COMPARE Master Programs Comparison: Which quant program to choose?

Andy Nguyen said:
Keep an eye on the recent reviews of the UCB MFE program. It seems they are having a challenging time due to ongoing issue with the change of director. It's been tough for the 2024 graduates of the program. I hope the issue will be resolved soon.
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University of California, Berkeley - Master of Financial Engineering - Reviews

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Since my last post, there were 7 additional reviews. Those are very helpful from current students and recent graduates.
You can clearly see the pros and cons of the program from the very detailed reviews. Appreciate all the time and effort put in by our reviewers.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
Did you get accepted into these 2 programs? Both are one year program which is very compressed for some people. The US job market is much larger than the UK but you would need a lot of help from a good career service.
If you are just looking into applying, you can apply to more programs to give you more o
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Yes, I have received offers of these two projects
 
EPFL has some incredible professors. If you are doing research under say a Damir Filopovic and have potential to stay on for a PhD from Swiss Finance/EPFL, I would go with living and learning in Switzerland. You will get your opportunities for work in Switzerland, German, London, NYC, Hong Kong.

Stanford is not really in a finance ecocluster, but if your goal is something in VC or in emerging firms/startup in FE software, etc, then Standord could be a good choice.

NYC city dominates so about 1000 of the 1500 or so slots for seats in FE programs are within 100 miles of Manhattan. If possible, you should be in NY metro region, whether US or Foreign students. It is likely where you will have greatest opportunity for work, followed by Chicago and fewer in other markets at the salary level a good new quant can command in NYC, now approaching $300k for top tier students out of top tier programs.
 
Courant MathFin masters alum here.

My experience is skewed as I took the program during covid, where the majority of the classes were conducted online. Professors made their best effort of teaching online, but it was not ideal to teach maths on MS Paint/ digitally doodling over powerpoint slides. Students being completely silent during online classes didn't help either -- made it harder for me to raise questions or interject. My experience would've been more positive if all classes were taught in-person and on a blackboard. It was also a bit hard for me to get to know other classmates at that time, not only because of covid, but also because I am not fluent in Mandarin.

You would get a better and more positive perspective soliciting opinions from an alum that did the program after covid -- say class of 2022 and onwards -- as they get to take lectures in a standard classroom environment, and (unrelatedly) the student demographics seem to be less concentrated than before.

I believe I am a median student (at best) in my cohort. Courses are usually heavy on the theoretical side, and the program markets it as being "buy-side oriented"; from my rough recollection, my cohort landed on sell-side jobs more often than they did on buy-side. The toughest and most mathematically rigorous classes are usually conducted by the program director Petter Kolm himself. You would get the most out of the program (which I wish I did) if you come in with a bit of industry knowledge and some understanding of risk neutral pricing, fixed income pricing and Markowitz portfolio theory. Despite me struggling throughout the entire program, I enjoyed most of my coursework.

I cannot really compare this program to the others. I never did another math finance/ financial engineering program; I stopped double-guessing my choice of NYU soon after I got a day job. My colleagues and ex-colleagues of the same role are either from NYU courant mathfin, NYU tandon MSFE, or Columbia MS FE/Operations Research/Statistics, and we seldom bring up schoolwork in our conversations.
 
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Andy Nguyen said:
If you have can share you final decision with us, it would be great.
You must have a strong profile to get admissions from these 2 top programs. Many applicants would want to compare their profiles to yours so if you are willing, please add your timelines to the Tracker.
Thanks
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Submitted:1/18/24
Accepted:4/7/24
 
This is close to a no-brainer as it gets, and as Courant MFin alum I say you should absolutely go with UCB. I have known a handful of hedge funds place UCB in their summer internship target program and not Courant. Courant has been slipping in the competition for a few years since pre-covid and it's very evidently from the ranking here(not saying quantnet ranking really means anything but it's something). I don't see any reason to go to Courant if the goal is to land a quant job after this, besides the location, which really don't mean anything these days with all the virtual interviews easily arranged.
 
Onegin said:
Yes. I have the answer. You take CMU, @quanttrader takes Princeton, and report back in 5 years. We need to keep the quantnet portfolio diversified.

This is a fantastic problem you both have, and I think everyone is cheering for you. Can’t go wrong here. . .
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Do we have a 5 years report yet?
How is our CMU vs Princeton bet doing?
 
