University of Chicago - MS in Financial Mathematics

I graduated from the UChicago Fin-Math program in 2022 Dec and I am starting my full-time quant trading role at a market-making firm in Chicago in 2023 Feb.

My background:

Undergrad -- Finance & Data Science major with a math minor
Full-time experience -- one year at a wealth management firm

What I liked about the program:

1. Location
- I finished my 4-year undergrad program in NYC and figured that NYC was not for me. I wanted a better blend of a big city but also having some nature / peace and quiet. Since I wanted to become a quant trader, Chicago seemed like the ideal choice being the trading / market-making industry hub, but also having the peace and quiet that I wanted. Its proximity to job opportunities also allows easy networking / coffee chatting.
- The city's architecture is also very nice. There are also a lot of museums that are definitely worth going to.
- The city's rent is much lower than other major cities. (Almost half of NYC's.)
2. UChicago's positive academic reputation
- The school overall is known for its academic rigor, reputable professors, and beautiful campus. With the Fin-Math program, you get access to not just the top-tier Fin-Math courses and professors, but also resources from other programs such as the Booth Business school, the stats program, UChicago Law School, etc..
- Some Fin-Math professors (namely Roger Lee, Mark Hendricks, Seb, and Greg Lawler) are amazing lecturers and have classes that have an amazing blend of theory + practicality.
- There are also out-of-Fin-Math professors (namely Mei Wang in the Stats department) who also teach very good classes.
- There are tons of research opportunities
- There are some times free / discounted social activities (show tickets, Michelin restaurant meals, skiing, etc.) that are posted by the school that's kinda neat.
3. The Fin-Math program's resources
I categorize this program's resources by its (1) courses, (2) career development, (3) other general / life resouces.
(1) courses:
- All of the classes taught by the professors listed above are highly recommended, plus the other recommended classes in other reviews.
- You also get access to non-Fin-Math classes like those in Booth, the stats department, and even the law school for Fin-Math credits.
***But since class schedules / professors may change every quarter, it's better to ask Meredith & alumni what classes to take (or avoid..) when the time comes.
(2) career development:
- Emily Backe in Fin-Math's career development office (CDO) is extremely resourceful, kind, and responsible. She can not only give you the perfect interview prep but also lead you to just the right people you need to speak to for your job search, interview prep, etc..
- Other professors (Roger, Mark, and Seb) will also help you with technical interviews. Their interview prep sessions are extremely useful.
- There are also industry professionals (called IPO) helping you with further interview prep.
- The program is designed in a way such that you get to meet students from a class above you during your first quarter at the program. This makes sure you have students to talk to who can tell you about their school + work experiences, and
(3) other general / life resources
- Meredith is the go-to for all your questions. She is fun, resourceful, and knows EVERYTHING about the program and its people. She will give you her most honest opinion (and all the intel she gathered from all the profs & students) on what classes to take or avoid. She will also lead you to any help you may need since she knows everyone... quite literally.
- The class size is fairly large (~100 people per class), which mean there's a larger variety of students from different background, etc. Students are all very nice here -- you can definitly make life-time friends from the program. Also, many students are very knowledgeable and have many years of work experience -- you can always learn a lot from your classmates.

What I didn't like about the program:

1. City's infrastructure & weather
- Many parts of the city, including but not limited to public transportation, road design, how people don't know how to drive, bad DMV systems, etc. are designed poorly and are extremely inefficient (and sometimes have bad service)
- Too cold.. brrr
- High crime rate (esp around school, aka the Hyde Park area)... However, you do have to be careful everywhere (plus most American major cities do have issues with high crime rates, although not necessarily as bad as Chicago's hyde park area..) Just be vigilant and try not to walk around alone in dangerous neighborhoods, especially when it's dark.
2. Career development office's flaw(?)
- For a while during my time in the program, Emily Backe was gone and the program's CDO was near non-existent with very insufficient support. It's awesome that Emily came back but the program's CDO is very Emily-dependent. Hope CDO hires more reliable staff soon so Emily doesn't need to be overworked...
3. Some classes were poorly taught and were a waste of money & time
- These classes are
4. Minor things that don't necessarily concern others
- Fin-Math's graduation for my year was meh ... The merchandise we got included a bag that has very low quality (had 2 holes already after using it once)
- The winter can be depressing with the school almost empty (most students take online classes in the winter). But it get's better in the spring & fall.

