University of Washington - MS Computational Finance & Risk Management

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I had an undergraduate degree in EE, a MS degree in Transportation Planning and worked as a consultant in transportation infrastructure planning for 2 years before joining the CFRM program.

Did you get admitted to other programs?
I applied for CFRM program only.

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Initially, I chose this program because my family was in Seattle, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Tell us about the application process at this program.
Just submitted application material according to the instructions listed on the program website and the result came by email.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
The program offers a variety of refresher courses, including probability & statistics, R programming and introduction to capital markets so that students coming from different backgrounds can be better prepared for the program.

Tell us about the quality of teaching.
The more theoretical courses are taught by professors from the academia while the practically-oriented courses are mostly taught by experienced professionals from the industry. The instructors are very familiar with the topics they are teaching and often offer insights of their own besides covering the standard textbook material.

What is unique about this program?
The program is extremely flexible in that aside from a few core courses, the student is free to choose their combination of elective courses to achieve their own goals under the assistance of the program advisor, such as a computing pathway or a risk management pathway. As the name of the program suggests, the program has an abundance of courses concerning risk management, which has become a central topic in the industry after the financial crisis.

What are any weaknesses in this program?
This is a relatively new program so the alumni network may not be as developed as some of the older programs. However, the program has been working very hard at building networks with the industry.

What was your experience like with career services?
Besides the standard career services, such as job postings and resume revising, the program also have a 3-day interview coaching session given by professional interview coaches. The program is especially active in marketing the students to local firms for internship and full-time employment opportunities.

Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Regarding the course material, I would like to see an addition of operational risk management course in the curriculum.

What is your current job status?
I am currently a PhD student in Applied Mathematics at University of Washington focusing on the understanding and quantitative modeling of systemic risk in the financial system. The inspiration, knowledge and skill sets I acquired from the CFRM program definitely prepared me well to study this exciting area with both theoretical and practical implications.

To be direct, the Computational Finance & Risk Management program at the University of Washington was worth every penny. The program helped me learn the tools required to succeed as a financial modeler while helping me find an internship and a full time job in an interesting industry.

I was first enrolled during June of 2011 and I graduated in June of 2013 for a total of two years in the program. I started as a full time in class student, transitioned to a full time online student and then transitioned again to a part time online student after I started working full time. Overall, the University of Washington was very accommodating as my personal situation evolved.

The difference between the online path and the in class path is minimal, with the only real differences being in communication (online vs in person) and test taking. The drawback in test taking is the inability to ask real time questions during the exams as the questions need to be routed through a proctor and a response is usually not immediate. Lectures are recorded and available to both online and in class students. Discussion sessions and office hours are also recorded and posted online. Real time chat is available during all sessions for online students and the instructors are very responsive to the chat. Homework is typically submitted online and there is very active and helpful homework discussion in the online discussion forum. As a student who spent time in person and online, I am very happy with my online experience and I do not feel like I missed anything due to that situation.

The program did a great job in teaching the most relevant skills for use right out of school. Courses cover both practical and theoretical concepts so I could apply the tools I was taught while understanding their theoretical limitations and nuances. Instruction started by talking about what the typical methodologies are, then it covered the shortfalls in those methodologies and then solutions were presented that overcome the shortfalls and result in theoretically sound models that are decently accurate in practice. Since so much of quantitative finance deals with uncertainty, quite a bit of statistical theory is covered. Proofs of theorems and equations are required but only to the extent that they help with the understanding of the topic. I never felt like I was being forced to do busy work that wasn’t helping me learn.

In additional to finance and statistics, a fair amount of programming concepts are introduced. In this program I learned how to program in C++ (which covered most relevant object oriented programming concepts) and in R. In fact, this program allowed me to gain such proficiency in R that I am now considered to be the resident R expert in our team of about 25 people.

The faculty is world class. They are genuinely interested in the coursework and they are committed to helping students succeed. Plus they’re just really, really smart people.

This program provided me with sound education in the topics of finance, statistics and programming that allowed me to secure a job that offers interesting work at a pay rate far above what I could have obtained with a standard undergraduate degree. I am very happy with my outcome from this program.