Hi everyone!
Continuing with the topic, I'm a CFA L3 candidate and want to pursue my masters in either MFE or MFin. I am unable to decide whether to go ahead with MFE or Mfin. I am not very enthusiastic about coding but i do love finance and economics. But I doubt i would learn anything new in the MFin program. Being an international student my ultimate aim is to secure a good job. In the current market will I be able to get a good job if i do pursue MFin? Or should I just buck up and start working on my coding skills for MFE?
Any advice would be of great help
 
Regardless of which program, for your own survival in the job market, please build up a strong programming skill. Aversion to programming is seen as a huge red flag by many employers in this industry. If you are not interested in building complex models using C++, at least learn and be really good with Python, database, etc. I mean really good, not just by picking up light coursera certificates.
What do you expect to contribute on your internship or job without learning how to code? With a pen and paper?
You also need to do a few projects to demonstrate your ability. This is how you have a chance to stand out.
At a recent info session, one of the quant programs rep said that for 100 roles open to quant students at a trading firm, there are 85,000 applicants.
Do whatever it takes to be the best if you want to work in this field. For every applicant with similar profile like you, there are 100+ applicants who have a stronger profile.
Here is what some of our members build to showcase their quant projects.
quantnet.com

Projects

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@sprat hopefully you take this to mean as motivation. My intention is to be realistic so you know what you are up against and can prepare accordingly.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
Regardless of which program, for your own survival in the job market, please build up a strong programming skill. Aversion to programming is seen as a huge red flag by many employers in this industry. If you are not interested in building complex models using C++, at least learn and be really good with Python, database, etc. I mean really good, not just by picking up light coursera certificates.
What do you expect to contribute on your internship or job without learning how to code? With a pen and paper?
You also need to do a few projects to demonstrate your ability. This is how you have a chance to stand out.
At a recent info session, one of the quant programs rep said that for 100 roles open to quant students at a trading firm, there are 85,000 applicants.
Do whatever it takes to be the best if you want to work in this field. For every applicant with similar profile like you, there are 100+ applicants who have a stronger profile.
Here is what some of our members build to showcase their quant projects.
quantnet.com

Projects

quantnet.com quantnet.com
@sprat hopefully you take this to mean as motivation. My intention is to be realistic so you know what you are up against and can prepare accordingly.
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Thank you for your honest reply @Andy Nguyen . I will definitely go through the projects.
 
I applied to Georgia's QCF program, and was planning on applying to NYU Courant's financial math program. However, when reassessing the rankings and characteristics of each program, I'm wondering if I should even apply at all, and if Georgia Tech is a better choice.
- They have similar post-grad salaries
- Georgia is cheaper
- For some reason NYU schools both have a pretty low employment rate (which I am confused about)
- The only disadvantage that seemingly pops out is the cohort size (larger at Georgia) and location for obvious reasons.
Am i missing something? I am quite new to looking at these programs and was looking on some historical insight. Thanks!
 
If you can take any MFE with good reputation, go for it

CQF is good, and acknowledged the knowledge it try to cover is board and much deeper than CFA and FRM

However, it is still not enoough to equip with knowledge to find a job in street. The 6 month part time is far from enough to get basic skills and kwowledge.

However, it help to build foundation block to take MFE,
 
Hi everyone,

I’ve been accepted into both the UIUC MSFE and Boston MSMFT programs, and I’m trying to decide which is the better option. UIUC seems to have better employment stats and a higher ranking, which is making me lean towards it.

That said, I’d love to hear your thoughts on both programs in terms of curriculum, career outcomes, and overall reputation in the quant/finance industry.

I need to pay the seat deposit for UIUC by January 17th to secure my spot, so I’d appreciate any advice or insights before making my decision!

Thanks in advance!
 
Im so confused please help! rutgers is ranked better but I feel like the only reason Rutgers is ranked better is because they have more in state students who are more likely to get jobs, correct me if I'm wrong please. Im soooooo confused
 
I got accepted on NYU Tandon and Fordham. Which one do you recommend? My concern on NYU is the size of the cohort and when i read about it, sounds confusing. Fordham class size is small but is the reputation from employers there?
 
Hi all just wanted to do a quick survey on these two top ranked MFin programs and their perception across quantnet.

MIT MFin Vs Princeton MFin

Ideally from the knowledge and growth perspective.
 
In the same boat. Talked to a few GT MSQCF alum who confirmed that the GT placement stats are quite true. Couldn't connect with anyone from NYU. Did you make a decision?
 

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