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DISCUSSION on second rated MFE programs

on a second note, I'm really curious to know if anybody has any experience either direct or through some stories of somebody they know about the quality and placement records of the Rutgers MSMF program?

anyone?
 
@MidasCFA,

on a second note, I'm really curious to know if anybody has any experience either direct or through some stories of somebody they know about the quality and placement records of the Rutgers MSMF program?

anyone?

I contacted a few rutgers MSMF students on orkut. This is what one of them had to say


" well if i were to do it again i would not come to this course .. life is a bit diff right now .. also regarding the course some profs are good some are not .. experience is ok.. all depends on you.. this is a very tough course as compared to CS or EE .. we are paying full fess they have TAs we are getting interviews for same jobs as them and they are getting selected so ... its upto you what you take of my suggestion "


The same person had earlier said



" About Rutgers MSMF..currently people are looking for internships.. No one ( of us Indians, we r around 9, have landed any internships as of now). But most of us got interviews from goldman, merryl, barclays, morgan stan, bloomberg.. ( most big I banks come here and recruit) etc.. so getting interviews is not the problem cracking them is :).
Being close to NY has great benefits.
We are the second batch here so placement records are not avialible as no one has graduated from this program a of now.
As one of the poster has previously replied, this program has a heavy mathematical content so be prepared for it... for that matter you need to be prepared for any quant program... also a basic course in finance will def help but is not required... "


I have mainly picked this up from what was posted in the orkut forums.
 
@MidasCFA,I contacted a few rutgers MSMF students on orkut. This is what one of them had to say " well if i
I have mainly picked this up from what was posted in the orkut forums.


thanks. Wow, a lot of indian kids joining this program.
 
UCLA extend deadline to the end of July

Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sofitel
44 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
7:00pm-8:30pm

Since you are interested in the NYC session, why don't you go to this one, take a few pictures and report back here. If I remember the date, I may even go to this event to hear their sell pitch. I probably have a few good questions to ask.


By the way, when I sign up for the event, there is a question that how I learn about the UCLA MFE program, here are the choices
  • UCLA Anderson website
  • Email blast
  • Global Derivatives
  • Wilmott
  • QuantNetwork
  • International Associations of Financial Engineers (IAFE)
  • PRMIA
  • Google/Yahoo search
  • Referred by UCLA student/alum/faculty/admin
  • Others
So it's clear that the people at UCLA is aware of the existence of a thorough discussion of their program in this thread thank to me ;)
I'm sure their are monitoring this thread closely as well as anything about UCLA on Wimott and GD. As far as I know, every discussion about UCLA on Wilmott and GD or any other forum all points to this thread so Quantnet is the biggest source they have. I think UCLA should consider buying ads on Quantnet :)
 
Alain, as one of the (prior) offenders, I can see where the other prospective students are coming from. I think the problem is that:
1. When you call the Baruch department asking for help (or go to the website), you are led here with vague promises of advice. People then see this board as a place to get that kind of advice.
2. There are lots of threads on "what should I do", and so everyone thinks it's OK to add one about themselves.

I like your goal of where to go with the forum, so may I suggest the following:

1. There is already a wiki with descriptions of programs. Direct people there to add testimonials, placement information, course structure, etc.
2. Whenever someone puts up a post about "what about my this program?" make sure they go to the wiki first, and tell them to search the forums to add any relevant threads on their program there with a small annotation.
3. Move OT posts about "how is this program" and "how about me" into their own threads as they come up.

Although I'm a newcomer here, I'm also a new student at Baruch, and I'm willing to help police these policies once they're fully formed.

This way, we build a body of knowledge about each program in one centralized location that allows people to both educate themselves on the topic and find such discussions more easily. It should also reduce that kind of traffic over time.

There's no reason to stop there with the wiki, of course; think of how wikipedia is designed; a lot of the content is thinly veiled opinion (many pages have a "pro" and "con", which are not objective at all) -- the same could be done with questions about programming languages, required study topics, etc. on the wiki. The advantage of putting content on the wiki instead of in the forum is the structure.

I'm sure you have been reading the forum for some time, right? Then, you probably notice that we can't give any type of advice regarding any school besides Baruch.

