It's been a year since I decided to join the QCF program and now I would like to say it was the best decision I ever made.
For students who want to get decent learning experiences in MFE and want to become a quant (in any aspect), QCF is definitely a great choice. The workload of QCF is extremely heavy (no matter what background you are from) and students with no or few coding experiences will barely survive. But after I survived and looked back on what I did this year, I have to say that thanks to the high-intensive environment (especially the first semester) that now makes me more comfortable on continuing my studies. Though I have to admit that some courses seem not worth the money, the whole design of the curriculum is professional and avant-garde. I couldn't sum up in one sentence of how much I learned during this year, but I could say that I probably learned more than my 4-year undergrad.
There are courses that highly involve programming(most of them requires lots of coding), others are more theoretic and at the same time, they don't make finance be your weakness. Students are also allowed to explore other courses to tailor their career goals. Since I am from an engineering background, the finance courses are just good enough for me to understand the general concepts (but my friends from finance background really hate those courses, they are easy but the professors make them hard to enjoy). Anyway, the curriculum really well-balanced students from different background. You can have a taste of both and then dive into the area you want to.
All my classmates are nice and willing to share. We are more like partners than competitors. You can learn so much from your classmates so I often talk with them. Georgia Tech, in general, is a warm, friendly and vibrant campus. At the same time, the overall technical environment deeply influences QCF. For me, the tech environment is more like an advantage than the other side, since right now more and more companies lean to technical people. This attracts more top hedge funds and trading firms to come to our career fair so we can have more opportunities. And I don't think the location (Atlanta) is the short-side (if you do not overemphasize the pursuit of living in big cities like New York) since there are many opportunities in the local financial services companies and Georgia Tech is definitely their target school. From here I have to thank our professional, conscientious and helpful career services team who keep a good relationship with all the corporates and continue to offer us more and more career opportunities. Kayln and Laura are more like our friends and are also love to communicate with us. They are reachable and often update with us frequently. Overall, everyone here is very close to each other.
Since many people asked me about the dual program with CSE degree, I think I'll make a brief clarification here. The CSE double degree indeed offers more opportunities and choices but as I learned from the program and school, it is NOT a guarantee that you will be approved to enter the dual program. Students have to submit an application after they have finished 5 core courses of CSE.
Other general information: as far as I know all 2019 grads get full-time jobs and most current students get interns. But due to COVID-19, the recruiting process freezes since the beginning of this year so there are still some students who cannot find interns.
Students backgrounds are diverse, among 50+ students, roughly 40% Asian, 40% Indian, and 20% Americans.
