NYU Tandon MFE Is NYU Tandon Good?

[ApolloChariot]

Someone seems to think that a relatively large cohort is terrible, but actually it is NOT the truth. There are also some great programs with nearly 100 FT and some universities may have several similar programs. How can you judge a program by simply comparing the number of students?

If you are concerned about the quality of courses, you should consider the class size and the professors. If you are concerned about the placement, you should consider what support you will have in job seeking. It is conceivable that a program with large cohort and enough resources is better than one with small cohort but insufficient resources. So the number of students alone makes no sense.

BTW, I am not Tandon student.

A large cohort in and of itself is not good or bad. A program with large cohorts with no placement data is extremely worrying, to put it very charitably.

 

[Yi Hu]

Hi Ruila and others,

Congratulations on receiving the offers from top Financial Engineering programs.

Currently, I am a first-year master's in NYU MSFE program and would like to share my perspectives. My background is in Math and Economics and participated this program after undergrad. Apart from all the above viewpoints, I would like to illustrate 3 points based on my personal experience.

Firstly, having a large cohort has far more advantages that outweigh its disadvantages. Some of my peer students have great coding experience and some had working experience in the financial industry. You will definitely learn a lot from them and further develop your own skillsets. The friendly atmosphere among us fosters a share of information and we could be better prepared for both technical and behavioral interviews. In the other side, we attend lectures in smaller groups, which helped to build a closer relationship with each other. The large cohort and small class format are ideal for me to expand my network as well as getting attention from the professors.

Secondly, I would say your future career holds in your hand and it is you who are gonna make a real difference. NO program could guarantee your success in the future and you CANNOT solely depend on the program to reserve a job for you. Once you are enrolled in a top program and top university, there are 3 more things that are crucial for job search and interviews. The first one is your professionalism. The program exposes you to intensive study that will equip you well for the knowledge you need during the interviews. The second one is your proficiency in English and how good you are at presenting yourself. I had several interviews throughout the year and I found that international students, including me, are not outstanding in the interviews because of language issues. They understand the problems and could solve the issues, however, they cannot present it clearly and concisely. The last point is never lost faith in job hunting. I started late for the Autumn recruiting and got few interview last year. I felt discouraged and nearly quit hunting. But I DIDN'T. And I am excited to say I have a spring intern in a global company that throws light in my resume. It is never too late to apply for the intern or full-time jobs. Be perseverance and chance favors the prepared mind.

Lastly, I love NYC and the culture. I came from China and lived in Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom for severals years before coming to the US. I traveled to many places but still fascinated by the culture. It is relaxing to visit the MOMA and spend time hanging with your friend at the central park. NYC is THE place where I believe is a great choice for long-term development and work-life balance. Being a foodie, I can't remember how I survived two years in the UK and prefer to live in the city where people have an idea of what delicious food are.

I hope my personal experience and perspectives could aid in forming your final decision. If there are more questions, feel free to reach out to me.

Bests,
Yi

 

[P. Carr]

A large cohort in and of itself is not good or bad. A program with large cohorts with no placement data is extremely worrying, to put it very charitably.

I agree with Apollo. We now have some information collected by NYU's career center called Wasserman. They surveyed the 163 grads from class of 2016 from May to Nov. 2016. Of the 135 who responded, 120 are employed and 6 are not seeking, pursuing higher education. So, 9 are seeking as of November 2016. If you are one of these 9 and still seeking, please contact the NYU Tandon Finance and Risk Engineering dept as we now have a career placement director, dedicated specifically to our MSFE program. We are now collecting our own data and will be making it public on our website following this placement season.

 

[cge]

Someone seems to think that a relatively large cohort is terrible, but actually it is NOT the truth. There are also some great programs with nearly 100 FT and some universities may have several similar programs. How can you judge a program by simply comparing the number of students?

If you are concerned about the quality of courses, you should consider the class size and the professors. If you are concerned about the placement, you should consider what support you will have in job seeking. It is conceivable that a program with large cohort and enough resources is better than one with small cohort but insufficient resources. So the number of students alone makes no sense.

BTW, I am not Tandon student.

the post is wrong from all points of view...
try harder next time!

 

[cge]

Out of curiosity CGE, would you rather be in a large cohort of say 144 students with small class size, say averaging 15, or be in a small cohort of say 35 students with class sizes averaging 45 (which can and does happen)?

