COMPARE IIT MMF or NYU-Poly MFE, which one I should go?

[figoliuxi]

Just received three programs admission due to my poor background. Not sure which one is better and which one I should attend.
Almost I have withdrew MFE program from Claremont Graduate Univ. because of the high costs(about 50k with 20% tuition waiver).

So, for the MMF program in Illinois Institute of Tech and MFE program in NYU-Poly, I need you guys' suggestions and opinion.

For the IIT
pros: the great course structure; great faculty combining industry experience and academic theory; small class size;really strong at quantitative analysis.
cons: Really bad reputation in China; Almost the whole class are Chinese; Lacking some career resources and hardware(Like Bloomberg.etc)
For the Poly
pros: The great brand of NYU(I heard that the degree will be NYU School of Engineering and Technology); Great connection with industry; great lecture and seminar launched frequently;
cons: Unstable status(Poly or NYU, not sure); Big class and therefor huge competition; Elective courses each 1.5credit is not enough to fully learn the topic included.

 

[Joy Pathak]

IIT is not a small class size. They have doubled their intake this year. I think it's 400 students now.

 

[figoliuxi]

IIT is not a small class size. They have doubled their intake this year. I think it's 400 students now.

Well, Thanks for the notice, Pathak. I mean the MMF program not the MSF program. I heard that the Master of Mathematical Finance program generally accepts 20-25 students per year.

 

[Mr Doe]

cons: Really bad reputation in China; Almost the whole class are Chinese; Lacking some career resources

This is a huge warning flag. It implies that the kids go there for the piece of paper they receive after one (or two) years - who in their right mind would spend 100k on something that has no brand value; probably rich Chinese kids. Naturally there is no need for career service since they ship them back to China afterwards.
I think Pathak was considering going IIT (but he's now at Baruch!), so he must know about the size.

 

[Joy Pathak]

This is a huge warning flag. It implies that the kids go there for the piece of paper they receive after one (or two) years - who in their right mind would spend 100k on something that has no brand value; probably rich Chinese kids. Naturally there is no need for career service since they ship them back to China afterwards.
I think Pathak went to IIT, if my memory serves me right.

Lol No. Almost... I am at Baruch MFE.

 

[Mr Doe]

My apologies. Now I see how bad that statement turned out, considering the first part of the post. I can delete it.

 

[Joy Pathak]

NYU poly hands out NYU degrees? Well that weakens the brand of the Courant NYU brand by quite a bit...​

I am pretty sure they are absolutely independent of each other. They offer NYU-POLY degrees.

 

[DhruvMehta]

So which one is better?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Graduates from Poly program will get a degree that clearly states "NYU-Poly". If the students put NYU MFE on their resume, it's considered fraud.
Two years back, a lot of current NYU-Poly students in the FRE dept (they have a Master of Science in Financial Engineering with different tracks) tried to apply to the Courant MSFM program after a semester or two. I see less of that this year. Apparently, the attempts were not too successful.
NYU-Poly students obviously hope the merger would bring about positive changes but things don't happen overnight. There are plenty of interdepartmental politics involved. Everyone is trying to protect his own turf.

Keep in mind NYU-Poly is in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. Being in NYC is good but you should realize you are going to compete with students from smaller programs but better known like (NYU, Baruch) and the bigger names like CMU, Columbia.

So which one is better?

Better in what? Do you see either program posting any admission or internship/placement stats online?
If you want to work in NYC, going to Poly does not make it a sure thing but going to IIT would make getting a job here several times harder.

 

[DhruvMehta]

That is true @Andy....but all i want to know is how good the faculty is..and also after its merger with NYU and the new head taking the department chair...is NYU poly MFE programme on the RISE?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You are counting too much on the merger. There is very little benefit that you as a student will get in the immediate short term. You can take solace in the face that you have NYU somewhere in your degree but it may not impress people where it matters.
There is no way for the program to go but UP so yes, it is on the RISE.
I spent sometime with the people running the program there and my impression is that they plan to do a lot to improve the program. These things will not happen overnight so if you join, there will be growing pains and you may not benefit from these while you are there.

