COMPARE Columbia MFE vs Columbia MAFN

[Mike_B]

menovive Could you give us some more detail about your experience with the MAFN program and perhaps post a review on this site

 

[menovive]

Sure afrr exams bro

 

[Mike_B]

Sure afrr exams bro

Great. Thanks.

 

[Mike_B]

Sure afrr exams bro

Hope your exams went well. Any update?

 

[menovive]

Hi Mike, I will definitely do it. but please let me take my time. email me if u have some thing specific vivekmenon.in@gmail.com Thanks

 

[Mike_B]

Hi Mike, I will definitely do it. but please let me take my time. email me if u have some thing specific vivekmenon.in@gmail.com Thanks

Sure. Didn't mean to be pushy. Thanks a lot.

 

[falcon]

I apologize for waking up a thread 2 years old. Basically, I am debating between MSOR and MAFN.
I would like to hear more about the question posted right above: "how effective is the do it yourself method at MAFN"

Thank you!

 

[KPC]

I graduated from the MAFN program, thought i'd shed some light on this topic. Comparison of the courses
1. Stochastic Processes in MFE is no match for Stochastic Processes which is taught in MAFN(This is the most essential course). Students from the MAFN program are generally very good at stochastic
2. Data Analysis in MFE sucks( course is very superficial, they are taught ARMA in 1 day, ARIMA in another day ARCH and GARCH few more days and this course also covers Linear Regression, In a nutshell MFE students dont learn anything) , Time series in MAFN is a very good course. The course covers material from time series theory and methods. I did the course under professor richard davis. He is amazing and he covered all the stuff in great detail.
3. Linear regression is covered in full detail in MAFN while its covered superficially in MFE in the data analysis class.
4. Intro to MAFN is not a great course. I'm pretty sure that course is better taught in MFE, this course is a very rudimentary course and covers the material from HULL(first 17 chapters). Most students entering the program are already familiar with the content in the book, even if the students havenot seen the material before they should be able to tacke it without any hassles.
5.Continuous Time Models in MFE and Stochastic Methods in Finance in MAFN are pretty much identical.
6. Barring the above courses there are absolutely no good courses in the MAFN program. At this juncture a student can take good courses in MFE and learn more than an identical student from MFE or take fraudulent seminars in the MAFN department and learn nothing. This is probably the best part(could be the worst part too) about MAFN, You can take all the good courses.. do 12 courses and pay 40k usd than paying close to 65k usd in MFE.
7. I took Implied Vol Smile and Monte Carlo methods in the MFE. Implied Vol Smile is probably the most practical course and the best course that i did at Columbia apart from Stochastic. Professor Derman is Fantastic and he provides great intuition. This course is a "MUST TAKE". Monte Carlo Methods is a good course but i think the material covered in the course is pretty straightforward and one can learn it in less than a week.
8. I also audited QRM and personally i dont like risk management, its a very boring topic and i regret not doing term structure models.
BottomLine : If you are good and if you have prior programming background then opt for MAFN. You will definitely learn more if you take the right courses. If you are'nt smart then both MAFN and MFE will be hell but MAFN will cost you less :P

 

[falcon]

Thanks, KPC!
I will most likely be taking MAFN for the upcoming Fall, so your post has been very helpful and encouraging.
Could you also comment on the career prospects at MAFN, provided that you have programming background and take the right courses like you have done? I'm coming from electrical engineering background, and thus pretty confident with MATLAB, C, C++, Python, Java. How tough is it to get that first interviews?

 

[KPC]

There are lot of people who tell me that MFE is more applied ..more practical more finance related. I say its non sense. If one is aspiring to be a quant one needs to be very very good at Math. More the math the better the program. (I'm assuming that the student has an adequate programming background which is a MUST).....In addition to the math and programming all you need is Professor derman's Implied Vol Smile. Professor derman will give you all the finance knowledge that you need. BottomLine: Take MAFN take Vol Smile , term structure models in MFE and learn monte carlo or audit the course ! and there is also a lot of controversy surrounding whether professor Karatzas teaches at columbia or not. He is very much with columbia but he only teaches PHD and Advanced PHD courses. I'm actually considering doing Probability theory under him in the coming fall !!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks a lot KPC
I hope incoming or students interested in the Columbia MAFN will take good notes of your suggestion.
Can you talk a bit about career services there? Is there anything the program (not the university) providing to help their students with career preparation? I have a quick question here and some good info is coming in.
Is the 9 month duration of the course a big problem with students trying to find internships and jobs?

