Discussion on RPI FERA Curriculum

[kbharadwaj]

Hi,
My name is Bharadwaj. I would be attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Financial Engineering and Risk Analytics program for Fall 2010. I come from an Engineering background, and I am currently preparing for the prerequisite courses for the Fall semester. I am also preparing for CFA Level I.

I would like to discuss the curriculum of Financial Engineering and Risk Analytics(FERA) program. Kindly provide your inputs on the curriculum.

All students in Financial Engineering and Risk Analytics must take all courses from the list of basic foundation courses that appears below. Students with relevant previous undergraduate and graduate course work can substitute one of these courses with a "concentration" course with the consent of the advisor:

• MGMT 7730 Economics and Institutions
• MGMT 7740 Accounting for Reporting and Control
• MGMT 6020 Financial Management I

Students also take any three (3) of the following courses:

• MGMT 6030 Financial Management II
• MGMT 6410 Investment
• MGMT 6240 Financial Trading and Investing
• MGMT 6380 Advanced Corporate Finance
• MGMT 6370 Options, Futures and Derivative Markets
• MGMT 6360 International Finance

Financial Technology Track - Any four (4) of the following courses:

• CSCI 6960 Computational Finance; or MATH 4740 - Intro to Financial Mathematics
• DSES 6630 Financial Mathematics and Simulation
• MGMT 6400 Financial Econometrics Modeling; or MGMT 69xx Data Analysis
• MGMT 7760 Risk Management
• MATP 6640 Linear Programming
• DSES 6100 Time Series Analysis
• MATH 4800 Numerical Computing
• MATH 4820 Numerical Methods for Differential Equations

Financial Analysis Track - Any four (4) of the following courses:

• MGMT 6340 Financial Markets and Institutions
• MGMT 6260 Entrepreneurial Finance
• MGMT 6400 Financial Econometrics Modeling; or MGMT 69xx Data Analysis
• MGMT 7760 Risk Management
• MATP 6640 Linear Programming
• MGMT 6360 International Finance
• DSES 6630 Financial Mathematics and Simulations

Foundation Course (Prerequisite for all incoming students with Non-business and Non-technology UG Degrees)

• MGMT 4xxx Mathematics and Statistics Foundations (Prerequisite course given as a short course during the summer before the beginning of the program in the fall semester for students without mathematics and statistics skills. This course is not required for students with previous course work in relevant subjects. Other substitute courses are MATH 1520, MATH 4100, DSES 4140, DSES 6160.)

 

[Joy Pathak]

Some of the courses I made sure the program I chose had were:

1) Stochastic Calculus
2) Computational Finance/ Financial Modelling (Courses that have Numerical methods, Monte Carlo, VaR and several things of that sort inluded)
3) Advanced Statistics
4) C++ , .NET courses (Things to know for Algo Trading)
....

I have a list somewhere, but these were some of the courses. I will put it when I get home later today. I kinda looked at some of the top programs and made my curriculum almost similar. Seems like you have some flexibility also. I picked MS Finance of Princeton as a benchmark actually.


I like the Financial Technology track. It would be useful for the line you want to enter.


DSES 6630 Financial Mathematics and Simulation
MGMT 6400 Financial Econometrics Modeling;
MGMT 7760 Risk Management
MATP 6640 Linear Programming
MATH 4820 Numerical Methods for Differential Equations

I don't know what they will teach but assuming it is at par with the courses taught by these names at other schools they should be usefull. Also, I think you mentioned there is no internship right to the program. I hope they introduce it in their new curriculum that they are announcing soon.

 

[kbharadwaj]

First, thank you for the reply.

I chose Baruch's program as a benchmark. This program has sure got the flexibility that you talked about. The financial technology track sure would be the one that I would take up because of my desire to work in that field.

Also I really hope that they add the internship opportunity to their curriculum this Fall. If they do so, that would only add some serious interest for the employers towards the program and also add value to the program's curriculum in a practioner's point of view.

 

[dstefan]

FYI: We are currently revamping the Baruch MFE Program curriculum; 5 new elective courses will be introduced, the number of required courses will be reduced from 9 to 7, and of the electives increased from 3 to 5, and 9 of our current courses will be changed in one form or another.

In other words, the curriculum online is outdated.

 

[kbharadwaj]

Guys, any more views, please feel free to drop by a reply.