Math-Heavier MFE schools?

[ndeyerl]

Hello all-

I'm currently obtaining a BS of mathematics, and trying to decide between going for an MFE, MSF, etc or just going for a Master's in math. I'm very interested in the field of financial engineering and ultimately would like to become a quantitative analyst, but my true passion/talents lay in math and programming. I've compiled lists upon lists of grad schools myself, but it's a bit hard to tell about content and I've heard some horror stories about classmates being "bored" by the courses, dropping out and enrolling in mathematics master's programs instead. Can anyone recommend some grad schools that offer programs in financial engineering that are on the heavy side when it comes to math/programming?

Best-
Nicole

 

[IntoDarkness]

u don't go into mfe cuz u wana learn math and programming... u go into mfe cuz u want a quant job... u need to set ur priority straight

 

[ndeyerl]

u don't go into mfe cuz u wana learn math and programming... u go into mfe cuz u want a quant job... u need to set ur priority straight

Interesting perspective

 

[JesseLevermore]

Ya umm wtf, that comment needs to be deleted

 

[Daniel Duffy]

u don't go into mfe cuz u wana learn math and programming... u go into mfe cuz u want a quant job... u need to set ur priority straight

Yeah, who needs maths and programming anyways.

edit: improve the English.

 

[Ian Kaplan]

The job landscape could be very different when you get your Masters degree. Right now there are not too many jobs in financial engineering and those that do exist go to people with experience. (By financial engineering I mean structuring derivatives, swaps or similar instruments). Because there seem to be experienced people available organizations do not appear willing to train you in this area. It seems unlikely that any organization would allow someone right out of school to structure one of these products without close review by an experienced person.

If you enjoy writing code and have experience in software engineering, then I think that the future is much more bright. So in my view it is wise to choose a school with a lot of software emphasis.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently because I am doing a project with S&P 500 data. I have access to the Warton Research Data Service and Compustat data. However, this data must be heavily processed before it can be used. I am an experienced software engineer and even for me this is a very time consuming challenge (I am using R to process the data).

Given my perspective (which is not necessarily correct), I would avoid a program like Stanford's that is very math focused and go for a program that has a focus on programming, in addition to math. Almost no one is going to be hired out of school to do lots of math. But people are hired out of school to do programming.

A plug for my Alma Mater: Almost every class I took at the University of Washington involved writing R code. They are also expanding their software classes.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

R is the way to go IMO. It is an amazing environment.