NYU Tandon MFE NYU Tandon School of Engineering - MS in Financial Engineering

[nobody]

That's very disappointing. The professor, safe to say wanting positive reviews to be written, and who presumably know a few students fairly well, would know exactly who to ask to get positive reviews written. I don't think reviews that are the result of professors soliciting former students for them are authentic or objective.

Would you trust online reviews of businesses that are the result of the owner asking specific people? I wouldn't either.

Hopefully no other professors did the same and not TOO many reviews were written as a result of this.

1. Before I graduate, the department invites lots of students to talk with Peter on topics like their experience, what should be improved, etc.. That's what I mentioned as "collecting reviews" in my previous post.
I'm glad to see some changes already in place for the incoming students.

2. I'm not the star student that will first come to somebody's mind if they want to brag about their students' achievement. I enrolled into this program with weaker background and got less interviews than my classmates.

3. The professor mentioned the website, but it is me to read the comments and decide what to post or not. As I have mentioned in the my review, there're good and bad about the program, and I tried to keep both side on my review.
I posted my experience as a former student to give others a perspective of this program. I believe this is what it is meant to be for the review section.

I'm a frequent visitor to this website before graduation. Regarding the comments I read, I will post my review any how, in order to clarify the situation now in this program. The professor only made the posting of my opinion came out a little earlier.

Some comments implies there's a marketing scheme. Well, if an alumnus/alumna sharing experience out of his/her own will could fall into that category, then I guess this website can be full of marketing schemes, by their standard.(Sadly these people can't find, or bother to issue, any paycheck for me)

4. Ad Hominem is too powerful a tool to kill all arguments. By the same standard, we can say that any positive/negative review are survivor bias.
I would rather have a reasonable exchange of ideas, based on fact and logic. Please point out what content I said is wrong or pure braggadocio about this program that makes you want to invalidate my reviews.

 

[Jose Cespedes]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to express my frustration but let's give it a go.

I am currently applying to Tandon's MFE program to start in 2018 so I can't attest to the quality of the program. However, as an international applicant, the application process has been a nightmare. I rarely get responded on time by e-mail, the documentation process is tedious and troublesome, way too many things are required to be mailed PRIOR to even receiving an admission offer, I have no idea about the progression of my candidacy review and the process is so different from most of the other schools. I post in here with my real life name so if you work at Tandon you can just look me up to confirm that I am applying.

I would really love for the application process to be more friendly. I understand that you receive a lot of applications but so do all of the other programs. Some of the things I have had bad experiences with:

1. Several things are required to be mailed physically to the Canton address. Now as someone who is applying from outside the US and that has two undergrad degrees and an associate degree this can just be a lot of extra work and money. Most of the other programs (almost every school) I applied to, a scanned copy sufficed.

2. The Albert portal takes a long time to be updated with the documents that have been received. This is very annoying and I have little knowledge regarding the progression of my status.

3. The response time is awful, it takes more than a week, oftentimes 2-3 weeks to receive an e-mail and when I get a response it hasn't been very helpful regarding my process. More wait time, again and again. I had to resort to calling over the phone but not much could be done about the process.

4. I sent the sealed and signed transcript and its translation from one of the schools I graduated from. FedEx delivered it by January 19th if I recall correctly and it STILL hasn't been marked as received by NYU (Note that none of the other schools required me to mail a physical copy of the transcript prior to admission AND that most could just receive my WES official evaluation or a scanned version of the transcript, but no Tandon refuses to). On top of this they require official physical copies of the diplomas (Which haven't been marked as received either).

I applied to 13 programs in 11 different schools and Tandon's process was by far the least smooth. I already received admit offers from UCLA, MIT and others and I need to make a decision soon and I don't even know if they have started to look at my profile at Tandon. I have no time frame, no indication, nothing. I don't know if my profile is up for review, they haven't been helpful... I don't know what to do.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

This is really good, constructive feedback with concrete examples of how the program can improve on.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

My 2 cents
I would purchase some kind of software system that registers and tracks student info from A-Z. Each stage of the process has its own SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and escalation procedures when things time out.
It's a start I suppose to keep everything in one place. Avoids the registered letter being accepted but not known to all stakeholders.

