COMPARE Chicago MSFM vs Georgia Institute of Technology QCF

[vtella]

Hello Danny, I do not know much about UChi's program but i would give my opinion about GT. I too have been accpeted in to GT and UCLA. I am leaning towards GT for these reasons. Curriculum is exceptionally good and you would have a bit of time to explore and figure out where your interests lie and where you would fit in. Program is making some really good progress in terms of improving their brand and reach. I have asked the program director for some info on placements on which she provided a little more deatil than already present on their website. I will share this with you.

My personal opinion is that learning finance is not that tough, atleast not as much as learning the math and programming part in a typical FE track. I would say with a little extra effort you would be better prepared for jobs with GT as the professors here apparently start everything from basics with no prerequisites to any course. And since you say that your goals are not fixed as yet, GT again might be better suited. The free electives portion allows you to specialize in the area which you can decide later on after joining the course. Since you can take these electives from across the GT departments, it really widens your job scope. Although, from my interaction with some of the current students and having seen their profiles on Linkedin, I would say it might be a bit difficult to land the coveted roles of the Street and GT is more successful in placing its students locally into roles which have more technical emphasis rather than a pure finance one. I hope this helps and I reckon you already made a decision. Hopefully we will meet this fall !

 

[theKillerStrat]

Hi Danny.

Got admits from GA Tech Quantitative and Computational Finance and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, MS Financial Engineering for this Fall.

And am also leaned towards Georgia Tech for the massive changes the program is bringing about with the new director, the low batch size, full time placement opportunities.

Cheers, Hope to see you all in this Fall.

 

[theKillerStrat]

Anyone Else who is headed to Georgia Tech MS -QCF for this Fall (2015) ?

 

[Akshay Sekar]

I'd like a comparison between the two programs on the basis of:

* Coursework -
Which would help me get a job in the risk management/portfolio management.
The one which has a better Computational component

* Location -
Job opportunities on the aforementioned sectors
Nature of the city(Trivial)

* Faculty

 

[dheerajsh]

I have received admits from both of them. Please let me know your opinions/ suggestions

 

[perspolis]

Personally, I'd prefer Gatech since there's a chance that you can get a Master in CS at the same time. However, if the brand name is your primary concern, or if you want to and/or think you can get into one of the prop shops in Chicago, maybe MSFM would be a better choice.

 

[Chilbal]

Simple if u get a significant scholarship and if you want to become a trading quant of work in a prop trading firm no doubt chicago
And uchicago brand is unmatched its alsmost like an ivy league college. And the repuation of booth school will let u get more finance kind of jobs as well if you are interested in that
there is some chance for georgia tech graduate to end up in atlanta so if u get a scholarship uchicago is a better choice if not gatech

 

[Chilbal]

Furthermore if you were a recent graduate with no workex or with low programming experience gatech might be a good choice.
If you have workex and programming experience then uchicagos fast paced 15 month program is both economical timewise and money wise
U will also have the added advantage of chicago location.
Uchicago is the undisputed king of chicago unlike in nyc where u would be competeing with cmu columbia baruch nyu courant grads
It gets kind of hard to compete with them from a remote location of atlanta For gatech grads
There is also uchicago msfm industry lab where students do projects with top trafing firms etc
Its has been historically a sure shot way of getting into trading firms in chicago

 

[dheerajsh]

Personally, I'd prefer Gatech since there's a chance that you can get a Master in CS at the same time. However, if the brand name is your primary concern, or if you want to and/or think you can get into one of the prop shops in Chicago, maybe MSFM would be a better choice.

Thank you for your response. Yeah the CS dual option does seem tempting. However I do wish to work for prop shops/asset management firms. Not sure if I could get though

 

[dheerajsh]

Furthermore if you were a recent graduate with no workex or with low programming experience gatech might be a good choice.
If you have workex and programming experience then uchicagos fast paced 15 month program is both economical timewise and money wise
U will also have the added advantage of chicago location.
Uchicago is the undisputed king of chicago unlike in nyc where u would be competeing with cmu columbia baruch nyu courant grads
It gets kind of hard to compete with them from a remote location of atlanta For gatech grads
There is also uchicago msfm industry lab where students do projects with top trafing firms etc
Its has been historically a sure shot way of getting into trading firms in chicago

Yeah I do have a decent enough scholarship which would make the tuition fees more or less the same for both. Also I do have some relevant experience, but not particularly good at coding though.

Chicago's project lab is definitely a trump card. It has better location. Historically better for getting into buy side firms. Despite all this why is Chicago ranked below Gatech in Quantnet? I just fear that I am missing something.

 

[Chilbal]

Ok quantnet rankings are sometimes an overshoot and an undershoot.
Do your own research and talk to ppl on LinkedIn
If you think about it anyway these two programs are side by side in rankings and peer rating for uchicago is higher and average salary as well
And rankings are not absolute it depends on the situation as i said if you were a fresh graduate with no workex uchicago wouldnt be a good deal.

everything has an IF condition
Quantnet has their own if conditions for their rankings
You have to make ur own rankings mentally by using your own profile and preferences

And btw professors at uchicago are like amazing level there are like nearly 100 nobel laureates

 

[Chilbal]

By the way did you get an admit from Nyu tandon?

 

[princeofbelair]

The quantnet rankings between these two schools are pretty dismissive considering their stats are relatively similar. Chicago is really a hub for high frequency trading, which may not be "typical" buyside to some people. I have no idea where people from georgia tech go, but I've seen uchicago come up more often for trading jobs on linkedin

 

[princeofbelair]

Personally, I'd prefer Gatech since there's a chance that you can get a Master in CS at the same time. However, if the brand name is your primary concern, or if you want to and/or think you can get into one of the prop shops in Chicago, maybe MSFM would be a better choice.

will a school even let you do that? I don't think double master works the same as doing a double major if that's where you're going

 

[dheerajsh]

By the way did you get an admit from Nyu tandon?

nope... In their wait-list though. Waiting to hear from them soon for final decision. But I guess that would just add to my dilemma

 

[Chilbal]

will a school even let you do that? I don't think double master works the same as doing a double major if that's where you're going

Yes the option is there but its not ms in cs its ms in cse
The offer dual in computational science and engineering not computer science
Most ppl dont know that

 

[Chilbal]

nope... In their wait-list though. Waiting to hear from them soon for final decision. But I guess that would just add to my dilemma

Not to be rude to people who got admits but this year i have noticed people with good profiles who got admit to georgia tech cornell columbia even got waitlisted or rejected by nyu
Its like nyu is deliberately giving admits to average profiles i dont understand their criteria at all

 

[perspolis]

Ok quantnet rankings are sometimes an overshoot and an undershoot.
Do your own research and talk to ppl on LinkedIn
If you think about it anyway these two programs are side by side in rankings and peer rating for uchicago is higher and average salary as well
And rankings are not absolute it depends on the situation as i said if you were a fresh graduate with no workex uchicago wouldnt be a good deal.

everything has an IF condition
Quantnet has their own if conditions for their rankings
You have to make ur own rankings mentally by using your own profile and preferences

And btw professors at uchicago are like amazing level there are like nearly 100 nobel laureates

Agreed. By the way, I do believe that some programs on the Quantnet rankings are not being very honest about their placement statistics. One should always take it with a grain of salt.

 

[VPoneday]

I also got in georgia tech, but the program is really value for $$

 

[dheerajsh]

So actually I have been fortunate enough to receive financial aid from U Chicago, so my tuition actually comes out to be slightly lesser than that of Georgia tech. So from a value for money perspective, both the programs are on par for me.