I may try to guess and I think you are referring to the other NYU program…my answer (if this is the case) none, and you should have not made this comparison, if this is the case.
I do not see the reason why would you do it?…But so far they have data…

 

[cge]

I agree with Apollo. We now have some information collected by NYU's career center called Wasserman. They surveyed the 163 grads from class of 2016 from May to Nov. 2016. Of the 135 who responded, 120 are employed and 6 are not seeking, pursuing higher education. So, 9 are seeking as of November 2016. If you are one of these 9 and still seeking, please contact the NYU Tandon Finance and Risk Engineering dept as we now have a career placement director, dedicated specifically to our MSFE program. We are now collecting our own data and will be making it public on our website following this placement season.

How about the places they work for, positions, salary, etc...
we are looking forward to see it!

Regarding the career placement director you mentioned, hopefully she will stay longer there than her previous 5 months job she had before.

See my previous post at : https://www.quantnet.com/threads/5-months-and-out.28244/

 

[Hanjing Lin]

How about the places they work for, positions, salary, etc...
we are looking forward to see it!

Regarding the career placement director you mentioned, hopefully she will stay longer there than her previous 5 months job she had before.

See my previous post at : https://www.quantnet.com/threads/5-months-and-out.28244/

Hi cge,

I am personally very curious about our placement rate myself. Thanks for making some great points. And I came across some of your other posts, it seems you are a bit unhappy that Sara is with us now. For whatever reason you might have - maybe you work for the program that she left, I think we may both agree she is a very helpful person with invaluable resources, and any program she is in is very LUCKY. Therefore, with her dedicated help, I have strong confidence in Tandon MSFE. Let's just be open-minded and see what's going on.

 

[cge]

Hi cge,

I am personally very curious about our placement rate myself. Thanks for making some great points. And I came across some of your other posts, it seems you are a bit unhappy that Sara is with us now. For whatever reason you might have - maybe you work for the program that she left, I think we may both agree she is a very helpful person with invaluable resources, and any program she is in is very LUCKY. Therefore, with her dedicated help, I have strong confidence in Tandon MSFE. Let's just be open-minded and see what's going on.

Dude your statement it’s so wrong. You should delete it…Stop beating around the bush!

It seems to me that somebody asked you to post this, at least this is what I think…I cannot care less about her, and I was just pointing to the facts, if this affects you…it’s your problem!

From the facts and your statement it’s a huge difference…make sure you read the post and do not take it personally!

Next time try harder, or do not post if there is nothing else you could have said…

 

[Hanjing Lin]

Dude your statement it’s so wrong. You should delete it…Stop beating around the bush!

It seems to me that somebody asked you to post this, at least this is what I think…I cannot care less about her, and I was just pointing to the facts, if this affects you…it’s your problem!

From the facts and your statement it’s a huge difference…make sure you read the post and do not take it personally!

Next time try harder, or do not post if there is nothing else you could have said…

cge, thanks for your response. First of all, I'm not a "dude" and I won't delete my post only because you think it's wrong and ask me to delete it. I believe it's a good idea to be at least respectful when you state your view.

In terms of your guess, no one can make me post this if I'm not willing to. I am just sharing my own feelings that because of Peter and Sara, our program is getting better. I am not saying we are the best program ever, so you have your own opinions, totally fine and accepted.

Also, you said you "cannot care less about her" and are just "pointing to the facts". Well, the facts are Sara is very helpful on career placement, period. It seems to me it's you who have problems with the fact that Sara joined NYU MFE.

And please, try not to add clueless statement like "But NO NYU Poly.", and if you can't help doing that anyways, it would be better to provide a little evidence. I believe everyone would appreciate that.

 

[cge]

cge, thanks for your response. First of all, I'm not a "dude" and I won't delete my post only because you think it's wrong and ask me to delete it. I believe it's a good idea to be at least respectful when you state your view.

In terms of your guess, no one can make me post this if I'm not willing to. I am just sharing my own feelings that because of Peter and Sara, our program is getting better. I am not saying we are the best program ever, so you have your own opinions, totally fine and accepted.

Also, you said you "cannot care less about her" and are just "pointing to the facts". Well, the facts are Sara is very helpful on career placement, period. It seems to me it's you who have problems with the fact that Sara joined NYU MFE.

