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NYU Tandon MFE Is NYU Tandon Good?

Joined
3/8/17
Messages
2
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11
Hi everyone,

I was admitted by UCLA MFE and NYU Tandon MFE yesterday. I think I will choose UCLA. I am not sure if Tandon is a good option since there are many top quant programs at New York area, which make Tandon MFE not that competitive (my personal opinion). I also cannot find placement statistics of Tandon MFE. Anyone knows about Tandon MFE program? Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Hi everyone,

I was admitted by UCLA MFE and NYU Tandon MFE yesterday. I think I will choose UCLA. I am not sure if Tandon is a good option since there are many top quant programs at New York area, which make Tandon MFE not that competitive (my personal opinion). I also cannot find placement statistics of Tandon MFE. Anyone knows about Tandon MFE program? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

If you have to choose between these two, I agree with you!

UCLA full speed ;)
 
Ruila congratulations on getting into two great programs.
This is Peter Carr.
I have a Finance Phd from UCLA Anderson and chair Tandon's financial engineering program.
So I know both programs well, but I am clearly biased.
Here's why you should choose Tandon and I'll leave it to my UCLA counterpart to sell you on them. First, being in NYC, we can take advantage of the large practitioner base better than a CA based school can. We do just that. We have so many practitioners involved that our average class size is 15 students and no class has more than 30. Practitioners impart wisdom that can only be obtained by working. I worked twenty years on Wall Street and am far better for it.
Second, we just hired a very talented career placement director who is as committed as I am to
making sure every student has the opportunity to put what they learned into practice. Our new placement director also comes from the financial industry, in fact the same bulge bracket IB as me. Third, Brooklyn beats LA as a place to live for two years (or more). I just bought a house in Brooklyn so I hope you are convinced that I stand by my words. You can email me directly if you need more info.
 
Hi Ruila,
Congratulations on your admits! I am currently enrolled in the NYU Tandon program as a first year student, and I am also the President of the Finance Club there. A few things that might help you make this decision:
1. Like a few other people said here Dr. Peter Carr has taken over as the chair of the department last year, and in the short time that he has been running the ship, he has already made some radical changes. He is a well known figure in Quant circles and brings a certain amount of credibility to the course itself. I have worked closely with him on student initiatives, and he is a very hands on and involved department chair who is working hard for the best of his students. If you choose Tandon, you will be coming in at a very opportune time.
2. Our new placement director is also one with wide ranging industry contacts who is already on her way to helping students secure meaningful positions in the industry that best suit their career aspirations.
3. New York is THE financial hub of the world, and just being here exposes you to a host of opportunities that might not be available elsewhere.
4. I can vouch for the teachers here as being engaging, and ones who have tremendous industry experience to back everything they teach with interesting, and insightful personal anecdotes and real life applications. Also with a broad spectrum of electives available, you are really the master of your own path in this course.
5. We are expanding on student initiatives and are infusing new spirit into the student body, and this is a great time to be a part of all these exciting and progressive changes that the program is undergoing.
Also, a program is only as good as its students; so we would love to have you and become even better than we already are! Feel free to reach out to any of us with more questions.
Best of luck!
 
Hi Ruila,

Congratulations on the admissions.

As a first year student in NYU Tandon MFE, I would like to share with you some information about our program.

1. The study:
Our new director Dr. Peter Carr is really helpful. He brings many resource to the program, including hiring the most renowned practitioners to teach in our program, hosting the Quant Finance Seminar weekly, and inviting us to attend the network events in Bloomberg. This is a big advantage to choose NYC because you would meet with all those famous practitioners. For the class, You can waive the core courses if you have prior study experience. All the class size is below 30.

Dr. Carr was the executive director for NYU MSMF and you should have confidence in his industry connections. Many professors including himself will start teaching in the second half semester. So it will be really good to join the program this fall.

2. The placement:
Prof Peter Carr and the new placement officer are working on that. Basically We can get the interviews from every large investment bank. For this year, we have several offers from BB. In the final round, you would definitely compete with people from other programs in NYC. But the program itself is not important at all. They will focus on your ability solely.

The new placement officer is a former recruiting manager for a large investment bank and really send out many opportunities. I believe that the placement rate will be far better in recent years. From my view, you have much more opportunities in NYC than LA for the finance industry. Also the director has put a large effort in improving the placement rates and the program reputations. So you may receive opportunities from him.

I admit that UCLA has a really good program. But if you choose Tandon and work hard, there are more opportunities for you in NYC.

Best luck!
 
Hi Ruila,

I‘m a first-year MFE student at Tandon and I'm happy to share my experience in the program.

First and foremost, I can't emphasize enough the importance of the location. It's not only that there are a lot more job opportunities in the finance sector in NYC, where in fact you can easily (relative to LA) find a part-time internship to enrich your resume, but the professionals out there especially alums whom you can reach out to. Establishing network is always indispensable if you want to land a job upon graduation and advance your career afterwards. Also, it is fair to say that companies based in the Big Apple area prefer schools in east coast to other areas, not to mention that NYU is definitely a target school on the street.

Besides, our program is really on a roll in the recent few years. As you know, we had Dr. Peter Carr taken over as our department chair, and a new placement director Sara, who is very considerate and takes care of each student in the program. Also, more experienced senior practitioners are joining the faculty, including those who lead quant divisions at bulge bracket banks and top hedge funds. There's no doubt the growing faculty will bring invaluable industry insights which you're unable to get access to anywhere else, as well as networking opportunities.

That said, both NYU Tandon and UCLA MFE are great programs, and you won't go wrong either way, but if I were you, I would join Tandon for its great location and unlimited potential.