From my point of view, the issue here is that I don't want QN to become another Global Derivative but a place where discussion and professional advice (finance related, work specific, etc) are the main concern. Any topic that reads like "Eval my profile", "where school should I go?", "should I take this job?", etc, shouldn't have place in this forum because everybody is different and they will look at the world with a different set of eyes. Maybe I'm older and I see everything from a different stand point but that is just my opinion.

Believe me, Andy won't ever give you advice regarding which school to go besides Baruch (we share the same opinion regarding this) . That decision should be only yours so in case you don't like it, you don't blame somebody else for it. Again, as long as you are good (and a little bit of luck), it really won't matter which school you go or which program you attend. This only applies to this field though. It might be different in other fields (I know it is really different in Law and MBAs).
 
Doug,
I support all of your suggestions of which some are ready to be implemented.
1) There is a tag feature which you can add to each thread. For example, for all thread discussion Baruch MFE, you can simply add "Baruch MFE" tag to that thread so that everytime someone click on "Baruch MFE" in the tag cloud, they will be shown all threads that are tagged with "Baruch MFE"
Here is a look at the tag cloud QuantNetwork - Financial Engineering Forum - Search Forums
2) Anyone with a Quantnet account can edit, create wiki entry so if people wants to add testimonials to a certain program, they can do it as well. It sounds like a good idea to have current and alumni of a program to post their feedback about that program so every prospective student can be directed to that section before they ask "What is the placement/competitiveness/course at program X"

In all, I agree that the wiki part of Quantnet is severely underutilized. Maybe adding some opinionated content on it will kick it off.

Feel free to come up with ideas and I'll see to make sure I can help make it happen so that Quantnet can be better used for all involved.
 
Andy,
I am wondering could one suggest UCLA waive GRE/GMAT test for PHD holder? Thanks.
 
By overwhelming request, the application deadline for the UCLA Anderson Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) program has been extended to July 31, 2008. We hope this extension will give those who just learned about the MFE program the time to properly prepare for the GMAT/GRE.

The final MFE Information Session for this admission season will be taking place on Wednesday, June 11th at 6:00pm. If you have not attended an information session, you can sign up here: UCLA Anderson School of Management | Master of Financial Engineering.

Feel free to contact me anytime, if you have questions.


Francesca Baugh
Program Director
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Master of Financial Engineering Program
(310) 825-3103
This probably the first time any MFE program extend their deadline "by overwhelming request"? I thought the deadline is there for a reason.
My guess is that they don't have enough applicants to fill the seats yet. If they already filled their quotas by the original deadline, there is no benefit in extending the deadline.
 
Andy, I think the tags could go a long way to organizing the information. Is it possible (desirable?) to make them mandatory for a new post? That's a sure-fire way to get them added. I guess right now you can't add a tag while making a reply, which would also make it easier to tag posts.

I think established members have to add replies to new posts to put their testimonials in the appropriate place on the wiki. When I get a chance, I'll try adding a few new categories to start some documentation on some of these topics I mentioned.

Doug,
I support all of your suggestions of which some are ready to be implemented.
1) There is a tag feature which you can add to each thread. For example, for all thread discussion Baruch MFE, you can simply add "Baruch MFE" tag to that thread so that everytime someone click on "Baruch MFE" in the tag cloud, they will be shown all threads that are tagged with "Baruch MFE"
Here is a look at the tag cloud QuantNetwork - Financial Engineering Forum - Search Forums
2) Anyone with a Quantnet account can edit, create wiki entry so if people wants to add testimonials to a certain program, they can do it as well. It sounds like a good idea to have current and alumni of a program to post their feedback about that program so every prospective student can be directed to that section before they ask "What is the placement/competitiveness/course at program X"

In all, I agree that the wiki part of Quantnet is severely underutilized. Maybe adding some opinionated content on it will kick it off.

Feel free to come up with ideas and I'll see to make sure I can help make it happen so that Quantnet can be better used for all involved.
 
Response to the QuantNetwork survey by Mr. Khaldoun M. Khashanah- Director of the Stevens MFE program

Thank you for your interest in the Stevens Institute of Technology Financial Engineering Program.

The MFE program started in 2003 in the Math Department and moved to the recently launched School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens, a division which has distinguished itself within Stevens for its advocacy of an open academic model and corporate partnerships. The Financial Engineering degree is one of the fastest growing offerings within the school, boasting an annual doubling in the number of applications received, and an acceptance rate of 84%, as word spreads about the convenience of the online courses, and the quality of the faculty.