I have always been fascinated about the use of the technology and math in practice and how it drives innovation and makes things happen. Financial Engineering, as such a field, best fits to my professional goals. After thorough research, I have decided on the University of Washington's CFRM program that provides a certificate as well as a Master’s program (offered by prestigious Department of Applied Math at UW). I thought it would be great to enter the field through a certificate program and then move onto Masters if I find it fitting my education and career goals. The certificate program was very rewarding and challenging. It utilizes both theory and practice in a balanced and engaging way. The program provides a strong foundation especially for those like me with no finance background and I found it very rewarding to learn new technology like R. The course instructors were extremely competent in their field of expertise and enabled a positive and interactive learning environment. I decided to further my education in the Masters program and I am very excited to pursue the challenge.

I have finished all of my course work for a Masters in Computational Finance and Risk Management at the University of Washington. I will be getting my degree in December of 2013. I have completed this degree while working at full time job in California.

I have been fascinated by finance for many years. For two years I worked in computational finance. Although I did a lot of reading, looking back after my Masters work at the University of Washington, I realize that I knew very little then.

The Computational Finance and Risk Management (CFRM) at the University of Washington has given me a solid foundation that I will use for many years in the future. The course work has been extremely rigorous and challenging. In every course my professors have also been there to help me succeed. I feel extremely lucky to have had such fine teachers.

The CFRM program has given me a very solid education in financial statistics, derivatives and computer techniques for derivatives pricing. The program offers a Monte Carlo modeling class for derivatives pricing which is one of the best and most challenging courses I have ever taken.

The program focuses heavily on R programming and they have recently expanded their software offerings, which is critical for anyone working in finance.

The CFRM program is a pioneer in distance education. The CFRM education is the same for distance students as it is for those on the Seattle campus. The courses are all recorded and available on-line. The TA sessions are also on-line and, in some cases the professors office hours are offered on-line as well. The professors and the TAs also answer questions on the class discussion board. A few other schools are only now starting to catch up in providing a distance learning environment.

I have enjoyed getting to know my fellow students. They are all, without exception, extremely smart and dedicated students.

I will always be grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a graduate student in the CFRM program.

Early in my investment career I knew that I would benefit from going back to graduate school, but I didn’t find a program that matched my interests focusing on risk, portfolio construction, and statistics. Several years later I read about UW Applied Mathematics offering an online Certificate in Computational Finance. UW distinguished itself from other programs by focusing on exactly on these areas of interest. I looked carefully into the quality of the instructors and faculty and was impressed by their academics and business experience, so I signed up for the Certificate program, taking one class at a time. My first two classes vastly exceeded my expectations for both course contents and instructor quality. One thing that I hadn’t expected was the high quality of students in my classes, which included many industry professionals. Based on my very positive experience in the certificate program, I applied for and was admitted to the first cohort in the online version of the new MS-degree program in Computational Finance and Risk Management. During the MS program I studied portfolio construction under Doug Martin, financial econometrics from Eric Zivot, investment modeling from Guy Yollin, and risk management from three practitioners. UW’s MS-CFRM program has already opened new doors for me. I was fortunate to simultaneously have two very good buy-side job offers to choose between. I’m currently working at a large well-known firm and every day I’m leveraging the combination of my prior professional experience and what I learned in the UW programs. I couldn’t be happier with my experience.

B. Ertley, Senior Risk Manager

The University of Washington Computational Finance and Risk Management (CFRM) M.S. program rates “five stars”.

I am a "distance student" from New York State who began in the computational finance program and am now completing requirements for the M.S. degree in CFRM.

As an actuarial student and an employee of a global investment firm, I was looking for a quantitative finance program with intensive training in R programming. That is what led me to enter the Computational Finance Certificate Program at UW. The professors and teaching assistants are outstanding, really dedicated to education. The culture of teachers and students is tremendously supportive, giving needed help to students to pass through "mind stretching" exercises of both a theoretical and practical nature. It was this culture that empowered me to succeed in my coursework and in finding new opportunities to contribute at work. In a period of “white-water” change with “big data” rapidly transforming the world of business, I find I have the skills I need to analyze complex problems. The mathematical, statistical and programming skills I can now bring to the table as a result of my UW education allow me to navigate in new and developing areas of data analytics. I find I am equipped for success.