And please, try not to add clueless statement like "But NO NYU Poly.", and if you can't help doing that anyways, it would be better to provide a little evidence. I believe everyone would appreciate that.

Dude, topic was a "bit" different...however I like how you “beat around the bushes”
__________________________________________________________
“Also, you said you "cannot care less about her" and are just "pointing to the facts". Well, the facts are Sara is very helpful on career placement, period. It seems to me it's you who have problems with the fact that Sara joined NYU MFE. “

____________________________________________________________
For sure you need to re-re-re-read the posts. Did I say anything about this?? I did not comment on anybody’s skills - matter of respect by the way, but it looks that you really had to, why? Your problem J but you really need to read again, please.

You are so off the topic that I will let you and/or others to continue posting and I will enjoy it for now . You made my day, thank you!

 

[rnvpx]

dude I haven't been ducking you I've been ducking the cops

 

[Weiyu Wan]

I appreciated that a Rank No.1 program student pay some much attention to our program. I think we should be happy with this. Actually, our program makes a significant improve in Adjunct Professor and career service recently. Frankly speaking, I believe our former job placement rate in the United States was not good. However, I think the former record can represent nothing. Just as a hedge fund changed a new Portfolio management, investors should pay more attention to the historical record of the portfolio manager, not the hedge fund. Therefore, I have confidence, in the near future, our program can become a really excellent program.

 

[cge]

beat around the bush again...and again
keep believing

 

[MartinOvie]

I think the conversation got a bit sidetracked .

Something the OP may also take into consideration is that the NYU program director took the time out of his day to respond on a public forum (not once, but a couple times). How many other program directors would do that? I have met a couple, and I can't see them being bothered enough to respond (but to be fair, their placements stats were publicly listed and were excellent). Although his actions should not sway your opinion on the program, it should however inform you as to the character of the person running the program, his willingness to engage in productive discussions about the program and the lengths to which he will go to ensure it's success (as measured by the success of its students).

While we all agree that NYU Tandon had - and has - its issues, I think it is safe to say that Peter Carr (@P. Carr ) is making changes in the right direction. Here are some questions only you can answer which may help in your decision:

1. What changes do you want to see implemented? Will the changes that @P. Carr makes by the time of your graduation be enough for you? You may want to message him privately with your concerns so he can provide you with more information as to the direction he is taking the program in, and (realistically,) what results a student can expect and when.
2. What is important to you? Is it a guaranteed placement by graduation or is it a degree from a highly ranked program?
3. What kind of firms do you want to work for? Can NYU get you in the door? What roles did previous graduates/recent alumni get? (Look on LinkedIn for this.) Does this match up with your goals?
4. What is your desired minimum base salary? Can NYU get you a job with will give you that?
5. What are my needs in a MSFE program that NYU isn't currently fulfilling? Can NYU fulfill those needs in time to propel me to the career I want? If it's a weekly seminar on interviewing that you need, can you get @P. Carr to make it happen? Or can you make it happen with other students/alumni? or network with professionals to make it happen? People love those who take initiative! But how much time do you want to spend making things happen?

Talk to current NYU students/alumni and even recruiters on LinkedIn as well. They can give you some additional perspective. Keep in mind that a program will only go so far; you will ultimately have to pick up wherever they leave off: whether it's with a job in hand or with an outdated list of contacts, a career fair, or nothing. Take advantage of the IAQF annual career fair cohosted by NYU (Math in Finance). Network!

All the best!

 

[INDIANAJONES]

I'm bit overwhelmed by how quickly NYU's students/alums talked about their program over others. BTW I'm an applicant this year and I'm choosing Georgia Tech over NYU. Like Martin said above, the program is changing. But I guess I'm a bit risk averse and I would definitely look at the past employment statistics....With about 7% of students surveyed still seeking employment and 4% going to other programs, I'm just not so confident since the MFE programs are usually career-oriented. If I were to apply a year later and if the NYU's program indeed improved a lot, to be honest, I will go to NYU instead.

