COMPARE CMU vs Columbia MSOR vs Baruch

[LupDorm]

Hi,

I have an experience of 9 years in IT in Investment banks. I have had some opportunity to work in some quantitative jobs like Monte Carlo, Newton, HMMs etc. I have applied to Columbia MSOR, Baruch and CMU. I got admitted to Columbia MSOR, and Baruch. I also completed pre-MFE from Baruch recently. As far as CMU is concerned I think I have a fair chance.I plan to do these courses part time. I intend to work in area like Statistical arbitrage. I plan to move back to my country India in 3-4 years so probably brand name will matter too.

Baruch : Good faculty, Personal placement help but no brand name.
Columbia : Brand Name, Good course too, expensive but too big a class size. Three courses competing among themselves.
CMU : Quite mathematical course, Best ranked course too, though expensive and I am not too sure about taking lectures through webcast.

Help me out guys.

 

[alain]

when in doubt: https://www.freakonomicsexperiments.com/

 

[neoz]

I wouldn't do the CMU online program personally, might as well just do it in-person. I don't know too much about the Baruch program so can't comment. However, it seems like it's a trade-off between having the direct FE focus at Baruch vs. having the Columbia brand name. You should check to see exactly what kind of curriculum you can structure in the MSOR program. From what I hear, it's possible to have a lot of overlap with their MSFE program via electives. I'd check to make sure that I would be eligible to take the Stat Arb courses as a MSOR student.

If it was me, I'd go with CMU (in-person) if you get in, next I'd probably go with Columbia and take my chances during job placement. You have 9 years of IT on the sell-side, shouldn't be too difficult to get a quant developer role. If you're going back to India, you'll need the brand name. I think in the MSOR program, you can "concentrate" in financial engineering.

By the way, if you are dead-set on Stat Arb, have you considered a master's in statistics? I assume you're coming from a tech background. Just so you're aware, the statistics covered in a MFE course is very basic. It might be more helpful to have a more rigorous focus on statistics, but the MFE does give you more options.

 

[LupDorm]

neoz Thanks for the help.