In addition to the very clear and outstanding benefits of this UW education already and very ably addressed by others who have been in the CFRM program, I would like to mention some "intangibles" that really add value to an already great UW education. There is a pervasive environment of ethics and integrity that helps one focus on the importance of good values in addition to technical proficiency. This is a very important part of a financial education that cannot be stressed enough. And this ethics extends into a culture of people really going the “extra mile” to help others. There is a sense of teachers and students really reaching out to help one another. My UW experience has been simply the best educational experience I have ever had.

Although the outstanding nature of the professors has been mentioned, I would like to share one anecdote regarding that topic. Many years ago, when I was in high school or early in college I became discouraged at my seemingly slow progress in mathematics. Somewhere I read a quote that the great statistician John Tukey sometimes took an hour to read a page of mathematics and it inspired me to continue. It turns out that CFRM director Professor Doug Martin was a student and colleague of John Tukey's. It seemed as if John Tukey was still there inspiring me to continue through the encouraging help of the professors at UW. It has been wonderful.

I will be completing the online MS CFRM in a few months. The level of help and support given by almost all the faculty in courses have exceeded my expectations. The curriculum includes many rigorous courses which help a student gain strong knowledge of quantitative finance. Providing same level of support to Online students as on campus students is something i greatly like about this course.

I am about to complete the online MS-CFRM with many years of experience working on quantitative analysis in different fields. In what regards to finance programs, there are many good options, but I feel the M.S. Degree in Computational Finance and Risk Management in Washington University is unique and perfect in many aspects. Impressive curriculum, no better way to learn than by practicing with R, very convenient by allowing me to watch the classes at any time and review them as needed, highly qualified professors, excellent support with Teacher Assistants, share knowledge/questions/answers with other students, and finally and very important, in a prestigious university. It is a challenging program and I enjoy learning from it. Definitely, this M.S. Degree has been one of the best decision in my life. There are no words to express my gratitude to my Professors and Teaching Assistants.

I recently (Spring 2013) completed the online CFRM certificate program and I am now enrolled in the full-time MS-CFRM program. My background is engineering where I received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and have worked as an energy engineer for the past 5 years. I had always been interested in quantitative finance and decided to make the career move and attend the University of Washington to prepare me. I could not be happier with my decision.

My first interaction with staff and students of the program was at the R/Finance conference in 2012. They were a sponsor of the conference and several students were at the conference as well. The staff I spoke with were very helpful answering my questions and the students had nothing but good things to say about the program. The R/Finance is a great opportunity to speak with folks in the finance industry as well as meet students and professors from the program.

I started the certificate program in Fall 2012 and completed it in Spring 2013. I completed the certificate program online while I was working full time. As an online student, I never felt like I was on an island or disconnected from the rest of the class. The lectures were streamed live as well as recorded so that students could watch the lectures at a later date. I watched some lectures live and was able to ask questions via a chat window which was a very helpful feature. The professors and teaching assistants were very accommodating to the online students and would hold office hours on evenings and over the weekends so that it did not interfere with work schedules. The TAs and professors were very active and engaged in the online discussion forums with students, which led to some excellent discussions that expanded on the material we learned in class through lectures and how some were applying it in practice in the industry.

The certificate program challenged me to develop a stronger understanding of the theoretical concepts and then apply that theory using sophisticated concepts and techniques in R using packages that are developed and used by industry practitioners. The applications in R programming included everything from time series modeling to modern portfolio optimization. Through the certificate program, I had the opportunity to participate in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and contribute to an R package developed for portfolio optimization called PortfolioAnalytics. My experience in GSoC far exceeded my expectations, I learned a lot from the project mentors about portfolio optimization using standard linear and quadratic programming solvers as well as using differential evolution and random portfolios to solve complex portfolio optimization problems. The project was mentored by two UW CFRM professors and an industry practitioner.

The certificate program did an excellent job teaching R. I was familiar with R before I started the program, but learned a lot in terms of good program design and how to use R for applications in quantitative finance. With a good foundation of R, I was able to understand basic C++ fairly quickly and even contributed a few articles to the Rcpp gallery.