Students are drawn from around the country and the world, from the Tri-state area, to Florida to Nigeria, and come from companies such as Standard & Poor's, Verizon Wireless, Deloitte and Touche, Citigroup, the US Army, Lockheed Martin, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, UBS Financial Inc, Lehman Brothers and more. Many of our students are sponsored by their companies, and most are working full-time while completing their degree online. Our job placement rate is shaped by the number of students currently being sponsored by their employers, and remains high, but difficult to track so early in the program's history. We are graduating our largest class of MFE students yet this year (9 students), reaping the benefits of a small program within a well-connected larger school.

The tremendous growth of the program's application rate (up 70% from 2007 to 2008) indicates that the financial job market may be undergoing a change in its work force by moving from hiring non-financial engineering graduates to acquiring financial engineering graduates.
 
Some information from Prof. Mikhail Smirnov (Director of Columbia Math Finance program) which is relevant to our survey

Admissions are competitive; it is envisaged that no more than 50 students (full-time) and 20 students (part-time) will be admitted in the Fall 2008 incoming class (Tuesday, September 2, 2008).
The curriculum consists of ten courses: six required courses and four electives chosen from suitable courses in Statistics, Economics or Business. The program concentrates on the advanced quantitative methods required for modern finance and draws on the diverse strengths of Columbia in stochastic processes, numerical methods and application to finance. Full-time students can fulfill all requirements in two semesters; students may also enroll part time. All required courses are offered in the evening. The program attracts students with degrees in mathematics, physics, engineering, or computer science; in addition, some students with backgrounds in business or economics are accepted into the program if they have a solid mathematics foundation and excellent credentials. Financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, McKinsey & Co, Deloitte & Touche and many others have recruited graduates of the program. The employment rate for our graduates is 100%, and recent starting salaries have been between $45,000 and $150,000 per year depending on experience and the position held. The program sponsors numerous recruiting events and has the advantage of being in New York City. Students in the program can also rely on the help of a strong alumni network.
 
Someone mentioned that the latest Columbia MAFN placement info I posted above is not for this year but rather a general poster for the program. Apparently, they just changed the year in that poster so the 100% placement is not for this year. But at least we know about the salary range.
The direct link to the poster is at http://www.math.columbia.edu/~smirnov/MafnPoster2008letter.pdf
 
Only $45,000 for some, eh? I'm just wondering whether or not I should head straight to New York or stick around actuarial for another year or go straight into MFE at my current university...

Bleh...it seems I still have a few months to decide since I'm going into my senior year...
 
haii this is Aravind i jus need few information from you ,,,hope u would help me out .... I have got admissions for M.S in quantitative Finance at fordham and Texas A&M commerce(M.S Finance)

so which could be a better optionn.....
 
What other schools did you get accepted in ??

I haven't heard of the Texas program. Is it Quant oriented or just an MS in finance??

And I'd stay away from Fordham.
 
What other schools did you get accepted in ??

I haven't heard of the Texas program. Is it Quant oriented or just an MS in finance??

And I'd stay away from Fordham.


I havn't got any admisssions other than this .....In texas itz jus M.S finance if you want i will jus give their course contents

Core Courses
1.Financial Management
2.Investment Seminar
3.Advanced Security Analysis
4.Applied Eco&Financial Forecasting
5.Financial Markets Instruments&Institutions
6.International Business Finance
7.Statistical Methods
8.Applied Business Research

Electives

International Economic Prblems
Managerial Economics
Monetary theory
Macro theory&practice
Economics for Public policy
 
Hi,

You have to decide whether you want to join Finance or quantitative finance. Just in a nutshell.....Quantitative Finance and financial engineering involve lots of coding but the Finance field that you mentioned over here does not have any programming courses. Financial engineering is a cross-disciplinary field which relies on mathematical finance, numerical methods and computer simulations to make trading, hedging and investment decisions, as well as facilitating the risk management of those decisions.


If you do not have a mathematical background ...you might find quantitative subjects overwhelming.
 
I havn't got any admisssions other than this .....In texas itz jus M.S finance if you want i will jus give their course contents...

You won't get a quant job with this. Not only is it lacking the programming courses, it doesn't have the hard-core applied math courses (numerical analysis, PDEs, stochastic).
 
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