 

[onthesc]

I've seen resumes that put something like:
New York University
Polytechnic Institute


That is the NYU brand you'll get, but recruiters in the field should know the difference between Polytechnic and Courant. I don't know much about IIT so can't comment either.

 

[barbie]

well i did hear many people say tat NYU poly wud simply be mistaken to NYU! well in anycase i think proximity to NYC is a big browny point n u shud jus go for NYU poly.
@Andy i guess im gonna go to Rutgers. I interacted with the current students at the MQF and i have got a really good feedback. Although the fee is overpriced i guess it might be worth considering its proximity to NYC.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

well i did hear many people say tat NYU poly wud simply be mistaken to NYU! well in anycase i think proximity to NYC is a big browny point n u shud jus go for NYU poly.

Looks like your keyboard is broken. Sorry, I can't understand what you said.

 

[Tsotne]

well i did hear many people say tat NYU poly wud simply be mistaken to NYU! well in anycase i think proximity to NYC is a big browny point n u shud jus go for NYU poly

=

Well I did hear that many people say: "NYU poly is sometimes confused with NYU!" Well anyway, I think proximity to NYC is a big advantage so you should just go for NYU poly

I think this is the translation(not sure though). As I followed this thread I also had some misunderstandings.

 

[DailyVaR]

You guys need to use a thing called Google. It will answer a lot these questions.

If one graduates from NYU-Poly today, one will get a degree from "Polytechnic Institute of NYU." Once the schools merge, it will be just "New York University." Poly will be converted into one of the countless number of schools NYU has. http://www.poly.edu/about/affiliation/FAQ

The math department at NYU, Courant, offers a MS in Mathematics in Finance. http://www.math.nyu.edu/financial_mathematics/

NYU-Poly has a completely separate department called Financial and Risk Engineering that runs the MS in Financial Engineering. http://www.poly.edu/academics/programs/financial-engineering-ms

These are different programs run by different departments. I'm not sure why its confusing to everyone.

Similarly, Columbia offers three similar degrees from three different departments in similar fields: MS in Financial Engineering (IEOR), MS in Operations Research: Methods of Finance (IEOR/CVN) and M.A. in Mathematical Finance (Math).

http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/deg/ieor/mfms.php
http://www.ieor.columbia.edu/pages/graduate/ms_financial_eng/index.html
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/pages/programs/mamath/index.html
I don't hear you guys bitching about this.

Finally, people misrepresent where they go to school all the time. Its slimy and dishonest as all hell. I hope those people get caught and fired. Have a nice weekend.

 

[AaronPierce]

Heard some engineering students at Poly got NYU diploma, don't know what exactly happened. Any idea?

 

[figoliuxi]

Thanks all you guys discussing about the topic and really give me more insight on each program.

 

[figoliuxi]

I am pretty sure they are absolutely independent of each other. They offer NYU-POLY degrees.

So Joy, could you please provide some insider info on the IIT's MMF program, if you know. I just know it from its website and some reviews on the program provided by Quantnet, which have positive feedback on the program.
However, most Chinese think of IIT as a bad school.
How different they are!!!!

 

[figoliuxi]

Yeah that's what I've heard too, but the guy that started this thread says something slightly different... although it could be that the NYU poly guys get engineering diplomas and courant guys get MScs?

At any rate, if what the original poster says is true there's going to be a lot of NYU poly guys that write "NYU MFE" or something like that on their resumes that will dilute the general Courant MFE graduates, which will weaken the NYU brand... at least that's my take on it.

I'd go with NYU simply because of its proximity to NYC and also because the brand dilution that i contemplate about above works in your favor if you go to NYU Poly... but I don't really know. I think Joy has more insight into this than me having at one point considered IIT (if memory serves me right...)

This is all hypothetical anyway. Feel free to take it with a huge grain of salt.

Yeah, just as we discuss, the merger is on the way and consolidation has not been fully completed. I just heard it from some other forums. And as wiki and Q&A on poly website say, after fully consolidation, the students will be considered as NYUers.