The points that Jose can easily be resolved with s/w so long as we keep 'finger aan de pols.'

 

[nobody]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to express my frustration but let's give it a go.

I am currently applying to Tandon's MFE program to start in 2018 so I can't attest to the quality of the program. However, as an international applicant, the application process has been a nightmare. I rarely get responded on time by e-mail, the documentation process is tedious and troublesome, way too many things are required to be mailed PRIOR to even receiving and admission offer, I have no idea about the progression of my candidacy review and the process is so different from most of the other schools. I post in here with my real life name so if you work at Tandon you can just look me up to confirm that I am applying.

I would really love for the application process to be more friendly. I understand that you receive a lot of applications but so do all of the other programs. Some of the things I have had bad experiences with:

1. Several things are required to be mailed physically to the Canton address. Now as someone who is applying from outside the US and that has two undergrad degrees and an associate degree this can just be a lot of extra work and money. Most of the other programs (almost every school) I applied to, a scanned copy sufficed.

2. The Albert portal takes a long time to be updated with the documents that have been received. This is very annoying and I have little knowledge regarding the progression of my status.

3. The response time is awful, it takes more than a week, oftentimes 2-3 weeks to receive an e-mail and when I get a response it hasn't been very helpful regarding my process. More wait time, again and again. I had to resort to calling over the phone but not much could be done about the process.

4. I sent the sealed and signed transcript and its translation from one of the schools I graduated from. FedEx delivered it by January 19th if I recall correctly and it STILL hasn't been marked as received by NYU (Note that none of the other schools required me to mail a physical copy of the transcript prior to admission AND that most could just receive my WES official evaluation or a scanned version of the transcript, but no Tandon refuses to). On top of this they require official physical copies of the diplomas (Which haven't been marked as received either).

I applied to 13 programs in 11 different schools and Tandon's process was by far the least smooth. I already received admit offers from UCLA, MIT and others and I need to make a decision soon and I don't even know if they have started to look at my profile at Tandon. I have no time frame, no indication, nothing. I don't know if my profile is up for review, they haven't been helpful... I don't know what to do.

That's unfortunate.

The application deadline just passed. I guess all staffs are dealing with tons of documents now.

The department's document process is not very fast. And lots of documents are handled by the university. Considering NYU's size, I guess they are flooded with materials from tens of thousands of applicants.

Since Peter is here maybe it's best to contact him

 

[ApolloChariot]

@ApolloChariot, under normal circumstances, I might agree with you, but knowing the details and the people, I feel compelled to add some color.

The Tandon program seemed rudderless for a while and got some bad press. Peter Carr was hired to shore it up. He’s done a good job, so far. It’s only logical that he (or someone else) would ask for some additional opinions if the program was in a big improvement phase. I’ve been known Peter for 18 years. I can attest to his integrity.

What the professor supposedly did was not "asking for opinions", that is something that should be encouraged to improve the program. If by "asking for opinions", you mean asking specific people to refute or respond to negative reviews online by potentially writing reviews of their own, then it undermines the collective objectivity and authenticity of the reviews. And that does not change even if the program is in the middle of what you and others characterize as an improvement or transition phase.

If you or others believe that past reviews are not a fair representation of the quality of the program because of material recent changes, that's a good discussion to have. However, soliciting reviews from specific former students, even as a response to what is perceived to be overly negative reviews, make the reviews less objective and helpful, not more. Do you disagree?

 

[ApolloChariot]

1. Before I graduate, the department invites lots of students to talk with Peter on topics like their experience, what should be improved, etc.. That's what I mentioned as "collecting reviews" in my previous post.
I'm glad to see some changes already in place for the incoming students.

2. I'm not the star student that will first come to somebody's mind if they want to brag about their students' achievement. I enrolled into this program with weaker background and got less interviews than my classmates.

3. The professor mentioned the website, but it is me to read the comments and decide what to post or not. As I have mentioned in the my review, there're good and bad about the program, and I tried to keep both side on my review.
I posted my experience as a former student to give others a perspective of this program. I believe this is what it is meant to be for the review section.

I'm a frequent visitor to this website before graduation. Regarding the comments I read, I will post my review any how, in order to clarify the situation now in this program. The professor only made the posting of my opinion came out a little earlier.

