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Princeton MFin or Columbia PhD Statistics

typh

Joined
2/24/13
Messages
5
Points
13
Hi,
I have been recently admitted to both Princeton Master in Finance and Columbia PhD in Statistics( with fellowships). I really want to become a quantitative analyst and I would like some advises about what program to choose.
Thank you very much.
 
Obviously PhD. You will be better prepared. A lot of PhD's from Columbia end up in Wall St. on regular basis.
 
Ok. And just an other question : Is the Columbia PhD prestigious or not ? (I am not american)
 
typh said:
Ok. And just an other question : Is the Columbia PhD prestigious or not ? (I am not american)
Click to expand...
The right question is would you be able to find a job? It would not help you to be jobless and hold a "prestisgious" degree?
Did you research on the career outlook of graduates from the program? There are many Columbia MFE grads who end up working back in their country because they couldn't find a job in the US. Obviously, whether Columbia is prestigious doesn't help.
 
I looked what former students do. And what I found that either they work in the academic word or either in a large bank.
 
I don't know exactly how many graduate each year. I found only what the call " placement of recent PhD students" but no statistics.
Would you take rather the Princeton program?
 
which program would you rather attend, typh, given what you want to do with your life/career, and how well each program would prepare you for what you want to do?
 
heyy typh .. if not a problem could you please share your profile ..
 
Andy Nguyen said:
The right question is would you be able to find a job? It would not help you to be jobless and hold a "prestisgious" degree?
Did you research on the career outlook of graduates from the program? There are many Columbia MFE grads who end up working back in their country because they couldn't find a job in the US. Obviously, whether Columbia is prestigious doesn't help.
Click to expand...
I will be attending the PhD program in Stats this fall. Definitely the way to go. They get all the quant jobs without any problem, and if you end up not wanting to go into industry, the placement of Columbia's grads in academia is truly amazing. Without a doubt, I would say a PhD is the way go - industry jobs are an easy backup for PhDs from the top schools....
 
Umnik said:
What is bad in working in home country with a MFE degree?
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Absolutely nothing if the home country happens to have a modern finance industry that your MFE degree can be fully utilized and competitively compensated.
Sadly, it's not the case and many students end up back home not by choice. They may get a job that pay a fraction of what their classmates get while doing remotely relevant job and still paying off the same huge student loan.
Put it simply, it's not the ideal scenario that many applicants envision when they apply for MFE degree in the west.
 
Come on guys be real: you will most probably find great jobs with both programs, if you don't the problem is with you not with the program. Columbia PhD Statistics in a world where people with statistics knowledge are sought after like crazy and Princeton MFin - one of the best and most prestigeous programs in Finance. And yes, the name of the university does matter. Figure out if you want to do a phd in statistics or master in finance - should be easy since they don't have much in common.
 
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