Columbia MAFN Placement of Columbia MAFN

[tetcmar]

Hello everyone! I am an applicant this year who has got an offer from MAFN and anther from QCF GaTech. I heard from someone that the full-time job rate of MAFN is "bad", which I don't really believe but somehow shook my faith in MAFN.
1)Could anyone from MAFN share some solid information of the placement of your program? Is it really worth the 7th rank?
2)How's it compared with QCF?

Thank you very much

 

[countmc]

Hello everyone! I am an applicant this year who has got an offer from MAFN and anther from QCF GaTech. I heard from someone that the full-time job rate of MAFN is "bad", which I don't really believe but somehow shook my faith in MAFN.
1)Could anyone from MAFN share some solid information of the placement of your program? Is it really worth the 7th rank?
2)How's it compared with QCF?

Thank you very much

When did you apply to MAFN and when did you hear back from them?

 

[Jedison]

Columbia by a long shot

 

[tetcmar]

When did you apply to MAFN and when did you hear back from them?

I submitted the application in mid Jan and got the admission on Mar 12

 

[tetcmar]

Columbia by a long shot

Hi Jedison. Would you mind specifying? According to what I heard, currently about 10 ppl in MAFN 2014 have found their internships or full-time offers. Although I believe this will not be the final result but what do you think about it?

 

[Jedison]

I think that if you have a hard time trying to find recruiting opportunities at Columbia you're going to have a harder time at GaTech. That being said I don't know much about GaTech's program. I would just find it hard to believe that they'd have more opportunities than Columbia. MAFN doesn't have a career team but Columbia's brand and OCR is top notch. If students out of the MAFN program aren't finding good opportunities I would say that it's more a reflection of them. No offense to anyone.

 

[tetcmar]

I think that if you have a hard time trying to find recruiting opportunities at Columbia you're going to have a harder time at GaTech. That being said I don't know much about GaTech's program. I would just find it hard to believe that they'd have more opportunities than Columbia. MAFN doesn't have a career team but Columbia's brand and OCR is top notch. If students out of the MAFN program aren't finding good opportunities I would say that it's more a reflection of them. No offense to anyone.

Quite reasonable. Thank you Jedison.

 

[CasanovaJ]

1)Could anyone from MAFN share some solid information of the placement of your program? Is it really worth the 7th rank?

Good question-- I'm in it now and I couldn't tell you. With either MAFN or Ga Tech, though, I think you can safely assume that they're both pretty decent academically, but will not come close to guaranteeing you a job... it will definitely be possible but will take a lot of work, will not be handed to you, and if your mentality is "quant trading or bust" you'll probably be disappointed.

If anything just based on location alone, though, having to choose between the two I'd go with Columbia hands down.

 

[tetcmar]

Good question-- I'm in it now and I couldn't tell you. With either MAFN or Ga Tech, though, I think you can safely assume that they're both pretty decent academically, but will not come close to guaranteeing you a job... it will definitely be possible but will take a lot of work, will not be handed to you, and if your mentality is "quant trading or bust" you'll probably be disappointed.

If anything just based on location alone, though, having to choose between the two I'd go with Columbia hands down.

Thank you a lot. May I ask two more questions based on your answer?In your opinion:
1.Which programs come close to guaranteeing students jobs in NYC ?
2. If not "quant trading or bust", what kind of positions are MAFN students most likely to work in after graduation?

 

[CasanovaJ]

Thank you a lot. May I ask two more questions based on your answer?In your opinion:
1.Which programs come close to guaranteeing students jobs in NYC ?

Baruch is supposed to be pretty good (tiny program, most of the people in it are solid), and CMU and Columbia MSFE are supposed to be pretty good too but they're bigger, so I think about a quarter or so of the Asian students at the end of the day still wind up back in Hong Kong. The word "guarantee" is very dangerous.

2. If not "quant trading or bust", what kind of positions are MAFN students most likely to work in after graduation?

Risk management, model validation, data analytics... all good, respectable livings, but not exactly sexy... "exotic options traders for DE Shaw" and whatnot are extremely few and far between.

 

[tetcmar]

Baruch is supposed to be pretty good (tiny program, most of the people in it are solid), and CMU and Columbia MSFE are supposed to be pretty good too but they're bigger, so I think about a quarter or so of the Asian students at the end of the day still wind up back in Hong Kong. The word "guarantee" is very dangerous.



Risk management, model validation, data analytics... all good, respectable livings, but not exactly sexy... "exotic options traders for DE Shaw" and whatnot are extremely few and far between.

I see. Thank you!

 

[mhy]

so I think about a quarter or so of the Asian students at the end of the day still wind up back in Hong Kong

Which is not necessarily a bad thing especially when the tax rate in NYC is like 40% and HK is 15%

 

[DannyF]

QCF is very solid. Job placement is excellent (over 90%), the director is a hotshot in finance, has great connections.

I can't imagine that this Columbia program will give you a better shot at "sexy" jobs than GT. I think the curriculum at GT looks better.

GT (the whole school) is very underrated, imo. This school is a research behemoth.

 

[Yolo Zhang]

QCF is very solid. Job placement is excellent (over 90%), the director is a hotshot in finance, has great connections.

I can't imagine that this Columbia program will give you a better shot at "sexy" jobs than GT. I think the curriculum at GT looks better.

GT (the whole school) is very underrated, imo. This school is a research behemoth.

Agree! The job placement of GT QCF of 2013-2014 is impressive. 96% Full Time 3 months after graduation (94% of them in US). 96% completed summer intern. Average 70k-80k starting salary in Atlanta is not bad. Since most students are international in this program, the job placement is pretty good.