COMPARE UC Berkeley MFE vs NYU maths in finance

[Chad T. Wildman]

Come in Chad, that's cherry picking. I am sure you know that better than me. Generally that's not the rule, am I wrong? Students at Berkeley have more experience and you can tell that just by looking at the profiles of the current students on their website. And if you have a phd that should be considered as experience and you should have both a more senior position from the beginning and a higher starting salary. Do you think it's not true?

I was just providing an example from my class. Hardly cherry picking as folks with only bachelors are present every year and the placement stats are what they are.

You have gotten very far away from the OP's original questions. I will address those directly now and then say no more on the subject.
1. Does being in Berkeley harm your chances of working in the financial industry's? No of course not. it's an MFE. We place everyone in the financial industry with some notable exceptions lately (tech, etc).
2. Wall Street? Yes of course we place on Wall Street. Check out the placement stats on the Berkeley MFE website. They break it out by location.

To the OP: what you are being told by people here is that you have a disadvantage relative to your classmates if you have less experience. I just don't think that is necessarily true. People that treat these programs as "buying a job" might be at a disadvantage if they are in this situation. But anyone who comes to the program ready to work hard and puts in the effort and excels will not be.

 

[matt_]

Being surrounded by more experienced classmates is actually a good thing because you will learn a lot from them as well as professors.

But, it is also true that the placement stats by Berkeley are more or less boosted by the amount of experience they already have before MFE. Thus, for example, if you are not as experienced as others, you should expect a lower starting salary than you see on their website. It is just as simple as that.

 

[evolutioner]

Agree with study with experienced classmates, at least you know more about practical industry, not only academics.