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Take a master in CS before attending MFE?

Take an online master in CS before attending MFE?

  • Good idea given my non-STEM background

    Votes: 9 37.5%

  • Waste of time, just take prerequisite classes from community colleges

    Votes: 15 62.5%
  • Total voters
    24

gradschoolhopeful

Joined
2/16/20
Messages
4
Points
13
Dear community,

I currently work as a M&A advisory consultant at a Big 4 firm. I graduated with a GPA of 3.5/4 from a undergraduate business school in Europe.

I'm thinking of applying to several online master's programs in computer science (Penn, GaTech, UIUC, UT Austin to name a few). Those programs have the same rigor as their on-site program, and are unbelievable cheap ($10,000-$25,000). Additionally, I could attend that while continue working to gain more experience.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that programming is becoming more and more important in the finance industry. In addition, I could take a few stats/data science courses as electives and prove to the MFE adcom my quant/programming capabilities. This is extremely important since my bachelor is pretty vanilla as I didn't take math/stats so I have a hard time believing that Columbia/UC Berkeley/CMU/Princeton/MIT/Cornell will let me in...

I will couple that with a few certs such as QuantNet C++ Programming and Datasim to strengthen my application. Any thoughts will be appreciated!
 
Last edited:
OMSCS and other online MS program are no joke. They are very rigorous and you need a lot of fundamentals right at undergrad level. Have you looked at the align programs or conversion masters? Better bet for your as they are geared towards non technical people.
 
gradschoolhopeful said:
Dear community,

I currently work as a M&A advisory consultant at a Big 4 firm. I graduated with a GPA of 3.5/4 from a undergraduate business school in Europe.

I'm thinking of applying to several online master's programs in computer science (Penn, GaTech, UIUC, UT Austin to name a few). Those programs have the same rigor as their on-site program, and are unbelievable cheap ($10,000-$25,000). Additionally, I could attend that while continue working to gain more experience.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that programming is becoming more and more important in the finance industry. In addition, I could take a few stats/data science courses as electives and prove to the MFE adcom my quant/programming capabilities. This is extremely important since my bachelor is pretty vanilla as I didn't take math/stats so I have a hard time believing that Columbia/UC Berkeley/CMU/Princeton/MIT/Cornell will let me in...

I will couple that with a few certs such as QuantNet C++ Programming and Datasim to strengthen my application. Any thoughts will be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Hi,
I work for Datasim and am the originator of the Quatnet/Baruch courses. dduffy@datsim.nl
Pleased to answer your further queries.
 
longgamma said:
OMSCS and other online MS program are no joke. They are very rigorous and you need a lot of fundamentals right at undergrad level. Have you looked at the align programs or conversion masters? Better bet for your as they are geared towards non technical people.
Click to expand...
I have spoken to a few OMSCS students on Reddit, and yes, they are no joke. The drop out rate is around 60% from what I've seen. However, it is doable if one takes it slow (i.e. 1 class/semester) and graduate in 3-3.5 years.

The program at UPenn, MCIT, is gentler for non-STEM people like me. It's essentially 6 undergrad fundamental classes + 4 grad-level electives.

Oregon State also offers a post-bacc program which has lots of good reviews, but the $30k price tag is a bit high and they also require 60 credits to graduate.

I'll definitely look into more programs as you said. However, my target right now is still the MCIT program at UPenn. $26k for an Ivy League stamp is a bargain in my book.

Daniel Duffy said:
Hi,
I work for Datasim and am the originator of the Quatnet/Baruch courses. dduffy@datsim.nl
Pleased to answer your further queries.
Click to expand...

Hi Daniel! I've read many of your posts on this site. Will let you know once I'm ready to take your courses.
 
what are you ultimately trying to do? It might also help if you can move to a quantitative team of your firm. My friend moved from risk advisory to derivative valuation with a finance degree
 
gradschoolhopeful said:
I have spoken to a few OMSCS students on Reddit, and yes, they are no joke. The drop out rate is around 60% from what I've seen. However, it is doable if one takes it slow (i.e. 1 class/semester) and graduate in 3-3.5 years.

The program at UPenn, MCIT, is gentler for non-STEM people like me. It's essentially 6 undergrad fundamental classes + 4 grad-level electives.

Oregon State also offers a post-bacc program which has lots of good reviews, but the $30k price tag is a bit high and they also require 60 credits to graduate.

I'll definitely look into more programs as you said. However, my target right now is still the MCIT program at UPenn. $26k for an Ivy League stamp is a bargain in my book.



Hi Daniel! I've read many of your posts on this site. Will let you know once I'm ready to take your courses.
Click to expand...

Great, looks like you done your homework :). I found a ton of universities (Stevens, northeastern) which offer online MS CS degrees but not sure how great the quality is. If you can manage to get into the OMSCS then that is the best outcome. The MCIT reviews I got were that the program is middling. Its not really rigorous and just looks like a cash cow for the uni.
 
If your ultimate goal is the MFE degree, spending $10-25K and 1-2 years of your life on an entire 30-credit CS master's seems like overkill. If you look at postings for quant modeling jobs at the big banks, a MS in math or CS is usually enough.
 
I'm a current UIUC student. To be honest, the CS program at UIUC is at least as competitive as other financial engineering program in top schools like NYU tandon.
 
nothingnew said:
I'm a current UIUC student. To be honest, the CS program at UIUC is at least as competitive as other financial engineering program in top schools like NYU tandon.
Click to expand...
Are you in the online or on-campus program? Do you know the acceptance rate for the online one? I haven't gotten much info for the online MSCS since it's quite new.

(If you don't want to publicize the stats, please PM me.)
 
i am undergrad, but i have heard a lot about things in CS department because everyone is just trying to get into the CS program here. Things are the same for graduate CS program b/c it is ranked top 5 in this country. I haven't heard anything about the online CS program.
 
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