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Columbia MFE Columbia MFE 21

I also got admitted into Cornell and UChicago aside from Columbia, but personally I don't consider those two to be on the same tier as Columbia (which I'd place alongside Princeton/Baruch/CMU/Berkeley as "tier 1" quant programs). I'm sure others will disagree with it, but that was (is) my stance.

Location-wise I don't think it's a super big deal, especially post-covid most, if not all of the big firms (banks/funds/prop) would have developed systems to interview/test applicants remotely, and by the time you recruit, it'd be their third time around (first was for Summer 20, then now Summer 21) so they should be more comfortable and prepared. I'm probably having a very skewed perception of the "NYC location" factor since I haven't really had many chances to go to campus or meet my classmates, let alone use the location advantage to network with people in the industry, maybe I'll have a different perspective after the vaccines are rolled out and we can go back to socializing, maybe not. Try to reach out to some Cornell MFE students or alumni, see whether they see the location as a disadvantage in their career development.


There are ML courses too (intro ML, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and possibly some others I haven't had the chance to look at), but the core courses are pretty vanilla (basic math finance intro, convex opt, stochastic, time series, continuous time models, monte carlo). Previously they were offered 3-3 in the first two semesters, so you take 3 cores + 1 elective in each semester, but this time around we had to do 4 of them in Fall and 2 in Spring possibly to accommodate those who joined in Fall B or Spring semesters (previously Columbia only admits people for Fall start).

Regarding my classmates' placement at banks, I think it's a pretty close breakdown between quant analytics and quant risk management roles, and a few of them got quant trading roles. Take this with a grain of salt, I didn't survey the entire class, these are only based on the few of them I'm close enough to discuss job offers with.
Got it thanks for the answer!.
 
Admission decision. The 3rd, 10th, and 26th seem to be the 3 dates in February that the majority of those who got a decision in February received a response.
Do they send out such decisions based on the time of application submission? Any idea?
 
Do they send out such decisions based on the time of application submission? Any idea?
No idea. I think the only way to answer that question is to reach out to admissions because I doubt anyone here will know the specifics. That said, I would advise against contacting them for something like this. I wouldn't worry yourself about whether submitting your app closer to the deadline means a result coming later. I know it's hard not to be curious, but the time will pass.
 
No idea. I think the only way to answer that question is to reach out to admissions because I doubt anyone here will know the specifics. That said, I would advise against contacting them for something like this. I wouldn't worry yourself about whether submitting your app closer to the deadline means a result coming later. I know it's hard not to be curious, but the time will pass.
Sure. Thanks!
 
Hi congratulations for all the students who got admits from Columbia today, just wanted to know when is the deposit deadline for you guys.
 
Hi congratulations for all the students who got admits from Columbia today, just wanted to know when is the deposit deadline for you guys.
I did not get an admit but I read on another thread that the deadline is the 23rd of this month.
 
23rd Feb is a very aggressive deadline. Why is Columbia doing this? are other schools also giving out admits this early so Columbia knows you can choose?
 
23rd Feb is a very aggressive deadline. Why is Columbia doing this? are other schools also giving out admits this early so Columbia knows you can choose?
I’ve seen in years past that Columbia makes quite a few more offers in later batches. I believe their early deadline is so they can get a good idea on who else they want to offer and who to reject.
 
But this means it is better to get accepted later than now. Columbia shouldnt accept the top candidates now and put them in a difficult position.
 
That's precisely what they're aiming for though. They want first dibs on the top candidates who are likely to be accepted by other top schools like CMU, Courant, Berkeley, Princeton, Baruch. Best outcome you'll join Columbia, worst, they keep your $4k deposit. That's what they've been doing for the past few years if you dig through old threads or ask people.
 
That's precisely what they're aiming for though. They want first dibs on the top candidates who are likely to be accepted by other top schools like CMU, Courant, Berkeley, Princeton, Baruch. Best outcome you'll join Columbia, worst, they keep your $4k deposit. That's what they've been doing for the past few years if you dig through old threads or ask people.
Lol 1) snatch the top candidates -> 2) hope they get a job at Jane Street/Citadel/Two Sigma (large Columbia alum base here according to LinkedIn)/AQR/Man Group/Bridgewater/etc -> 3) increase program's starting salary -> 4) improve QN ranking -> 5) attract top candidates -> 1)
 
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Hi guys, my application status has been changed to "under review", was it the same before you guys getting your decision or does this mean that i am waitlisted. Any thing you can comment would be really helpful
 
Hi guys, my application status has been changed to "under review", was it the same before you guys getting your decision or does this mean that i am waitlisted. Any thing you can comment would be really helpful
Same for me. I think it is more like waitlist/ reject
 
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