I hear a lot of people mention that IEOR dept is a lot richer than the Math dept so they can afford to hire dedicated career staff, practitioners, etc while the Math dept seems to be run like a traditional math dept. What is your take on this?

 

[KPC]

Thanks, KPC!
I will most likely be taking MAFN for the upcoming Fall, so your post has been very helpful and encouraging.
Could you also comment on the career prospects at MAFN, provided that you have programming background and take the right courses like you have done? I'm coming from electrical engineering background, and thus pretty confident with MATLAB, C, C++, Python, Java. How tough is it to get that first interviews?

Career prospects in MAFN in general at columbia suck man ! infact i did my undergrad in electrical engineering too :P but i have a strong programming background ! if you have a programming background then you will get shortlisted. There are lot of people who will tell you that you need to start looking for jobs from day 1. I wouldnt recommend it because with 95% confidence you'd fare badly in the interview. Try to learn the stuff in the first semester ! and then start applying from the 2nd semester !

 

[KPC]

Thanks a lot KPC
I hope incoming or students interested in the Columbia MAFN will take good notes of your suggestion.
Can you talk a bit about career services there? Is there anything the program (not the university) providing to help their students with career preparation? I have a quick question here and some good info is coming in.
Is the 9 month duration of the course a big problem with students trying to find internships and jobs?

I hear a lot of people mention that IEOR dept is a lot richer than the Math dept so they can afford to hire dedicated career staff, practitioners, etc while the Math dept seems to be run like a traditional math dept. What is your take on this?

Career services suck andy. The program doesnt offer any help. I dont know how to answer the question whether the 9 month program is good or bad it varies from student to student. if the student is smart then 9 months is adequate, if the student isnot smart then i dont think even 1.5 years is adequate. People who can tackle the mathematical rigour can handle the 9 month duration. Now coming to internships and jobs i'm really not sure as i'm not looking for jobs(i'm a PHD aspirant) but from a neutral perspective graduating in 9 months, i think you will have more time to look for jobs once u graduate ! Again it depends on what job one needs !

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Fair point. Do you think you are in a position to comment on the type of applicants the Columbia MAFN program is a good fit for? And not good fit for?
Same question for Columbia MFE program, since you are somewhat familiar with their courses.
Thanks

 

[KPC]

If the student is familiar with programming then MAFN is a good program provided he takes the good courses. if the student doesnt have any programming background then he might consider taking MFE and take up programming courses in MFE which i'd not recommend strongly. If one wants to learn programming one has to take up courses(Basic programming and design and analysis of algorithms)in the computer science department and not in the IEOR department.

 

[KPC]

This is a very subjective issue ...Students who can handle the pressure should opt for MAFN, and those who cant should opt for MFE and peacefully complete the program in 3 semesters ! If one wants to get into asset management and risk management then one should opt for MFE, there are no courses on asset/risk management in the MAFN program. Asset management and risk management are generally over subscribed so only the IEOR students can get registered into these courses.

 

[vashok]

if you are debating between those 2, id suggest MAFN over MSOR. The placement is definitely better in MAFN than MSOR

 

[vashok]

agreed with kpc, actually it doesnt matter which program you are enrolled in. The employers dont really distinguish between MAFN MFE or any of the other programs at columbia. It is just viewed as a quantitative degree from columbia. What matters is whether you know the fundamentals ( stochastic methods, linear regression, time series, etc). You can be in any of the programs and take any class you want at Columbia. I think i know who KPC is we have taken classes together haha

 

[diegosanaz]

Just to know, my dream program would be MAFN al Columbia, I have begun my application. The course of Application Programming for FE would be a most for the profile I would like to have at graduation, but it says that it is for IEOR students only. Were the classes you took from IEOR also like this or are this rules new??

 

[Actually G]

Hi, I will likely be enrolling in Columbia's MAFN program this Fall 2014.

I wanted to know if the coursework in the MAFN program that covers topics found in the Columbia's MSFE core course IEOR E4007: Optimization Models and Methods for Financial Engineers?

Any information/thoughts in this regard would be helpful.

Thanks