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C++ online certificate for MFE applicants

Hi Andy,
If I register for the course which starts in September and I will begin working in October, would this be a problem?
I will have a lot of exams in September but I would also like to do the course this year to increase my chances of getting a good internship.
 
Flex
You have to set aside time and commit to make the course work. The quicker you get it done, the better as the longer you put it aside, the less motivated you become.
You have a maximum of 16 weeks from start to end so just sign up whenever you are ready. It does not have to be in Sept, or Oct. We will have open slots year round.
 
Andy: could you give more details about the assessment process for this cert? From what I've gleaned from this post there will be; tests at the end of each module, a final exam and a project. How will the final grade be calculated i.e. the split between exam and project? I take it the end of chapter tests don't count toward the final grade? Do you have to pass each section test before you continue to the next one?

I'm really looking forward to hopefully being on the first wave of this new qualification. Great work on putting in together, I'm sure it'll be a big success.
 
AdrenoCapital
Thank you for your interest in the course.

The final details are being worked on but I can say that the final score would be accumulative from all the assigned homeworks and the final exam. The final exam would be proctored online one on one with your TA.
Since the academic quality is controlled by the Baruch MFE program, I imagine they would make this a pretty challenging course and set the bar very high.

Each chapter would have quiz and programming assignment(s). The programming would count toward your final grade. You need to pass the quiz of each chapter and eventually, you have to pass in order to access materials of the next chapter. Think of it as unlock each stage of a game. You can't run before you walk and you shouldn't be looking at chapter 5 if you haven't passed chapter 2.

The quiz won't count toward the final exam but we use it to ensure you know the material of each chapter well before going to the next one.

This is our plan and a lot of it depends on how much we can push the software platform which we code our course software on.

Lastly, since we want to make sure each student to really learn the language, not just simply give a piece of paper to whoever can pay, we want to keep the size of each intake small to ensure a high level of quality and personal attention.

Hope this helps.
 
Do you know approximately how many hours it should take for someone without programming experience to complete the course? I'm studying for the CFA L1, taking PDE and Math Stat II, and am trying to get an internship for the fall. I also plan on retaking the GRE since I only got a 790/450.
 
groy theoretically, someone can work night and day and finish the course in 2 weeks but I would expect most people would finish it between 2-4 months, given that they set aside time every week to progress.
The upside: you work within your own schedule. You can enroll when you are ready because the course is open for registration year round.
The downside: it's easy to fall behind schedule if you are not motivated and disciplined enough. Studying by yourself is all about discipline and keeping a routine.

That's why I suggest everyone to sign up only when they are ready. Once you step on this treadmill, there is no OFF button. The best way to get the most out of this is to dedicate at least two months to finish this off.

Best of luck.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
The final details are being worked on but I can say that the final score would be accumulative from all the assigned homeworks and the final exam. The final exam would be proctored online one on one with your TA.
Since the academic quality is controlled by the Baruch MFE program, I imagine they would make this a pretty challenging course and set the bar very high.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Some of our current students and alumni will be TAs for the C++ online seminar, and we fully expect them to be as rigurous and demanding as we are when teaching them.

The rigor of the certification process will make justice to the content and effort put in by Dr. Daniel Duffy.
 
groy asks about the suitability of the course for people with no programming experience, and reading such things makes me feel mildly sad.
How can anyone reach this stage in a science education and not have done some programming.
I mean just loops, variable types, functions, not LALR in C++ or F# but just basic stuff, maybe in BASIC ?

It bugs me both about the education system and the person who hasn't done it.
 
Hi Andy, I assume you are very busy finalizing the details in order to start next month.

Still undecided about enrolling, so have one question for you and Dr Duffy: since my interest is geared towards energy / commodities, may it be possible to tailor individually the "Part VI: Creating Applications in Computational Finance" to suit my needs? I also mean the final project.

Thanks in advance for your answer. Giuseppe
 
ItaUK
By "tailor", if you mean to take the materials presented to you in the course, and on your own initiative, extend it by coding a model from a white paper, then I don't see any problem with that. I just don't see this turning into a supervised research project where any of us (mostly Daniel) neither have a time nor expertise to ensure the quality of our certificate.

The door is open for you to pursue a more advanced course after this one if you find someone with the proper background.

I just don't want to over-promise and under-deliver. Our scope for this course has been to provide a solid training for prospective MFE applicants, or working professionals who want to learn C++ to move into quant finance roles.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
The following is a tentative syllabus of the course. We expect to add many more applications to Financial Engineering to the course when it's available to the public.

The C++ Environment
  • History of C++
  • What Makes the C++ Program
  • Steps for a C++ Program
  • Compiling a C++ Program
  • Structure of a C++ Source
  • Example Program
  • Placing Comments
  • Lay-Out Source File
  • The Visual Studio IDE explained
  • C++ for computational finance: an overview
Click to expand...

Andy and Daniel, will we have a separate section that covers basic debugging skills for C++ program, such as break point, call stack, watching expression, print to a log file, attach to process. C++ debugging is very different from other advanced scripting language. I found some course supplied by college often ignore such a practical part.
 
Hi Andy, I would be very interested to sign up for the course as well. My last programming experience was in VBA 10 years ago during my bachelors degree. I now wish to pick up a proper programming skill for my own trading requirements and this course is perfect to get me started. Look forward to it.

Ryan
 
Hi Andy,
Course sounds great. Would you mind directing us to where we can sign up for the course?
 
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