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COMPARE Cornell MFE VS Columbia MAFN

Feynman-Kac

Joined
10/20/12
Messages
16
Points
13
Hello everyone, I'm a student from China and recently I've got admission from both programs. It's pretty hard to make a decision between them. Better program VS better name.

I'd like to work in U.S. in S&T or hedge funds, and probably go back to Shanghai or Hong Kong in several years.

Two specific things to ask.
1 Does the name Columbia really dominate Cornell in NYC financial industry? To what extent?
2 If I fail to find a full-time job after the graduation of MAFN, but an intern without H1B, can I stay in U.S. with OPT?

Thanks for your advice! Any info about these two programs will be helpful!
 
Feynman-Kac said:
Hello everyone, I'm a student from China and recently I've got admission from both programs. It's pretty hard to make a decision between them. Better program VS better name.

I'd like to work in U.S. in S&T or hedge funds, and probably go back to Shanghai or Hong Kong in several years.

Two specific things to ask.
1 Does the name Columbia really dominate Cornell in NYC financial industry? To what extent?
2 If I fail to find a full-time job after the graduation of MAFN, but an intern without H1B, can I stay in U.S. with OPT?

Thanks for your advice! Any info about these two programs will be helpful!
Click to expand...
I have the same situation with you. I got admitted by both programs, but still not decide how to choose. When do you have to reply for Columbia?

You can stay in U.S. with OPT for the internship. I am not sure how long you can stay. For engineering graduate, the OPT is 12 months and for business graduate, the OPT is 3 months.
 
I'm in the same situation too. I heard that columbia's career service is abysmal if that helps.
 
Feynman-Kac said:
Hello everyone, I'm a student from China and recently I've got admission from both programs. It's pretty hard to make a decision between them. Better program VS better name.

I'd like to work in U.S. in S&T or hedge funds, and probably go back to Shanghai or Hong Kong in several years.

Two specific things to ask.
1 Does the name Columbia really dominate Cornell in NYC financial industry? To what extent?
2 If I fail to find a full-time job after the graduation of MAFN, but an intern without H1B, can I stay in U.S. with OPT?

Thanks for your advice! Any info about these two programs will be helpful!
Click to expand...
Correction: The OPT time is 29 months for Engineering and 12 months for Business if you find a job.
 
Seems like Cornell got much more fans~Could anyone shoot some solid reasons to surrender me?
 
I did Cornell and I am quite happy with it. I would be glad to talk to you in details if you have questions - shoot me a message. I believe our program is much more applied than the MAFN which is what might help you in finding a job. I have friends from the FE at Columbia and I personally like the Cornell curriculum and experience more. In terms of finding a job - I would say there is no difference between Columbia and Cornell FE -> not sure how is it with MAFN.
 
mist said:
I think this is wrong. Any international students in USA will have 12 month long OPT period. And, STEM students will get additional 17 months.
And, some math finance programs are STEM, and some are not. So, do thorough search if you want that extension.
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Thanks for your correction. One cannot hold an OPT without a job or intern, right?
 
Sherlock said:
I did Cornell and I am quite happy with it. I would be glad to talk to you in details if you have questions - shoot me a message. I believe our program is much more applied than the MAFN which is what might help you in finding a job. I have friends from the FE at Columbia and I personally like the Cornell curriculum and experience more. In terms of finding a job - I would say there is no difference between Columbia and Cornell FE -> not sure how is it with MAFN.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear from you! Where did most people from Cornell MFE go to? Cuz personally I quite like to get a job in buy-side, like quant or trading assistant in HF or AM . Does the skill set of Cornell MFE fit this goal?
 
I truly agree with you on that what matters most is our own ability. Besides, as far as I know, Cornell enjoys a nice placement mainly because the Director Victoria tries to put the students in risk-related departments in Citi-Bank. Pay attention, risk-related departments not S & T or hedge funds! So if you are interested in risk management, let's vote for Cornell. If you are interested in front office positions, I believe Columbia will have advantages due to the name, the alumni network, the location and so on. Last thing to say, don't rely too much on others like career service, focus on the improvement of your hard skills and interpersonal skills.
 
jimsmart said:
I truly agree with you on that what matters most is our own ability. Besides, as far as I know, Cornell enjoys a nice placement mainly because the Director Victoria tries to put the students in risk-related departments in Citi-Bank. Pay attention, risk-related departments not S & T or hedge funds! So if you are interested in risk management, let's vote for Cornell. If you are interested in front office positions, I believe Columbia will have advantages due to the name, the alumni network, the location and so on. Last thing to say, don't rely too much on others like career service, focus on the improvement of your hard skills and interpersonal skills.
Click to expand...

I partly agree that. Do you have a solid record that showed a lot of placement of Cornell MFE is in sell-side risk? Also, the one-year duration of MAFN is a big problem. To directly find a quantitative full-time in the Street is much harder for a Chinese student like me...
 
Feynman-Kac said:
I partly agree that. Do you have a solid record that showed a lot of placement of Cornell MFE is in sell-side risk? Also, the one-year duration of MAFN is a big problem. To directly find a quantitative full-time in the Street is much harder for a Chinese student like me...
Click to expand...

The programs in Columbia or Cornell do not announce their employment report but you can consult students there, somebody who know some guy in the programs and somebody who rejected the programs. You can reach these people by email (Cornell has the students' email on the program website) or forums like Chase-Dream. I heard the "Cornell-Risk" stuff from the forums, somebody who rejected Cornell and chose Columbia MFE and a PhD in my office. I did not challenge this saying because I heard before that similar things happened in NYU and Berkeley. So do your research if you don't believe that saying. As for the one-year duration, you can choose Cornell if that is indeed a huge problem for you or you can start fighting at this moment if you believe a better name or ranking is your first concern and thus choose Columbia.
 
jimsmart said:
The programs in Columbia or Cornell do not announce their employment report but you can consult students there, somebody who know some guy in the programs and somebody who rejected the programs. You can reach these people by email (Cornell has the students' email on the program website) or forums like Chase-Dream. I heard the "Cornell-Risk" stuff from the forums, somebody who rejected Cornell and chose Columbia MFE and a PhD in my office. I did not challenge this saying because I heard before that similar things happened in NYU and Berkeley. So do your research if you don't believe that saying. As for the one-year duration, you can choose Cornell if that is indeed a huge problem for you or you can start fighting at this moment if you believe a better name or ranking is your first concern and thus choose Columbia.
Click to expand...

You make the situation clearer to me. I did some research and go-to-risk things happened in many programs. Getting a FO job needs above-average ability. Maybe I will still choose Cornell for the duration, as I'm quite sure I'm not well-prepared.
 
Feynman-Kac said:
You make the situation clearer to me. I did some research and go-to-risk things happened in many programs. Getting a FO job needs above-average ability. Maybe I will still choose Cornell for the duration, as I'm quite sure I'm not well-prepared.
Click to expand...

That is nice. Dropping a bigger name needs courage~BTW, I have already accepted the MAFN this year because all I have are one-year programs and Columbia has a better location. It is reasonable to choose Cornell not only for duration but for curriculum. Good luck with you~
 
jimsmart said:
That is nice. Dropping a bigger name needs courage~BTW, I have already accepted the MAFN this year because all I have are one-year programs and Columbia has a better location. It is reasonable to choose Cornell not only for duration but for curriculum. Good luck with you~
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help~Hope you all best.
 
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