Internships for part-time MFE and school choice

[milanbd]

Hello,

I'm considering part-time MFE programs. In particular, NYU mathematical finance and CMU computational finance (both in NYC). I have 2 questions:

1) What are the internship options for part-time students? Given that the degree is 3 yrs is it infeasible to apply for internship after the 1st year? Is priority strictly given to full time students?
2) To your best knowledge, which of the two schools has better placement reputation among employers (IBs, hedge funds etc). Is any of the two more suited to part-time students than the other?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Part-time students are people who hold a day job. If you are not working, go the full-time route.
1) Students prepare for internship on the first day in the program. You can apply for internship as soon as you can. Who would stop you?

Some programs have dedicated career services staff who review resume, run seminars, conduct mock interviews, arrange company presentations, on campus interviews. Some programs, none of the above exists.

NYU does not provide career services for PT students, in case you don't know.

2) I won't comment on the reputation part as it depends on who you ask.
There are some caveats.
CMU includes only full-time student placement in its stats. It does provide career services for part-time students. NYU does not publish detailed placement numbers.

 

[milanbd]

I already work so part time is pretty much the route I want to go.

How important is "providing career services" in searching for internships? I realize prospective employers have campus events and perhaps that is the most common route to landing interviews, but when you say no career services does that mean that PT students at NYU are not welcome to career events and campus interviews?

Also to clarify 1) - my reasoning behind the question was whether employers may not be interested in taking you as an intern given that graduation date is farther out than FT students (by at least a year).

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I already work so part time is pretty much the route I want to go. How important is "providing career services" in searching for internships?

You need to better explain your plan for me and others to help you. Are you working FT now and plan to quit the job when you find internship?
Internship is mostly full-time for the duration of 3 months during the summer though it can be arranged off-season. There is no implicit agreement to hire any intern so just take the internship as one long interview. If you prove yourself during the internship and is offered a FT job, it is not really that relevant when you will graduate.

PT students at NYU mostly already working in finance so the bulk of the career services focuses on FT students. They can send out emails about upcoming opportunities for FT students only. I don't know if they will shush you away when you show up uninvited. You can email Melissa of the NYU program for help. She is very resourceful and is the go-to person there for these things.

As I said, there is a oft-quoted acknowledgement about no career services for PT students. I don't have first hand experience in this aspect so you have to find this out yourself. Most of my contacts there are FT students.

NYU benefits from a large group of practitioners who teach in the program and this is where people network and find jobs, internship. This is where you should focus energy on, instead of whatever career services they have.

 

[milanbd]

I work full time, I work in the financial industry in front office technology, and I do know that internships are full time and a good standing during your tenure goes a long way in securing a full time job. My plan in short is to switch careers (even though my background with technology is mostly fixed income, I'm looking at algo trading.)

If I was working supporting a trading desk at an IB in say 2006, I'd be looking for ways to make that switch without quitting my job (or maybe even without going to grad school, although the latter certainly helps). However, I work for a boutique firm, the job market is unlike 2006, and such a path (at least I have deemed so) is difficult to impossible so I figured my best choice is 2nd grad degree at one of the NYC based part-time programs. That said, besides networking, I also think that internship(s) will go a long way in achieving my goal. As I have solid experience in technology, I'm confident that if I quit my job, I can work during the school year either as a consultant or even back at my current job (although probably I would have less leverage negotiating the terms I currently have with the company).

What I don't know, and that cycles back to my original question, is what other people experience is with this path (career in finance technology->part time school->career in finance) and what was their experience, in particular with regards to internships as I presume full time jobs are otherwise harder to get.

Thanks for your input so far. If you want to add anything based on the info above, I'd appreciate it. I'm also looking to hear back from people that have done what I described.