Education Advice - NYU Advanced Certificate in Financial Mathematics

[Keni]

Hello all, this is my first post and I'm hoping to get some good advice from the current quants and quant recruiters on this form.

I hold a BS in Electrical Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) and MS in Computer Systems Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from Boston University. After university, I worked at a defense company as a Software Engineer for 2 years. I took a big turn in my career by taking over my family's hotel portfolio of 6 hotels; working on increasing operating efficiency, and actively pursuing acquisition and development opportunities...have been doing that for the past 2 years as well.

I would like to re-enter a more technical role and I find finance to be very exciting. I completed a summer course at Yale in Stochastic Calculus for Finance (using Shreve Vol 1). I would like to accelerate my entrance into the workforce, and am contemplating NYU's Advanced Certificate in Financial Mathematics, which is basically taking 8 courses whereas the MS in Mathematics in Finance is 11 courses.

I need to slowly transition my duties over to my partner if I am to successfully make this move, so I feel that the Certificate is the MOST flexible way to do this. The main thing is that as I pursue the Certificate, I would actively be searching for quant internships / jobs...and if I were to get one during the Certificate, I would start working in finance and keep going with the Certificate as well.

I do have good discrete stochastics background from my Master's work, but not much in professional experience in "Wall Street Finance".

So question is, should I pursue the degree or the certificate. I really don't care about having another Master's...I just want to accelerate my entrance into the financial industry while continually learning.

 

[alain]

What happened with the Hotel portfolio?

 

[Keni]

It's still there, if I do make the move over to a quant career...I plan on transitioning the management of the properties to my trusted partner who also has an ownership stake in the portfolio.

 

[Allan]

Hello quants,

Would you recommend an applied mathematics MS over a pure mathematics MS? It probably 'depends.' Let's specify those variables. Applied math, mostly concentrating in mathematical economics, with lots of modeling vs. pure math, say, diffeq, number theory, etc.

Thanks!

 

[Yuriy]

Keep in mind that if you take the certificate you will be on your own in terms of searching for jobs, internships, etc. Certificates are usually for people who are either working or studying for a degree but want to increase their knowledge in some areas. This might be good if you, say, have the famous OR degree from Columbia and have no problems looking for jobs.

 

[Keni]

Well the funny thing is that assistance is only provided to Full-Time MS Students, not even Part-Time degree students. I find that odd..

 

[Yuriy]

There was a discussion elsewhere on this forum about possible reasons NYU does not offer job search assistance to part-time students. Most part-time students already have jobs and don't need job assistance.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Keni,
I typed a long reply on my Blackberry on the way home but somehow my fat fingers accidentally erased them all so here is my mini version of it.
Yuriy already pointed out a few important points about the NYU cert program. I'd like to know why you zero in on that program? Is that an online, remote program?

Secondly, you don't provide enough useful info for people to give advice whether a certificate make more sense to you?
What kind of hotel portfolio are we talking about here? Is it 6 bed-and-breakfast, mom and dad type? Or is it a few hundred rooms operation type? Is there a upside in that business? If you can make 6 figure being your own boss in a few years, why work for someone else?
My experience is that when you are in another industry and want to break into finance, the best way is through a full-time condensed program that thrusts you into the job market after a year or so. What best about it is that it puts you in a interview-ready mentality. Whether you are actually ready is another story and depends on the program/student.
The part-time, certificate type would have you languished for 2, 3 years and by the time you're done, you already forget most of it. If you pay out of your pocket, it may not be the best use of your time and money.
Have you looked at the CQF program?

 

[Keni]

Andy,

The NYU Advanced Certificate Program is live instruction, same classes as the MS students. It just makes sense to me since I'd be able to make a trip once a week to NYC from Connecticut for either one or two classes and also for some group study time on the weekend. I also looked at CMU's NYC program, but I really having a professor in front of you makes a difference.

The hotels we own and operate are all limited-service mid-scale brands (Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express). The smallest one being 40 units and the largest being 90 units. We make six figures as of now in terms of cash income, and we build considerable real estate equity every year. The fact is that this business would continue to operate and grow even if I hand off operations and development responsibilities to my partner, I don't feel I NEED to be here...I would simply act as a silent investor.

I want to make use of my quantitative abilities, and I simply know I would make a great fit for a position as a quant. My decision is more out of passion than the rewards.

What is the CQF program ??

 

[alain]

I want to make use of my quantitative abilities, and I simply know I would make a great fit for a position as a quant. My decision is more out of passion than the rewards.

In this case, go full time and you won't regret it. You will be done faster and you can get more accomplished. I don't think the certificate will help you as much.

 

[tim]

"I want to make use of my quantitative abilities, and I simply know I would make a great fit for a position as a quant. My decision is more out of passion than the rewards."

"The smallest one being 40 units and the largest being 90 units. We make six figures as of now in terms of cash income, and we build considerable real estate equity every year."


Have you think of get your hotle portfolio securitized? This way you can structure the deal in any kind of quantitative way you like and also amplify (maybe) the cash income you are making now.
This is/was one of the hottest topic in quantitative finance --- structured finance :D

 

[Andy Nguyen]

What is the CQF program ??

It's an online certificate http://www.7city.com/cqf/

I mentioned it because i thought the NYU cert program is also online. If you want to do a brick and mortar program and your business is generating 6 figure income without your daily intervention, why not go full-time?
There are plenty of programs in and around NYC you can take. Take a look at the wiki
I don't know anything about the NYU Cert program to say if it's good or not so you should shop around.

 

[Bill Tang]

Algorithm Trading Question

Can somebody suggest how I can learn lagorithm trading?..are there courses or ceritificate available in NYC?

Thanks in advance

 

[Yuriy]

There is a course at NYU dealing with algo trading. I'm not sure what background they expect students to have, check their website.

 

[alain]

Can somebody suggest how I can learn lagorithm trading?..are there courses or ceritificate available in NYC?

Thanks in advance

I found a class at NYU related to this topic but my advice is to create your own thing and start trading on a paper account or backtest some strategy. Nobody is going to tell you anything.

 

[Yuriy]

That is very true, Alain nobody will tell us anything that would lead to making money
I'm wondering what they teach in that course? "how to set up trading systems and all sorts of software tricks" ?

 

[Poomrang]

Moneny and women are alike, if you don't take care of, it may make another person happy.. think well about that

 

[alain]

Moneny and women are alike, if you don't take care of, it may make another person happy.. think well about that

This is very derogatory. Women might think the same about you.

 

[doug reich]

There was a discussion elsewhere on this forum about possible reasons NYU does not offer job search assistance to part-time students. Most part-time students already have jobs and don't need job assistance.

I would check if this is redunant, but I looked around and couldn't find the thread.

I recall at their information session some bull about PT students already having jobs. However, I spoke to one of the heads, and he said it was just lack of resources; they wish they could offer the services, but they just can't.

I'll leave it to others to infer about their relative priorities RE PT and certificate students.

 

[MikeK]

Can somebody suggest how I can learn lagorithm trading?..are there courses or ceritificate available in NYC?

Thanks in advance

NYU has a certificate program (you can take 8 classes) or you can apply as a non-degree student (you can take 4 classes). Both have pretty low acceptance rates, though obviously not as low as their real program. Regardless, you can then take their Algo Trading class, assuming you fill the proper prerequisites, which are listed as "Computing in Finance, and Capital Markets and Portfolio Theory, or equivalent".