University of North Carolina at Charlotte - MS in Mathematical Finance

University of North Carolina at Charlotte - MS in Mathematical Finance

UNCC Mathematical Finance program

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Location
Charlotte, NC 28223
Application deadline
Fall: March 1 | Spring: October 1
The Mathematical Finance program at UNC Charlotte is a joint program of the Departments of Finance and Economics in the Belk College of Business and the Department of Mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. The goal is to prepare students for pursuing careers in finance at top firms and train students on using highly sophisticated finance models and tools to identify, measure, manage, and hedge risk. Our program highlights statistical/econometric tools and fundamental economic/finance concepts, instead of purely focusing on programming. To lead the edge, we offer three concentrations in “computing finance, “risk management”, and “financial data analytics”. In addition, our program continues to invite highly experienced executives and top researchers to speak as part of the Mathematical Finance program’s ongoing seminar series. All major courses are offered in the main campus and UNC Charlotte Center City Building in uptown Charlotte.

Geographically, we are located at a financial center (the second largest in North America) and have strong ties with industry leaders such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo. As a result, students who graduate from this program are better placed in current (and future) financial markets and add strong social value to the economy. Last year saw our overall job placement measured at 88%.

Director: Dr. Weidong Tian, Professor of Finance
Director of Graduate Student Service, M. S. SPHR
Graduate Program Coordinator: Elke M. Phillips, M. S.
2025 Ranking Data
Peer Score
2.2
% Employed at Graduation
78%
% Employed at 3 months
78%
% Employed in the US
67%
Salary + Sign On Bonus
$105,334
Cohort Size
8 FT, 4 PT
Acceptance Rate
64.5%
Tuition
$46,000

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28,204
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Last update

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4.60 star(s) 10 reviews
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Latest reviews
I just finished my degree here with a computational finance concentration and it wasn't what I expected. To be honest if you are really interested then you can learn a lot and go for a math or math finance phd easily. This is what the program is meant for. My intentions were to go work as a quant after and I can tell you it is almost impossible to get a job as a quant in a good bank after this. If you are a US citizen then you could definetly land a job as a "quant" in a mid/low tear bank (none of the good ones), and even tho you will probabily be doing some bulshit treasury stuff that anyone with a brain can do. If you're not an US citizen getting a job will be almost surely impossible, especially if you have no experience. The only guys who end up in WF, BoA are the ones that already where working there and are doing their masters part time. It's impossible to get in with this degree. All the big banks go for target schools and phd students so don't get your hopes up.

Now, being a more positive, I definetly learned different skills, especially programming and derivatives pricing. We used python, matlab and STATA but realistically you can get full A without learning any of them. I did MATLAB in undergrad and was commited to learn python here, so i got something out of it.

3/4 of the class is Chinese students who sit at the back and play videogames during classes (most of them, there are some brainy ones, but few), there are some indians who are usually the smarts one, and lastly there are italians who come from an exchange program (although they do risk management concentration). The italians are pretty chill and cool european kids.

Lastly, I came from a big state football university were student life was awesome. This school sports team are trash and there is NOTHING to do close to the school. NOTHING FUN FOR STUDENTS. Tailgates were kind of fun but there were always cops and students youre TA for drunk AF so I avoided them. if you want to party or at least have some fun, you are gonna need to drive uptown (about 25 min) or spend a $25 uber ride. Nightlife in uptown is good if you have decent money. Drinks usually $10 and cover $20. Expensive shit for a student. Everything I did was going to NBA games (hornets sucks so tickets were like $10) and play sports in city leagues.

I had fun times here but being a city guy and coming from a football state college I can firmly say im glad I graduated and I'm never comming back to charlotte.
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C
I graduated from Math Finance program 2016 May. My concentration is Computation Finance. If you're also fascinated with Math and Programming, then here is the right place. Charlotte is banking city (headquarter of BOA), lots of working opportunities are floating around. Many of my current co-workers actually moved from other states to be here. Computational finance is about building computational models which can be used to predict, with some error margin, what the markets are likely to do given a number of inputs. Graduate from this program, students are able to use some popular tool, like SAS, Python, R, etc to build or implement Model, which is pretty hard-still for job hunting. Moreover, I enjoy of the balance of urban life and quite country side life at Charlotte.
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Decent program. Good employment opportunities in an excellent city filled with big banks (BOA and Wells Fargo). Nice professors and scholarship opportunities including graduate teaching assistantships. The program includes lots of variety in courses with three tracks.
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A
This program has great faculty and is located in the second largest financial center in the United States. The program allows students the flexibility to choose their concentration based on their interests and strengths. Proximity to some of the largest banks in the U.S. allows students to network and have placement opportunities.

Students come out of the program with the mathematical skills and programming skills to excel in quantitative roles in the investment and/or banking industries. What makes the program great is how the faculty is very willing to answer questions and help students outside of the classroom. The faculty is determined to help students succeed in understanding the complexities of financial mathematics.

