Stat GU 5261 at Columbia

[Qui-Gon]

Totally got your point! I was thinking masters courses cuz it takes time to prepare for interviews and also just the job hunting process in general takes lots of time. And the stuff we learned in the 1st semester is not helpful for interviews. Taking masters courses maybe a way to have less workload?

I would start preparing for interviews now. Make a list of firms/groups that you think you may want to apply to, and start doing due diligence on what the interview process looks like for summer internships for them. As we get closer to September, you can PM folks on LinkedIn working at the firms/groups you've identified as targets for yourself to express your interest and ask questions about the application process assuming you have some.

As far as your comment about learning things in the 1st semester that are not helpful for interviews, I don't think this is necessarily true. First, because of the nature of the program, it is not the case that everyone is pushing hard for sell side quant roles like in other quant programs, and you should know this going in. As a result, there is no real reason the curriculum should focus on interview prep for these positions. Notwithstanding this, in my opinion, the industry track's 1st semester courses are great for (further) interview prep! https://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/courses/syllabus/PHD Introduction to Continuous Time Finance (Johannes) SP2019.pdf

Whether masters courses would result in a lighter workload depends a lot on your background. I wouldn't be intimidated by PhD courses simply because they are PhD level. My advice as an alternative to substituting PhD courses for MS ones for this fall: find syllabi for the first semester courses, download the main textbook for the class, and start reading the first couple of chapters.

 

[xzhang]

Thanks a lot! Super appreciate your advice!