Overall:

- I wanted to give 3.5/5 but QuantNet doesn't let me. Since Emily's back, I'll round it up to a 4/5.
- I didn't give it a 5/5 mainly because of (1) the bad courses that the program offers and (2) the inconveniences caused by the city's bad design / insfrastructure. However, I still gave it a score higher than 3/5 because you still can get what you want from the program.

I recently graduated from the FinMath program in Dec 2019.
Overall Experience:
I was very satisfied with the teaching, career services, and professional opportunities provided. The program is majorly taught in Python, and a few classes are in C++.

Things that can be improved: The program can improve on adding more electives, and improve some of the existing ones (namely Machine Learning). Maybe we can have some more advanced classes being offered as electives outside FINM.

Courses: Stand out courses are Option Pricing, Portfolio theory, Quant Strategies. Another advantage is some of the electives offered are cross-listed with the Business school, or Statistics departments, so you can fine tune the course to your requirement.

Project Lab: One of the best experiences to work with companies (HF,AM,Banks) on real problem that they want explore and solve.

Career Services: We had plenty of networking events, company events and alumni dinners to network. I believe the career office is doing a fairly good job.

Not bad and sounds like things have been improved

What do you think is unique about this program?
Hard to say because I only have second hand info about other programs, but I will try:

I felt like the pace was really fast. When courses drag on too long, it's easy to lose interest and motivation.

Also, there were some really good professors: Paulsen was an excellent lecturer and was very helpful in understanding the material. Lee did real well at explaining and teaching some pretty complex and deep material (for me). Hanson did a great job making stochastic calculus accessible to someone with an engineering background. Even though Fefferman only did a few days of intro on measure theory, he was also excellent at making very theoretical and deep material accesible. There is no shortage of teaching talent, but not every professor is awesome.

What are the weakest points about this program?
The year I went (2009-2010), there were way too many students admitted (~150, which means around 250 people in lecture, including part-timers from previous years). About half seemed legit and about half seemed like undergrads who couldn't get jobs and whose parents had the money to send them. Essentially spoiled brats with no manners. They made it difficult for the instructors because they don't shutup for lecture and they were always suspect of cheating, so the instructors had to be jackasses during exams and during lecture a lot of times. Some of these kids were really bright and some, well, were just kids with no professional experience and no clue how to conduct themselves. Of course, I believe this has changed and the year I went was definitely a transitional period for the program.

This is a minor complaint, but I think there could have been a little more flexibility in the curriculum. For instance, I would've liked to take some computer science classes like machine learning or AI. and perhaps some accounting or more pragmatic finance courses in the business school. It would have rounded things out well if I could've done that.

Career services
I tend to think, "You make your own breaks," for stuff like this. There were quite a few companies recruiting and there were opportunities, just not as many as a b-school student would have. But then, b-school grads get hired into a more broad spectrum of industries and job functions. The school had a decent career website and recruiting process.

The career services I thought were done fairly well, but not outstanding. Tim Weithers did a great job, as did the others.

I and many others found pretty good jobs. A combination of the right fit for a position, a little luck and networking really does a lot.

Of course, that doesn't mean everybody had the same experience I did. I also know some people who had trouble finding a job and either had to revert back to their original job function or had to look for an extended period of time. I'm not sure that's the school's or the program's fault. A bad job market and perhaps lack of planning could've contributed.

Student body
Even though the network was smaller, I met and keep in touch with quite a few people from the program. I have many fond memories of U of C and the program and did a lot of learning there. No amount of disparaging remarks about the program, the professors or the students will change that.

I mentioned the class size above, which made it harder to meet more good people. Again, I believe this has changed and thank God for that.