COMPARE Columbia MFE vs Cornell MFE

[Jingqi]

Hello everyone, I have been admitted to Columbia MFE and Cornell MFE and I think I need some suggestions to make the decision. I have heard about the great career services at Cornell and their summer internship placement was 100% last year. Columbia MFE has merely no career services but a better location and is regarded as the tier 1 program. I am an international student so I think the career services is an asset to me. May I have any suggestions? Thank you very much.

 

[sandeepchandaluri]

Columbia's MFE is unparallel when compared to Cornell's MFE solely due to its advantage with respect to the location. While career services is a factor to consider, it is pretty obvious that they are not going to spoon feed anyone and it is the student who has to network, build connections ultimately to land up with a job. I have talked to many students from Columbia and Cornell and I understood how location of the university matters a lot especially when it comes to quant roles. Also, many Columbia students agree that career services at Columbia is not as bad as everyone thinks, just that they are below par when compared to CMU or Cornell. Still they are good enough to achieve almost 100% jobs to all the students. Once you complete your degree with decent scores in either of Cornell or Columbia, it is most probable that you end up with some job but all that differs is the kind of role and location you land up with and I think it's better with Columbia. Congratulations for your admits and all the very best.

 

[Jingqi]

Columbia's MFE is unparallel when compared to Cornell's MFE solely due to its advantage with respect to the location. While career services is a factor to consider, it is pretty obvious that they are not going to spoon feed anyone and it is the student who has to network, build connections ultimately to land up with a job. I have talked to many students from Columbia and Cornell and I understood how location of the university matters a lot especially when it comes to quant roles. Also, many Columbia students agree that career services at Columbia is not as bad as everyone thinks, just that they are below par when compared to CMU or Cornell. Still they are good enough to achieve almost 100% jobs to all the students. Once you complete your degree with decent scores in either of Cornell or Columbia, it is most probable that you end up with some job but all that differs is the kind of role and location you land up with and I think it's better with Columbia. Congratulations for your admits and all the very best.

Thank you for your response. I do agree that whether there are career services or not, we still need to make an effort to get jobs and I think I will choose Columbia.