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Columbia MSOR Columbia MSFE reject, redirected to MSOR

mfegrad said:
CharlesT

straight up and in the interest of full disclosure...which program are you attending/heading to/a graduate of, if any?
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I already said, "I'm just a PROSPECTIVE students doing research on various programs and talked a little about my thoughts in this forum."
The direct answer is I'm not sure which program I'm going to attend. I'm not even sure whether I will choose to study MFE.
 
bullion said:
Hey CharlesT,

1) That is correct. However, NYU students has to choose 11 / 17 (65%) classes to graduate. MSFE students, however, chooses 12 classes from 22 electives (55%) to graduate according to their proposed Aug 2013 completion. If the full range of all electives represent the full range of topics in traditional FE, that means NYU covered 65% of everything the professors know and Columbia covered only 55%. This metric obviously has its shortcoming (different classes with similar topics, seminar-style coverage.) But with the availability of "concentrations," MSFE now looks like an umbrella program combining "specialists" from four different focuses and all other students in between. Why not just open four different master programs then? That at least tells me upfront at admissions what I'll be training for.
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Do you know that the majority of the MSFE students are graduating in Dec.? That means 4 or 5 courses in the second Fall. You can add that to 12 and calculate the ratio by yourself. Don't have enough time to read all your postings. As I said before, students who are interested in studying MFE can do their own research.
 
bullion said:
Hey CharlesT, I appreciate your comments and thoughts regarding my posts. I am, however, feeling a somewhat defensive vibe from your posts. I am not here to speak ill of Collumbia given my tremendous respect for Prof Derman and his colleagues. I simply find the CMU program more suitable for me and those who share my interest / passion toward a certain career direction. However, remylebeau 's question was regarding the origin of my personal perception (quite possibly misplaced) of the two programs. Columbia serves its students unique needs very well, and I have no interest in arguing which is categorically better.
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I know CMU has a very very good program in MFE. I want to say it again and again, I know CMU has a very good program.
 
Hey guys, it has been a week sine my interview for MSOR but I am still waiting to hear from admissions committee. Is anyone in the same boat? I saw people get results on the same day of their interviews...Last Friday I got an email saying that application is still under review and now I got another one asking me to sign up for an interview slot...this is really confusing...any clue on what's going on? :)
 
I am in a similar boat..gave interview on 19th but received the mail on friday that my application is under review and now another interview mail yesterday.

crispally: did you sign up for the interview again?
 
Faisal No, I didn't. Not sure if we are supposed to but I emailed them to ask what's up with these emails...it's a bit confusing. I would be really sad if they rejected me or put me on the wait list after that 5-minute interview...
 
Hey guys,

I'm admitted to MS&E and was curious if any of you are aware of this new program (its class size, placement, etc.).
To me, I feel like MSOR and MS&E have alot in common, which only results in higher competition when it comes to job searches....
What do you think are the main differences (PRO and CON) of each programs?

Thanks!
 
I don't know why: None of the posts saying that Columbia MFE is not good online is posted by Columbia students themselves. People from other programs just "heard" that Columbia MFE is not good... without providing much evidence of substantial supports.

I think it does not matter much which program (among the top 10) to choose. I don't want to spend too much time to over-think about it. If I cannot get a job eventually, it might not be the problem of the program, but my own problem.
 
Hey Jen,
So Columbia now has five related programs
MSFE - Dept of IEOR - Gets priority for FE courses
MS&E - Dept of IEOR
MSOR - Dept of IEOR - Flexible curriculum. Eligible to under-subscribed FE courses
MAFN - Dept of Math
MSFE (Financial Economics) - Business School - Business School career services
In terms of teaching, Columbia is impeccable. But as you rightfully suspect, the word on the street is that the competition is fierce among peers. The MSFE program has recently published their placement record and it turned out to be quite impressive. But for the other four programs, I'm not aware of any placement statistics.

psmart is correct that no Columbia students have blatantly come out and criticize the programs so far (and they shouldn't.) But a recent survey of current students can be found here. A post from 2008 by financeguy (who was a MSOR student) here is also quite interesting. This was the time before MSFE had their designated career officer (granted, the officer a current PhD student in psychology with relatively short experience in the financial industry in comparison to Baruch's Jim Gatheral (ex-managing director from Merrill Lynch), Berkeley's Linda Kreitzman (been placing MFE students since 2000), and CMU's three people team all with front office experiences from major banks, but I digress.) The Columbia program(s) have changed quite a bit in the past few years, but those improvements require some time to kick in and change people's perceptions.

With that said, some aspects of the program(s) remain unchanged. Columbia is still one of the most Chinese-friendly schools (so the language/visa problem might be true). Most programs still don't have access to business school career services (except for the Fin Econ program), and they do not have separate courses for programming. Whether programming deserves separate classes is a matter of public debate and I'll let you (and hiring managers) decide...
 
What was the class size last year ? I got the following reply from Adina Brooks a couple of days back..
"
Dear Sudarshan,

Congratulations on your acceptance to our program – we expect this fall’s incoming class to be approx. 125 students. .

Best,
Adina

"
 
After last email for acceptance from MSOR, did anyone receive additional emails this week? I remembered in the last email,they said they will email us again this week after documents verification.
 
I received an email just now further to MSOR acceptance

It is extremely important that you complete and submit our Admission Response Form by 12:00 a.m. on 4/15/2012, indicating if you accept or decline our offer of admission. The Graduate Student Services Office must receive this form, along with a $2,500 non-refundable tuition deposit in order to finalize your student status and hold your place in the Fall 2012 class.
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ok I got it now. they send these notifications at the weirdest times o_O
 
On the same boat as many of the people here. Not an interview call even. Applied way back in December. Pending and its the 31st of March. Time to forget about Columbia :p
 
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