COMPARE Stanford MS&E vs MIT CDO (+UMich/USC/NYU)

[ORFEBoy]

Hi all,

I am having a very hard time making decision about grad school. My main interest is Operations Research. I am very open in terms of research topics, but my current interests are financial engineering (risk management/dynamic pricing), operations management, transportation systems (scheduling/routing), and machine learning.

I want to eventually go to a Ph.D. program in Operations Research/Management, but since I have little research experience, I decided to apply to only Master programs.

Currently, I am deciding between Stanford's Management Science and Engineering and MIT's Computation for Design and Optimization. Funding is not an issue. I visited both schools and could see myself enjoying either school. I'm really torn right now.

I also have offers from UMichigan's Industrial and Operations Engineering, USC's Operations Research, and NYU's Mathematics in Finance.

Please help! Any comments/thoughts? Thanks a lot!

 

[Shadowfox]

MIT's Computation for Design and Optimization is the best place to go, given your choices and interest. You can get a Ph.D. from there and you will definitely be rewarded even if you eventually decide to come back to finance. My friends went there and now they are working for GS Quant team Newyork.

 

[J Seo]

I would pick MIT CDO program given your interest, although it is terminal degree. I believe CDO program does not have 'finance' courses on their curriculum, but you can get a lot from the curriculum.
(FYI, MIT ORC offers curriculum what you exactly wants to do.)

If you more toward financial engineering, I would consider NYU's Mathematics in Finance (Courant, I believe) as well.

MS&E in general is mostly about consulting. This one probably is not you want to go.

I also applied for those programs you listed because I am also interested in optimization/simulation in financial system, but I am ending up going MFE program.

 

[ORFEBoy]

Does anyone has any opinions on research groups in both schools? Or any specific professors I should look at?

For NYU's MSMF, is it possible to work on research with a faculty?

 

[Shadowfox]

Look to work with Andrew Lo, Dimitris Bertsimas ..In nyu you wont get time to do research since most of the instructors are employed with high profile banks rather you can network with them