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Please provide inputs about Financial Mathematics course at University of North Carolina Charlotte..
UNC Charlotte Financial Mathematics program
- Thread starter Jignesh Rathod
- Start date
- Joined
- 7/6/11
- Messages
- 69
- Points
- 18
I currently attend.
The core courses are:
Math 6202: Finite Difference methods. Covers basic c++ and monte carlo / binomial trees /finite difference. Its a good course, if a bit simplistic.
Math 6203: Stochastic Calculus. Used Shreve's book. This is the best class so far in the program. Its more rigorous than the other courses in the program. Most of the claims are proven to some extent.
Math 6204: PDE. I haven't taken this yet, but I believe its only usefulness over 6203 is the free boundary problem for American options. This is based on a cursory look at the textbook.
Finance 6203: Financial theory. I think this course depends heavily on which professor you take it with. My professor used Dothan's textbook, which is fairly useless imo. Not a huge fan of this course.
Finance 6210: Derivatives I. An introductory course on options and other derivatives. If you have no idea what options are this is a good course...but this class really should be condensed and made an introductory summer session.
Finance 6211: Fixed income. More like an MBA class than anything. Essentially an overview of bond markets.
Econ 6211/Math 6201: intro to time series. These are two different classes, but you can take either one. I highly recommend taking Math 6201. I didn't and regret it.
Econ 6219: Time series II. This is probably the toughest non-math class. The professor is very serious and while a little dry, knows his stuff. Probably the best non-math course in the program.
Electives: I am going to take Financial computing, and perhaps graduate real analysis for my electives. I don't know a whole lot about either class yet.
The program really should cancel at least two of the finance classes and add another couple math classes. Math 6203 is a good course, but it really serves as an introduction to more complicated stochastic classes. However no such class is offered. It is really irritating to sit through near-useless classes instead of learning more advanced mathematics.
The relative enjoyment from the classes depends greatly on the professor. Some are very good, and some are very bad.
Similarly the type of student who attends varies greatly. A good number are Chinese students who are only here to get their degree and go back to China where they are promised cushy jobs if they have an US degree. They do not care so much about their actual grades as long as they pass. Therefore there will probably be a lot of curving in the classes. As an example, in one of my finals a good number of the students had to ask the professor what the derivative of sin(x) was. A good number of students also didn't know what L'Hopitals rule is. (This obviously is a generalization: some of the Chinese in the program are very intelligent.) Perhaps more disturbing is the lack of excitement from many of the students. Many don't really care about the material, they just want a masters because a masters is the new bachelors.
The program does a decent job at placing people I have heard. This could in part be because relatively few US citizens graduate the program. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have enormous presence in the area and do a fair amount of hiring. However, I am currently struggling to find an internship for the summer even though my grades are impeccable and I actually care about the material and do a lot of self study.
In the case of this program you get what you paid for. You will not get a job on Wall Street after graduation, though you could get a fairly decent job in the area.
The core courses are:
Math 6202: Finite Difference methods. Covers basic c++ and monte carlo / binomial trees /finite difference. Its a good course, if a bit simplistic.
Math 6203: Stochastic Calculus. Used Shreve's book. This is the best class so far in the program. Its more rigorous than the other courses in the program. Most of the claims are proven to some extent.
Math 6204: PDE. I haven't taken this yet, but I believe its only usefulness over 6203 is the free boundary problem for American options. This is based on a cursory look at the textbook.
Finance 6203: Financial theory. I think this course depends heavily on which professor you take it with. My professor used Dothan's textbook, which is fairly useless imo. Not a huge fan of this course.
Finance 6210: Derivatives I. An introductory course on options and other derivatives. If you have no idea what options are this is a good course...but this class really should be condensed and made an introductory summer session.
Finance 6211: Fixed income. More like an MBA class than anything. Essentially an overview of bond markets.
Econ 6211/Math 6201: intro to time series. These are two different classes, but you can take either one. I highly recommend taking Math 6201. I didn't and regret it.
Econ 6219: Time series II. This is probably the toughest non-math class. The professor is very serious and while a little dry, knows his stuff. Probably the best non-math course in the program.
Electives: I am going to take Financial computing, and perhaps graduate real analysis for my electives. I don't know a whole lot about either class yet.
The program really should cancel at least two of the finance classes and add another couple math classes. Math 6203 is a good course, but it really serves as an introduction to more complicated stochastic classes. However no such class is offered. It is really irritating to sit through near-useless classes instead of learning more advanced mathematics.
The relative enjoyment from the classes depends greatly on the professor. Some are very good, and some are very bad.
Similarly the type of student who attends varies greatly. A good number are Chinese students who are only here to get their degree and go back to China where they are promised cushy jobs if they have an US degree. They do not care so much about their actual grades as long as they pass. Therefore there will probably be a lot of curving in the classes. As an example, in one of my finals a good number of the students had to ask the professor what the derivative of sin(x) was. A good number of students also didn't know what L'Hopitals rule is. (This obviously is a generalization: some of the Chinese in the program are very intelligent.) Perhaps more disturbing is the lack of excitement from many of the students. Many don't really care about the material, they just want a masters because a masters is the new bachelors.
The program does a decent job at placing people I have heard. This could in part be because relatively few US citizens graduate the program. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have enormous presence in the area and do a fair amount of hiring. However, I am currently struggling to find an internship for the summer even though my grades are impeccable and I actually care about the material and do a lot of self study.
In the case of this program you get what you paid for. You will not get a job on Wall Street after graduation, though you could get a fairly decent job in the area.
- Joined
- 2/24/12
- Messages
- 13
- Points
- 13
Appreciate your feedback...this info will help me a lot...
Any idea about employment history over last few years??..and also employers other thn ths two major firms??
Any idea about employment history over last few years??..and also employers other thn ths two major firms??
- Joined
- 7/6/11
- Messages
- 69
- Points
- 18
I could give anecdotal information but that is probably not what you are after. I would email Jeremiah Nelson with that question...he is generally very prompt and forthcoming. http://belkcollege.uncc.edu/directory/jeremiah-nelson
- Joined
- 5/2/06
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Why going through the hassle of emailing when you can use the same feature here.
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