Poll: let's do our own ranking.

[charlesc]

This is a Multiple-Choice poll.

I know it may not be a wise idea. Ranking should be an analytical task, not a result of popularity contest, but anyway I am going to do it for 2 reasons:

1. "Brand name" matters. AdvancedTrading.com also emphasises "Street prestige" in this way.
2. Intuition & impression matter. Aggregated numbers are convenient for auditing/dispute-resolution purpose, but it is not the natural mode of thinking, and they may differ from alternative rankng derived from more natural mode of thinking.

So ,assume Princeton and CMU are the indisputable top 2 among quantitative finance programs, and let's forget about other "value anchor/refernce point" (i.e. Quantnet ranking) for a while. Let's rank the following programs, by (average of) consensus:

Columbia MFE, Cornell (MFE concentration), NYU

Due to forum constraints, I have to ask for opinions about other programs in a slightly awkward way.

 

[TBeas]

I think here is how rankings should be done.

These schools are the five best.
These schools are the 5-10 schools.
These schools are 11-20.

Because do you honestly think it matters if a school is ranked #1,2,3,4, or 5? No. Just that they are in the top 5.

And it severely limits all of the stupid bullshit that the other thread erupted into, and this thread will become.

 

[charlesc]

I think here is how rankings should be done.

These schools are the five best.
These schools are the 5-10 schools.
These schools are 11-20.

Because do you honestly think it matters if a school is ranked #1,2,3,4, or 5? No. Just that they are in the top 5.

And it severely limits all of the stupid bullshit that the other thread erupted into, and this thread will become.

Your suggestion would require 3 separate polls. This forum only allows 1 per thread.

And I am primarily intersted in top 10, and I assume people won't dispute Princeton and CMU are top2. So dividing 8 schools into two camps is not useful.

People may receive multipl offers from, say, 5th-10th programs. The poll result may be viewed as a popular (but definitely not the primary) advisory guide.

 

[charlesc]

Bump. Apparently many prefer NYU over Columbia -- a departure from Quantnet ranking.

Any sharing of thoughts/reasoning for this preference is appreciated!

 

[TBeas]

Your suggestion would require 3 separate polls. This forum only allows 1 per thread.

And I am primarily intersted in top 10, and I assume people won't dispute Princeton and CMU are top2. So dividing 8 schools into two camps is not useful.

People may receive multipl offers from, say, 5th-10th programs. The poll result may be viewed as a popular (but definitely not the primary) advisory guide.

Good for whoever these people are. If they get into programs that are ranked 5-10, they should go to whichever school they like the best. Not just the one that is ranked 1 spot ahead of another (in rankings that likely have no basis to real life results anyway).