Columbia MSOR vs UCSD Computational Mathematics

[Faisal]

Hi. I was admitted to the MSOR program at Columbia and am pretty certain to join it. However, today I received this very late admission to the MS in Computational Science, Mathematics and Engineering Program (CSME) at UCSD. In the long run I would like to be a researcher for a financial firm in quantitative strategies or market modelling. Which of the two programs would you recommend?

UCSD's program requires me to take rigorous courses in Algorithms, Stochastic Methods, Numerical PDEs, Numerical Optimization etc. However there are no quantitative finance courses. My undergraduate major was Civil Engineering and hence I have limited courseworks in advanced Mathematics and Computer Science. Thus I find UCSD's program a better path towards building my Mathematical background and hence towards a possible PhD and research career.

On the other hand, Columbia MSOR is full of quantitative finance courses offered by a world famous department. However I am concerned about the rigour and mathematical content of the program (There are no courses on numerical PDEs or SDEs which is are extremely vital for derivative pricing). Also, in contrast to the UCSD program which takes in only 4-5 students for its MS program, MSOR has student intake of over 100 including many students from lower rung Indian Engineering colleges which makes me apprehensive if the courses are diluted.

Both are top ranked institutions, with UCSD being one the world's top Engineering schools while Columbia's IEOR has an extremely strong reputation in financial world.
Please share your thoughts.

 

[Jose T]

What you have to realize about rankings is that many non-academic people are not aware of the subject area-specific ranking of a school. To the extent people are aware of rankings, they are usually only loosely aware of the general rank of the school. To the casual observer handling your resume, UCSD is not a top school (nor is my school, Rutgers, for that matter), it is not even a top UC school. It is not the equal in brand name to Columbia.

However, there's nothing wrong with going to a non-brand school (I certainly don't think so ) and from your research, it may be that you will get a better academic experience at UCSD. The fact that it is highly ranked in engineering will make a difference if go onto PhD (since academics do pay attention to the various rankings and sub-rankings even when their kid is not applying to college next year). You should try to get a firm idea of whether that's what you want as early as you can because a PhD will really consume a lot of your life choices.

You haven't said whether you're getting state tuition at UCSD (i.e. if UCSD is a huge discount to Columbia). If that's the case, I can't really say which is better. If you decide you don't want a PhD and the cost is roughly equivalent, I would go to Columbia even if the academic experience is worse. It's stupid, but people really do care about the brand. I say that as both a Rutgers grad student and a Cornell alumn.

 

[Faisal]

Thanks Jose Thomas . That was very clear and informative. UCSD is not offering me any funding and so I will probably go with Columbia.

I have one more concern and as a current student of a top MSMF program you are probably well positioned to answer it. I have heard that having an undergraduate major in Computer Engineering or CS is viewed much more favourably by recruiters to offer interviews than a similar candidate with a Mechanical/Civil Engineering major. Adding on to that I am coming straight from my undergrad and my internships are in form of summer research programs in Applied Mathematics (Modeling, Analysis and Programming in Matlab, but nothing finance related).

Given these circumstances, would it be fine for me to take quant finance electives in my OR program? I am apprehensive that my resume would not even be shortlisted for interviews by recruiters.

 

[Jose T]

There is a discussion about Columbia MSOR on this website that might be helpful to you:

https://www.quantnet.com/forum/threads/some-truth-about-the-columbia-msor.1358/

I think you are correct that Computer / Electrical Engineering, CS and probably also Math are likely the most attractive undergrad majors for this type of work. I am not a hiring manager though.

However, I don't think you would be at all unusual to be going to the Columbia MSOR program to break into finance (you might be more unusual if you weren't trying to do this from my understanding). I don't have any first hand knowledge though, so advise you to read through the above thread in its entirety.

FWIW, based on what I know of OR, the subject matter and math are not dissimilar to mathematical finance, so theoretically there should not be an issue. Again, there are people out there who will pay more attention to the fact that your degree says 'Columbia' than to what you studied.