I really wish that people who have been in a similar situation (internationals with no work experience, who have done grad school in a good program in the US and went through the recruiting process not too long ago) had started replying in this thread!!! this would be mature and helpful for all of us!!
i'm also an international admitted at Columbia MSFE. i've been trying to find international friends who have graduated from the program to tell me how things work...to be honest, i don't have a solid opinion yet, so I can't share it with you, but I will just share some thoughts. FYI, i've graduated from an undergrad Ivy in the States in 2010 and was looking for a job, got a fair amount of interviews etc, but not an exceptional job offer in the US (either got "less ideal" offers or offers not in the US). i feel that i've had a good profile/resume, good networking skills etc, but I started applying to jobs late (in february senior year) because i wasn't sure about the industry i wanted to start a career at, and i was a more research/phd-oriented person till then.
i do think that brand name will not get you far by itself, but i also think that being admitted to such a great brand/program you should have the qualifications/skills to succeed after you graduate. Being in NYC also helps, because of the great networking opportunities. as Andy said, the competition in wall street should be huge because of people coming from Ivys or smaller schools, but seriously, if you have the same profile with those people and you do equally well in the interview, who would say no to you if you have the extra advantage of coming from columbia MSFE??
as far as career services are concerned, i've realized (based on my school research) that IEOR at columbia does help students to get jobs. they have the financial practitioners every monday with people from wall street coming in as guest lectures, and they also have friday night info sessions by companies. of course, it's up to the students to network in these events and probably follow-up, but i think this is something good to start with! really, no grad school can pick your hand and walk you through the entire recruiting process from the 1st connection moment to landing the perfect job...you have to do something yourself!!! and of course, luck is needed in every case (as happens with everything in life!!!). columbia IEOR also has a couple of dedicated career officers, so that's also a good resource, if these people know what they're doing.
another thought of mine is that if the economy is bad, there will be risks for you whatever school/program you go to! positions and hiring will be less whether you come from columbia or from X school. and of course, those hit first will be internationals...so, since nobody can really predict how the market/economy will work, should anyone make decisions based on this??
as far as the number of people is concerned at columbia MSFE (i.e. 60), i would hope that not all these people will be fighting for the same job/position/specialty/industry and certainly not all these people will have the same background/profile (work experience, GPA, undergrad school, nationality, foreign languages, programming experience, extracurriculars, leadership stuff, other skills etc etc). of course, there will be other people coming from other schools, but i think i covered that point above....
also, i think that if you're an international having invested in columbia MSFE, then you should start being more flexible with what you want to do when you graduate. for example, in my case, i don't mind working in other places than wall street or nyc for that matter. i would move to another part in the US or i would go to Europe (london, brussels etc). and having worked in London in the past, i've seen that they value a US Ivy's brand, sometimes more than their own schools. furthermore, i will probably take a loan too for my studies, but certainly i do not expect to get the perfect job immediately and pay the loan back in like 2 years or something! if this happens, then i would be freakin' excited!! but in the most common case, i expect that something crappier will come first, so i'm willing to wait a little bit (or someone could say "i'm willing to compromise"). it's not that i'm not setting high expectations for myself or anything, it's just that i'm trying to be realistic so that i can face equally well any situation that will come!
for the end, i have 2 pieces of advice with regards to networking and job hunt:
1) start early during your grad studies, that is as soon as you go to columbia MSFE. this will give you time to explore options and handle any failures
2) work on other skills, apart from studying to get straight As or a 4.2 GPA! in the end, a perfect grade or all the academic knowledge in the world will get you so far as the brand will! you will need to be able to communicate during the interview, so if you're always in your room studying, perhaps your communication skills (or even english language skills for some internationals...) will not be fairly cultivated. and this goes for all other skills, such as networking, leadership etc etc, which are sought by banks and other big financial institutions apart from intellect and the ability to do complicated calculations!
