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Northwestern MS in Analytics vs U-Toronto MMF vs BU-MSMF

Joined
2/2/14
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20
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Hey,

I've got offers from
1. U-Toronto MMF
2. BU-MSMF
3. Northwestern MS in Analytics

Though I'm awaiting more results, I have to pay deposits and make decisions on the above meanwhile.

Any inputs for the above?Any current /ex students?
 
Northwestern has the best university-wide reputation on Wall Street. You'll get recruiters from all of the Wall Street firms heading out to Kellogg to recruit, as well as the broader university. I have less information about the programs you're citing.

Are you sure you want to do analytics? This is a great way to get into MS Strats or Barclays Analytics, but the problem is that banks form these programs to recruit smart developers, but eventually merge them into IT when they need to reduce costs. (Actually that was the story with my first job out of college)

At the end of the day, an analytics guy's job, really, is to be a coder. A front-office coder who understands the business, but a coder. Banks don't always know what to do with their business-oriented programmers and don't always do as good of a job of understanding the value they create, compared to a tech firm.

Analytics would also get you into risk management, quant development, maybe even a portfolio research sort of role. I don't think it would land you in a trading or pricing role. I don't think you'd be running portfolio strategies.

It looks like this is a new program, but MIT's MFin was a new program 5 years ago, and Northwestern is a world-renowned university. It does better than BU on Wall Street placements, and a degree from Northwestern is as good as a degree from just about any Ivy League school west of the Appalachians (IE at a Chicago prop shop).

I don't want to write off the programs at BU or U of T; I'm not all that familiar with them. But my general sense is that Northwestern would be a peer school with Columbia, CMU, Cornell, Princeton, NYU etc. on recruiting and branding- although its program is a little different. From what I've seen here on quantnet, my general sense is that BU and U of T may be one step below those schools.

If you already have a job lined up like this, it may be wise to turn down the program, work two years, and reapply for MFE programs in two or three years.
 
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