Some comments implies there's a marketing scheme. Well, if an alumnus/alumna sharing experience out of his/her own will could fall into that category, then I guess this website can be full of marketing schemes, by their standard.(Sadly these people can't find, or bother to issue, any paycheck for me)

4. Ad Hominem is too powerful a tool to kill all arguments. By the same standard, we can say that any positive/negative review are survivor bias.
I would rather have a reasonable exchange of ideas, based on fact and logic. Please point out what content I said is wrong or pure braggadocio about this program that makes you want to invalidate my reviews.

Just to be clear, nowhere did I use ad hominem attacks, nor did I ever say or suggest that any review or opinion is not genuine or in any way "fake".

What I had an issue with is the way which, at least it appears, some reviews were solicited. If a professor in the program is reaching out to former students, in part to get them to refute or respond to negative reviews, then that is what some perceive to be, myself included, review manipulation. I'm sure some, including probably yourself, would disagree.

The fact is, if professors, who have an interest in seeing their program reviewed positively, reaches out to specific people to respond to negative reviews, it results in positive reviews being written that would not have happened organically. You yourself admitted that the professor reaching out to you resulted in you posting your own review quicker than you would have otherwise.

If such reaching out to former students to get them to respond to negative reviews is discussed between multiple people who work at the department, I don't think it is entirely unfair to characterize it as a "marketing scheme".

 

[MichaelYue]

I would like to share a few things for incoming or prospective NYU MFE students!

1. We have a large number of courses you can choose from for each semester, like machine learning, derivatives pricing, risk, quantitative trading, portfolio management... I want make it more specific, for machine learning, we have different courses like Machine Learning for Finance, Advanced Machine Learning, News Analysis.... If you like trading, we have Algorithmic and High Frequency Trading, Active Portfolio Management, Fixed Income Quantitative Trading, Quantitative Trading Strategies, Quantitative Equity Investment, and etc. I believe you will find the courses you like! These courses are all taught by professors from industry with senior title.

2. We have two Career Websites. One is by NYU, the other one is by MFE department. Most of the time, we use our department career net. Our career replacement director, Sara, is the most helpful career director I have ever met. She organizes many on-campus recruiting events for our students, post many "only for NYU MFE student" jobs, provides helps from resume to interviews, literally, everything. She is not only helping you with job findings, but also "pushing" you to find a job. If you do not apply jobs through MFE career net, she would send you an email to understand why and she would be more than willing to help you with any problems! She even contacted many international companies, like securities company and funds in China to give more opportunities to students who want to work outside US.

3. The third one is for students who would like to apply for PhD in the future. As we all know, most of students get a MFE degree and then go to the industry. But it is not uncommon that MFE students in our department decide to pursue a PhD. We have capstone research projects, thesis, industry research opportunities, and other research opportunities which can equip you with a strong research ability. I really appreciate Professor Carr's time and helps! It was an honor to be his student! He helped me with everything regarding my PhD application. For this semester, he is working with 4 students who apply for PhD. We all got offers, like Johns Hopkins University, NYU Courant, University of California, Santa Barbara, Boston University, and University of Utah. Without Professor Carr's help, we could not even make this happen! So I would say, our department is not only helping students get into industry, but also providing numerous helps to students who want to get a PhD!

 

[ApolloChariot]

I will just point out, that in this very discussion, the department chair, Peter Carr, wrote that he "takes the negative reviews seriously" on 2017-05-26. Shortly after, in a one week span from 2017-06-11 to 2017-06-18, there were EIGHT 4/5 star reviews, when the majority of the previous reviews were critical.

Whether this is, on the face of it, obvious astro-turfing is for prospective students to decide, of course this by itself doesn't offer any insight into how well the program is run, although it may cause a reasonable person if (s)he concludes it necessary, to discount some of the opinions given.

Someone who gave a positive review already acknowledged that a NYU FRE professor saw the negative reviews of this program and asked his students to write their own reviews. Brand new accounts posting glowing reviews of the program is pretty common on QuantNet, far more than any other program. Which is a shame because as I maintained previously, reviews written as the result of solicitation by program professors/staff/administrators make the reviews less objective and helpful, not more.