My own experience has been great at UNC Charlotte. The program is very challenging. I was glad that the Mathematical Finance program pushed me to work really hard to learn and understand quantitative techniques and asset pricing methodologies that I hope to use in my future career pursuits.
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Excellent course curriculum.
I am a full time student of UNC Charlotte MF course and I think it's curicullum is at par with the top notch universities.
The faculty members are also very proficient with the advancements in the course and are readily available to help out students.
It offers the locational advantages of Charlotte , which is considered as the second financial hun on the east coast.
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miriammiriam
I'm so glad that i have a chance to join in this program. I take 4 courses in this semester, and the professors are all very nice to us. What impressed me most is not only the courses, but also the chances that this program provided to social with others. I make friends with a lot of people in my class, not only Chinese,but also Americans and Indians. I also very enjoy the coffee and snacks that school provides outside the classroom. I really feel comfortable for studying here.
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Can you tell us a bit about your background?.
Applied mathematics.

Why did you choose this program?
As the second largest banking center in the America, charlotte is a desire place to learn financial staff. Besides, the Belk College of Business School has a growing reputation with sophisticated faculties.

What do you think is unique about this program?
The curriculum in this program has a wide range. It includes three directions: computational finance, risk management, and financial data analytics. This allowed students from different fields to take classes that suited their requirements and interests.

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
Yes, there were three refresher courses, Financial Economic Theory, Stochastic Calculus, and Econometrics course.

TELL US ABOUT THE...
Programming component of the program
The Program has several programming courses that you can choose. The courses vary from Matlab, C++, Excel, SAS/Stata, Python, Java, and SQL. Level of depth is person-by-person basis, although the professors are very supportive.
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Y
Comprehensive program with advanced skill training and market-oriented courses. Program director is resourceful and helpful. Faculty members have strong academic backgrounds and are devoted into cutting edge research. The program location, Charlotte, is known for its reputation in finance. The potential demand for quantitative finance graduates is unlimited.
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  • Anonymous
  • 5.00 star(s)
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Undergraduate background is EE. One internship at a bank.

Why did you choose this program?
The university is growing and the city has a lot of resources can be used.

What do you think is unique about this program?
Charlotte has many opportunities and is not that competitive like NYC.
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kuan
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Economics background with one internship at a mid-tier bank modeling LGD.

I scored 97% Quantitative and 91%Verbal on my GRE
Expecting to graduate in December 2014

Why did you choose this program?
Three reasons. First, the city of Charlotte is the second largest banking center (after NY). Second, the school has a growing reputation and recently introduced a new curriculum with a financial data analytics focus and is extremely friendly towards non-traditional students. Third, when I researched the faculty members, I found many of them were well-published and deeply knowledgeable in their field.

What do you think is unique about this program?
Our program is introducing three new curriculums designed to emphasize student interests in computational finance, risk management, or financial data analytics. This allowed me to take classes that suited my job interests while expanding my background working with the economics and programming departments (my emphasis is in financial data analytics).

What do you like about the program? What don’t you like?
Several of the faculty members are very approachable and are passionate about teaching the students.

A few have published in top journals such as Journal of Finance and are still very teaching oriented in the program. Also, the program coordinator generously gives out Graduate Assistantship positions, with at least 10-15 of these in the past two semesters. For most programs with a full-fledged PhD program this an almost unheard of cherry on top of the proverbial sundae.

For the international students, it helps to know the program is AACSB accredited and a STEM program, the latter meaning they have a 29-month OPT window.

One area I would like to see improved would be the setup of a master’s thesis. The preferred method of graduation currently is through a comprehensive exam, which is great for most people, but I think having the option for a thesis would have been more ideal.

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
Yes, there were three refresher courses, Financial Economic Theory, Stochastic Calculus, and a general Econometrics course. These classes were very well taught and really helped me transition to the brunt of my studies more smoothly.

TELL US ABOUT THE...
Application process at this program
The application process was completely online and was easy to follow along. Your recommendations will have to be submitted online so make sure to ask early. UNCC was very understanding when one of my recommendations came in past the deadline though.

Quality of teaching
The quality of teaching varies but there are two pieces of good news here. First, most of the faculty are tenured and not just lecturers, so they are very knowledgeable about their individual subjects. Second, the new curriculum change has dropped two of the weaker instructors from the curriculum.

Programming component of the program
Programming varies depending on which curriculum you choose. In general, we are required to do assignments and projects in Matlab, C++, Excel, SAS/Stata and in my curriculum, also Python, Java, and SQL. Level of depth is person-by-person basis, although the professors are supportive.

What is your current job status?
Currently I am working as a graduate student with interviews at BofA, BNP, and some consulting firms.
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