its like asking Chemistry guys to interview Physics guys...Does not make sense. The courses are a world apart and neither of the two is capable of assessing the other.


You do get access to same job search portal as MBAs..but that is not enough..ususally it is not very helpful either because of academic calendar and/or skill set requirements.

From my personal experience, if you are coming to MFE in order to get access to MBA network and hope that you will get a non-quant/consulting job...Please re-consider your decision. It's not that the resources are not available for you to exploit..it's just that it hardly ever works out...People did interview for consulting positions...but MBAs are much better equipped to tackle case interviews...If you come to MFE, bear in mind that you are pursuing a technical, quant course...and an alternate(MBA type) career path is not really an option. Because the industry will always see you as an MFE and not a pseudo MBA...Its a Black and White world out there.
 
Kittu said:
If you come to MFE, bear in mind that you are pursuing a technical, quant course
Click to expand...

Hi Kittu,

Does this mean that if you come to MFE (Berkeley or elsewhere), you are pretty much certain (or atleast "highly likely") to get a job as a software developer at a financial firm?
 
Technical does not mean IT or coding...technical means quant savvy in our nomenclature I guess....Something which might be heavy on maths/stat/programming.....Think about it as this: If you are going to be a high frequency trader, there is no way you can do without stats and programming...I would call this pretty technical.
 
quannabe said:
Kittu

Very helpful insights!

Would you recommend the UCB MFE to someone interested in hft?
Click to expand...

I don't think this is a valid question...If you ask me that whether I would recommend an MFE for HFT, I would say yes..perhaps...if you don't want to do a PhD, then MFE is an alternate which MIGHT get you there given you have the right background.

If you ask me if I recommend Berkeley for MFE(in general)..I would say YES again....

But if you ask me if you should go to Berkeley MFE vs XYZ MFE for HFT...I would say you are asking the wrong question.
 
Thanks for your responses Kittu. They are really informative.

I mentioned MBA referrals wondering if that was another way to get an interview since the UCB MFE website mentions the Business School network. Personally I tend to never underestimate the school alumni network power. You never know when a "chemist" might get you an interview/job for a "physics" position at his/her company :)
 
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