Hello,
I have been admitted to NYU Courant MSMF program and I am currently waiting to hear back from CMU (got interviewed a few days ago). I'm trying to understand whether I am making the right decision going with NYU (that's what I think right now), and hopefully someone has more information than me on both programs.
I am interested in quantitative asset management and my objective is not to get a pure quant position. In particular, I would like to get positions in portfolio management or as a researcher for quant driven houses (firms like AQR, etc. etc.). However, I would also be more than happy to end up working in global macro positions (just because of my background, since I am an econ student with some academic experience in the field) and I don't want to close me that door (even if it's pretty clear that there is nothing like a normal path for those kind of positions). I have a good academic profile with a few months of working experience (2 internships in asset management) and 1yr of research assistantship in Macro. I am not a good programmer and I don't come from a pure math background (econ!) and that's definitely something I'll have to work on, especially if I want to get one of those quant asset mgmt roles.
I like the fact that NYU MSMF is a smaller program wrt CMU MSCF and that they are in New York City (also CMU it's in NYC, but it's just not the same, you know what I mean!). From the outside, it also seems that NYU's program is more rigorous than CMU's one, and the Professors are the best guys in their field. That's basically the second reason why I am currently giving my preference to NYU. However, I like a lot the level of transparency of CMU and it's placement stats are simply PERFECT. Unfortunately NYU doesn't release stats with all those details (and I can't understand why, since I expect they are pretty decent too!) but with some research it's clear that their placement should be very similar (maybe CMU's a little better, I can't tell that). What got my attention is that CMU has consistently placed at places like AQR and Citadel over the last few years (3-4 students per class at AQR out of 90 students on avg at CMU over the last 3-4 years), while NYU didn't. I don't know whether NYU's students are perceived as less programming oriented than CMU ones, but another important thing to consider to evaluate the placement stats of those program is that the students in those programs come from different backgrounds (NYU: top math program in China; CMU: more mixed, engineering school in India or top program in China, business or engineering ) . Another curious thing is that CMU's admission rate is TWICE as big as NYU's one (pretty strange, right?!).
What do you think one should prefer, given my career objectives (and assuming one gets admitted to CMU obviously
)? What is the best program for placements on the buy side, given that I am interested in portfolio management and not in pure quant roles?
Any comment is much appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
Dan
I have been admitted to NYU Courant MSMF program and I am currently waiting to hear back from CMU (got interviewed a few days ago). I'm trying to understand whether I am making the right decision going with NYU (that's what I think right now), and hopefully someone has more information than me on both programs.
I am interested in quantitative asset management and my objective is not to get a pure quant position. In particular, I would like to get positions in portfolio management or as a researcher for quant driven houses (firms like AQR, etc. etc.). However, I would also be more than happy to end up working in global macro positions (just because of my background, since I am an econ student with some academic experience in the field) and I don't want to close me that door (even if it's pretty clear that there is nothing like a normal path for those kind of positions). I have a good academic profile with a few months of working experience (2 internships in asset management) and 1yr of research assistantship in Macro. I am not a good programmer and I don't come from a pure math background (econ!) and that's definitely something I'll have to work on, especially if I want to get one of those quant asset mgmt roles.
I like the fact that NYU MSMF is a smaller program wrt CMU MSCF and that they are in New York City (also CMU it's in NYC, but it's just not the same, you know what I mean!). From the outside, it also seems that NYU's program is more rigorous than CMU's one, and the Professors are the best guys in their field. That's basically the second reason why I am currently giving my preference to NYU. However, I like a lot the level of transparency of CMU and it's placement stats are simply PERFECT. Unfortunately NYU doesn't release stats with all those details (and I can't understand why, since I expect they are pretty decent too!) but with some research it's clear that their placement should be very similar (maybe CMU's a little better, I can't tell that). What got my attention is that CMU has consistently placed at places like AQR and Citadel over the last few years (3-4 students per class at AQR out of 90 students on avg at CMU over the last 3-4 years), while NYU didn't. I don't know whether NYU's students are perceived as less programming oriented than CMU ones, but another important thing to consider to evaluate the placement stats of those program is that the students in those programs come from different backgrounds (NYU: top math program in China; CMU: more mixed, engineering school in India or top program in China, business or engineering ) . Another curious thing is that CMU's admission rate is TWICE as big as NYU's one (pretty strange, right?!).
What do you think one should prefer, given my career objectives (and assuming one gets admitted to CMU obviously
)? What is the best program for placements on the buy side, given that I am interested in portfolio management and not in pure quant roles?Any comment is much appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
Dan