Good Luck!;)
 
I have got admission at NYU Tandon Financial Engineering and Georgia Tech QCF.

Can anyone please throw some light on both of these programs and help me decide between the two?
 
Peter Carr again. I don't know Georgia Tech as well as UCLA, but I think that all of the arguments above still apply. Email me (I'm easy to find) if you still have residual concerns. Georgia Tech is a great place, but my biased view is that NYU Tandon's upward drift is greater. Besides all of the recent arrivals mentioned above, a generous $100M gift in 2015 from the Tandons matched by NYU's recent $500M commitment to the Tandon engineering school:
NYU announces $500 million expansion of Brooklyn engineering school

is transforming the former Poly.
 
Eventually you will have to get back to NY for a job and the proximity to the market far outweighs any marginal benefits of choosing Gatech, if any.

I have got admission at NYU Tandon Financial Engineering and Georgia Tech QCF.

Can anyone please throw some light on both of these programs and help me decide between the two?
 
Hey Ruila congrats! I think the arguments above have elaborated the advantages of NYU Tandon program such as the location, great potential, teaching faculty, Peter Carr and Sara. I'd like to share something I know about our current job-seeking or placement you're worried about, which used to confuse me a lot during my application season.

You said you are not sure whether Tandon will give you an edge with so many other quant programs in NYC. The thing is that till now I barely find any quant positions opened to other programs but not to us. Lots of my classmates got interviews from top fund (Citadel, Two sigma, Blackrock, D.E Shaw...) and big banks (GS, JPM, Barclays, Citi, MS...). The versatility of courses also enabled students to move into data science and technology. As far as I know, students 2016-2018 got offer from GS/Barclays/JPM/Citi/Bloomberg/Citadel/MS and a variety of data science and technology companies. Therefore I don't think you need to worry abut the competition from other quant programs in nyc. Besides, take into account the huge opportunities nyc can give you in the meanwhile.

There's also an interesting story I'd like to share. I got asked to introduce our program during many interviews since there was no Tandon mfe program when many senior quants applied before. I tried to explain in terms of courses and faculty at first but later it hit me that Peter Carr was our new director so I said this. And then they gave me a shocked look and confirmed in a dramatic tone "Peter Carr is your director??!" Really hilarious haha. And from then on I know how to introduce our program...
 
This program is an absolute horror show. (Graduated in 2016) Professors are mostly guest lecturers and don't care; TAs are unreliable and unqualified; the administration act as if they are just collecting a paycheck and are reluctant to help. Emails to the program coordinator and those in charge of the curriculum are rarely responded to personally.

Even the positive reviews admit the job placement services for those in the FE program is a dumpster fire. Some reviews say you need to be "highly motivated"; what that really means is people in the program (professors, program/academic directors, TAs) are very unlikely to help you advance your career, you will be left on your own. Any success you enjoy will likely be in spite of the quality of the program, not because of it.

P. Carr said:

____________________________________________________________
I am the new department chair. It is unfortunate that I started just after you graduated. I want to thank you for posting your thoughts, which I take very seriously. I apologize on behalf of the program for both the lack of responsiveness and the job placement service while you were with us. To the extent that you are still seeking employment, I believe I can be personally helpful. Please email me at
petercarr@nyu.edu for either career advice or an update on the several changes made since your graduation.

Thank you very much for your very professional reply and I am grateful to you for offering to help.

There is absolutely no need to apologize as none of the things I mentioned are your fault, and what few things I have heard about you are positive.

I am very curious about placement rates for this program. In future years, will the department gather information on the placement of its graduates (or retrieve it from Career Services) and make them public?

We have incomplete data on past placement rates. At a recent meeting of about 20
program directors, my department was the only one with incomplete data. Before your post, the director of NYU's placement office (Wasserman) wrote me that
Wasserman is in the 2nd year of a pilot to survey the first destination results of NYU graduate students. I will make the results for my dept. public shortly after they become available early next year. I am taking other steps to address the issue as well. Please continue to use this forum to let me know how we can improve.

“Early next year”…meaning this year…so - where is the data?
 
T0 Ruila and others:

If I were you I would be more careful choosing. Think long term, career wise, will the program – any program, help you to get a job or you will be left on your own?

How much you will have to pay for the entire program? How much you will end up making? (assuming that you will get a job)
How is the curriculum?
Location? etc...


I am guesstimating that NY Tandon have somewhere around 100- 150 students (I do not know, I could not find it, maybe Peter could help here).
 
T0 Ruila and others:

If I were you I would be more careful choosing. Think long term, career wise, will the program – any program, help you to get a job or you will be left on your own?

How much you will have to pay for the entire program? How much you will end up making? (assuming that you will get a job)
How is the curriculum?
Location? etc...


I am guesstimating that NY Tandon have somewhere around 100- 150 students (I do not know, I could not find it, maybe Peter could help here).
__________________________________________________
The most recent quantnet rankings are accurate about entering cohort - it says we have 144 FT in the entering class. We just calculated an average class of 15 students across the two years with no course exceeding 30 students. I regard the large cohort as advantageous in that we have a large alumni base and it supports a broad diversity of courses. We will be releasing the employment survey data this spring. It came in later than I anticipated.
 
Hi everyone,

I was admitted by UCLA MFE and NYU Tandon MFE yesterday. I think I will choose UCLA. I am not sure if Tandon is a good option since there are many top quant programs at New York area, which make Tandon MFE not that competitive (my personal opinion). I also cannot find placement statistics of Tandon MFE. Anyone knows about Tandon MFE program? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

One program with publicly available placement statistics and one without. Not much of a choice is it?
 
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.
 
144 FT students...T0 Ruila and others...Good luck!
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)?
 
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