COMPARE NYU MSFM vs Columbia MAFN

[scarface]

Hi,

I have been admitted into Columbia MAFN and NYU MSMF for full-time but will be changing to part-time as I want to continue to work in the field I am currently in (high-frequency trading/statistical arbitrage trading)

At this point, I am not sure which program will better suit me. Below are my rough thoughts on those programs.

NYU pro:

-Working in the field, I found out that most of major quant trading shops only hire phds from top schools(MIT/Princeton/UCB/Stanford) unless you have a strategy that makes multi-millions. However, I also noticed that Courant has the brand power that could cope with phd graduates from top schools (I may biased by my co-workers and quant traders I am around.) So, it may be better to have Courant on my resume if I want to continue to compete with these phd quants.
-It has 4 specific courses that I can benefit from. (Active Port Mgmt, Time Series & Statistical Arb, Algo Trading & Quant Strat, Risk & Port mgmt)
-I will have chance to work with top math-finance professors. (Marco Avellaneda)

Columbia pro:

-Since I already broke into the field, school names do not mean much. What matters most are my quant research experiences and owning a strategy with good sharpe. Thus, if you have to go school, you would just rather to go with ivy league name/cheaper tuition/less course work.
-Most of techniques/methods used in the research in this field are stemmed from statistics. So, it would be better to go Columbia and take advanced statistics courses under statistics dept or take machine learning courses in engineering dept as electives.

Please chime in your opinion and help me make a good decision!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ken Abbott]

I have lectured at many quant finance programs. The NYU students I've seen are consistently among the best.

 

[Advait]

I vote for NYU too.

 

[Will D]

I researched both programs quite extensively. I ended up focusing on UK degrees (for me, it seems that London is the place to pursue a derivatives career these days).

Both programs have excellent faculty (e.g. NYU: Carr, Avellaneda, Columbia: Karatzas, Protter). Quant trading staff at investment banks and hedge funds appear to be well-represented among part time students at both. The course content at NYU is great but the Columbia math program offers more flexibility to take classes in other departments (like machine learning in CS).

If you are looking to change functions, it probably makes sense to go full-time. Placement has traditionally been strong at both (however, for non-French, I would say NYU has the edge here). I also think that NYU cares more about its students' job search than Columbia, which offers fairly little support. That said, the Columbia name is definitely very prestigious on Wall Street.

Either way, you can't go wrong, congratulations!

 

[DJC]

I'm trying to become a quant trader eventually in buy-side or trading strategist in sell-side.

I got accepted into those two programs as part-time (currently working as full-time in bank), which program should I choose? (I live closer to NYU so distance wise NYU is preferable. Thanks!

 

[CN Chen]

If you have any questions about the NYU program as part-time, feel free to PM me. Unfortunately, I don't know all that much about Columbia's Math Finance program, so I can't say one is better than the other for your situation.

 

[DJC]

Thank Chen!

 

[jsim]

How are these two viewed in the job market?
They both don't show much information about placement..
Thanks in advance!

 

[rnvpx]

Columbia MAFN doesn't know anything about its students' placement info. No one talks to the director, so they feel no obligation to tell him. Last year was tough for the class of 2015 but previous years, most students got market risk jobs and the top kids got strats jobs at investment banks.

 

[jsim]

Columbia MAFN doesn't know anything about its students' placement info. No one talks to the director, so they feel no obligation to tell him. Last year was tough for the class of 2015 but previous years, most students got market risk jobs and the top kids got strats jobs at investment banks.

Thanks for the info! Do you know anything about NYU MathFin?

 

[pingu]

Thanks for the info! Do you know anything about NYU MathFin?

NYU Math Finance out of Courant is one of the original programs that started this trend in the US. It's very well known and has had an outstanding reputation.

Columbia MAFN is like three rungs below out of the Columbia programs (I lost count how many are out there).

 

[Junkai Yang]

COURANT definitely prevails.

 

[KevinR]

Do you guys think the MAFN is a waste of time?

 

[pingu]

Do you guys think the MAFN is a waste of time?

Do you have any other option?

 

[KevinR]

Do you have any other option?

work an average paying job in the homeland lol

 

[jsim]

Do you have any other option?

How's MAFN compared to Columbia MSOR?

 

[pingu]

work an average paying job in the homeland lol

come to US and make the most out of it.

 

[KevinR]

come to US and make the most out of it.

lol for some reason, that actually made me feel a whole lot better. thanks

 

[AlphaBC]

I would work for a few years then do a US MBA.

 

[rnvpx]

How's MAFN compared to Columbia MSOR?

MFE>MAFN>OR>Stats
Not sure where MSFE fits in, probably at the MAFN level (slightly higher or lower who knows). But mafn is not as bad as you think. most of us end up with 80-90k jobs, altho it's not easy, nor at the top investment banks. in the end with a program like mafn where there is zero career support from the program, you will be fine if you have the talent. you'll get the interviews