 

[pingu]

I'm bit overwhelmed by how quickly NYU's students/alums talked about their program over others. BTW I'm an applicant this year and I'm choosing Georgia Tech over NYU. Like Martin said above, the program is changing. But I guess I'm a bit risk averse and I would definitely look at the past employment statistics....With about 7% of students surveyed still seeking employment and 4% going to other programs, I'm just not so confident since the MFE programs are usually career-oriented. If I were to apply a year later and if the NYU's program indeed improved a lot, to be honest, I will go to NYU instead.

Oh boy... that was a mistake.

 

[P. Carr]

With about 7% of students surveyed still seeking employment and 4% going to other programs, I'm just not so confident since the MFE programs are usually career-oriented. If I were to apply a year later and if the NYU's program indeed improved a lot, to be honest, I will go to NYU instead._______________________________________________________

To be clear, the 7% still looking was as of Nov 2016, 7 months after students graduated. While I'm more upset about this stat than you, the main point here is that you shouldn't assume that the future will behave statistically like the past. The Tandons' generous $100M gift to the NYU engineering school lead to several recent major changes to the MSFE such as new dept chair, new dedicated career placement director, 8 new faculty all from industry, and new facilities. Perhaps as a result, applications for the MSFE are up 25% this year over same time last year. No offence but I wouldn't assume you would be admitted if you applied next year. I'm available if you need more info.

 

[Sara NYU Tandon MSFE Placement]

I'm bit overwhelmed by how quickly NYU's students/alums talked about their program over others. BTW I'm an applicant this year and I'm choosing Georgia Tech over NYU. Like Martin said above, the program is changing. But I guess I'm a bit risk averse and I would definitely look at the past employment statistics....With about 7% of students surveyed still seeking employment and 4% going to other programs, I'm just not so confident since the MFE programs are usually career-oriented. If I were to apply a year later and if the NYU's program indeed improved a lot, to be honest, I will go to NYU instead.

Hello @INDIANAJONES - We're hosting an informational webinar tomorrow with further insight into the NYU Tandon MSFE. If you're an applicant, you likely already received the information for the event; however, if you did not receive the invite and would like to join the webinar, please contact me at sara.tomeo@nyu.edu and I can provide you with the details.

 

[Weiyu Wan]

I'm bit overwhelmed by how quickly NYU's students/alums talked about their program over others. BTW I'm an applicant this year and I'm choosing Georgia Tech over NYU. Like Martin said above, the program is changing. But I guess I'm a bit risk averse and I would definitely look at the past employment statistics....With about 7% of students surveyed still seeking employment and 4% going to other programs, I'm just not so confident since the MFE programs are usually career-oriented. If I were to apply a year later and if the NYU's program indeed improved a lot, to be honest, I will go to NYU instead.

Hi INDIANA JONES,

I am alumina of Georgia Tech and am also a current student in NYU Tandon MFE. Although I am not enrolled in QCF program, I knew many people in QCF. Frankly speaking, this program has a really high replacement rate and most of the student can find a job in the United States. But most of the students worked in Atlant and south part of the United States. If you are risk aversion and only want to grantee a job in the United States, I think QCF perhaps a good choice for you. From my view, making a choice between Gatech QCF between NYU MFE is just like making your investment decision between Blue chip and Tech companies. This is my last semester in NYU MFE, I experienced the change of our program. For new adjunct professors, they are all experts in the industry and provide us many practical skills. If you want to do quantitative trading in the future, I strongly recommended you to come to Tandon. Since quantitative trading is experiencing intensively knowledge, I do not think Gatech QCF can invite so many experts from the industry to teach. For job placement, we have a really helpful job placement director. She not only find interview opportunities but also provide interview behaviors train for us.

For replacement rate, I think it is really hard to give an accurate number of 2015 Fall students. Since most of the new graduate hiring is closing now, the interviews I recently get are all immediately hiring. But I can only start to use my OPT at the beginning of June. I believe that many 2015 Fall students can get an offer after May. There are many quantitative finance related opportunities in New York City. If you are qualified, I think you can definitely get one.

 

[admitted]

Hello @INDIANAJONES - We're hosting an informational webinar tomorrow with further insight into the NYU Tandon MSFE. If you're an applicant, you likely already received the information for the event; however, if you did not receive the invite and would like to join the webinar, please contact me at sara.tomeo@nyu.edu and I can provide you with the details.

Hi, Sara. I just got admitted to Tandon. May I know about some details about the internship placement of the upcoming summer?