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COMPARE Cornell MFE or Chicago MSFM

How would you choose between those two programs


  • Total voters
    78
Joined
2/17/17
Messages
16
Points
113
Hi Forum,
I am choosing between those two programs, so would you guys give me some suggestion on it?

What I am thinking of those programs:
Cornell: 10000 scholarship, outstanding career service, and support. and more practical than Chicago MSFM.

Chicago: huge brand name, comparative advantage in Chicago job market(Not so sure of it) . Rigorous and heavily focused on maths.

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Forum,
I am choosing between those two programs, so would you guys give me some suggestion on it?

What I am thinking of those programs:
Cornell: 10000 scholarship, outstanding career service, and support. and more practical than Chicago MSFM.

Chicago: huge brand name, comparative advantage in Chicago job market(Not so sure of it) . Rigorous and heavily focused on maths.

Thanks in advance.
Hi, I don't know about Cornell's curriculum. As far as i know Chicago's curriculum is very much application oriented. The notion that it is a theoretical course has changed. They have income couple of machine learning and programming courses as well. Careers services is strong in terms of conducting networking events and getting internship opportunities. If you want to bag trading roles ie. Quant trader/researcher then go for Chicago
If you plan to work at a bank or something, I would suggest cornell. But again, don't worry about the curriculum it is math heavy, trading focused and more application oriented I would say which is fine. And yes Chicago has a better brand name and a strong alumni base as well.
 
Hi, I am from Cornell. As you mentioned, we have very outstanding career services. Besides the career services and job posting provided by the university, Cornell Financial Engineering Manhattan offered over 100 resume drops from various firms, and our career manager would hold office hours every week to help with career development issues (resume review, mock interviews, alumni connections, and etc.). For the courses, Cornell could give you the maximum flexibility. We do not have any single required course and only have a very loose requirement for taking at least one course from each of the following four categories: Optimization Modeling, Stochastic Modeling, Data Science/Statistical Modeling, and Financial Application. Therefore, you could take any courses from not only ORIE department but also other departments like CS, Stat, MBA based on your own interests and career objective. There are courses specially designed for professional degrees and also courses focusing on theory and academic research, and you could decide which courses to take with the help of your academic advisor.
 
Don't know much about Cornell MFE apart from the fact that I've never met anyone out of that program (work in trading in NY). I think the general knowledge is most go into Risk at banks out of that program (someone correct me if I'm wrong) if that's what you want to do. I've met a lot of CMU, Columbia, Chicago and some MIT grad school alumni.

Disclaimer: I'm a Chicago MSFM alum

J
 
I think these two programs are comparable.

Almost every year there would be several students from Chicago MSFM who could finally find good buy side jobs like trading roles while many students from Cornell go to big banks. But I should point out that to grasp these opportunities in hedge fund or prop shops you must be confident that your background and tech skills is the top 10% or 20% students in the program.

If you are not sure whether you can not beat most of the students in the same program, Cornell will be a desirable alternative because of its better career service and less people. I don't why people always think Cornell MFE focus on risk jobs. Actually, most people find quant jobs (buy side or sell side). Of course some students with relative weak background finally find risk jobs but according to my knowledge the students with similar background in other programs just don't find any job.

I think Cornell MFE also offers a really flexible course requirement so you can choose the course like such as some courses even from business school or other department like CS or ECE. That's why one of my friend declined UCB MFE and finally chose Cornell MFE. But if you hope to solid your technical skills especially in math I would recommend you Chicago MSFM because I actually I like math :).
 
In short, if you have interest in trading related knowledge , go UChicago.
UChicago MSFM has became more practical in the recent years. You won't get Chicago Job Market from Cornell.
 
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Thank you guys so much for your valuable insights, well I guess although programs are different in nature and specialties, and mannually stratified in tiers, it's the person yourself , rather than the program you will join, matters more in the job market.
 
Thank you guys so much for your valuable insights, well I guess although programs are different in nature and specialties, and mannually stratified in tiers, it's the person yourself , rather than the program you will join, matters more in the job market.
Hi, may I ask where did you choose eventually and how did it going in that program in the past year?
 
Don't know much about Cornell MFE apart from the fact that I've never met anyone out of that program (work in trading in NY). I think the general knowledge is most go into Risk at banks out of that program (someone correct me if I'm wrong) if that's what you want to do. I've met a lot of CMU, Columbia, Chicago and some MIT grad school alumni.

Disclaimer: I'm a Chicago MSFM alum

J
interesting observation... i've never met anyone from cornell's program either considering the size of that program, i gotta have met somebody by now...
 
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