In Fall 2013, I left my full-time engineering job and moved to Seattle for the on campus MS-CFRM program. It has been a great move so far and I am enjoying the classes. The professors, teaching assistants, and students are very friendly and welcoming. I had some reservations about leaving my job to go back to school, but it is one of the best decisions I have made. The CFRM Certificate Program was an excellent stepping stone to prepare me for the full time MS-CFRM.

I am a recent graduate from the CF&RM at UW (class of 2012) and I am currently working at a pension fund in Texas. In my view, the CF&RM is a 5-star program. It is a 5-star program because it offers eveything a student would need to pursue a career in the financial industry. The program equips students with a very strong background in mathematics, statistics, programming and the financial concepts required in industry; which I believe are essential skillsets needed when starting a career in this field. Students will learn both theoretical concepts and will be exposed to practical applications taught by academic professors and industry practitioners alike.
The knowledge base learned at school has made me feel very comfortable and at ease when applying it at work. I have found this to be especially true when working in areas that demanded strong and deep knowledge in portfolio optimization, asset allocation and quantitative risk management.
Having attended the CF&RM at the University of Washington has been one of the best decisions I have made in my career! I would highly recommend prospective students give the CF&RM at the University of Washington a hard look!

I was admitted into the program in 2012. The program has been excellent thus far and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. The classes were interactive and professors are very supportive and encouraging. They are not only helping us with the course work, but also provide excellent advice in career planning. In fact, they have a dedicated staff to help students find right internships and full-time offers. We also have industry faculty from Blackrock, and Russell Investments, which was very helpful in understanding real world examples of the financial models. With the quarter system in University of Washington, the course can get intense towards the end of the quarter.

Overall, I’m very happy to have gone through the program and now I’m working as a Risk Management Intern in the risk oversight division of a public utility company. I’d highly recommend to anyone who has a strong background in mathematics and has a keen interest in finance.

UW CF&RM program definitely deserves a 5-star rating for its well-designed curriculum, excellent faculty and great career service. I came from a pure finance background with limited programming skills. CF&RM program offered me a way to R, SQL, VBA, C++ programming which is credential for future job-hunting. We can work closely with excellent faculty from academia or industry in each course. Our faculty and staff did a lot of effort to career service, from tutoring the interview preparation to extending connections with the industry. I never regret choosing this program.

This is a great program under the UW applied mathematics department, which has a good reputation across the U.S.. The program is quite mathematically rigorous, and it equips the students with solid theoretical and practical knowledge in quantitative finance.

I had several choices when I got the admission from UW last year, and finally I chose this program because of its curriculum and faculty. First of all, the curriculum is well balanced and very suitable for the students who already have some background in finance (like me) and those who don’t have. The program delivers not only basic courses but also many advanced topics in computational finance, which arm students with enough knowledge and strong skills to pursue a career in the industry. Compared with many other mathematical finance programs, it focuses more on the statistics and the applications, which, I think, are extremely important in the modern finance. Throughout the entire program, R programming is integrated with each course and enables students to implement theories and ideas in practice. It was also very helpful in my pursuit of the internship. Moreover, the faculty is excellent and the career service is wonderful. The program has a high teaching quality and the staffs here also provide very useful career-related guidance and training; they also actively build connections with the industry, and help students finding internships and full-time jobs.

Although the program is young, it is very promising. I really think that my choice is right and recommend it to those who want to have a career in quantitative finance industry.

I have been very fascinated by the rapidly changing financial industry for a while. With my Electrical Engineering undergraduate background, I decided to pursue a quantitative finance advanced degree and the Computational Finance and Risk Management program at University of Washington came to my eye at that time. After evaluating several other options, I decided to relocate to west coast to start the program and it turns out that the CFRM program and UW have never let me down.

The curriculum is intense and equipped me with applicable knowledge of finance. As a student with engineering background, I picked up my sense of finance and economics here. One reason why I especially love the curriculum is that there are many courses taught by working professionals in the real financial industry and their insights offered me much more than what I could have learnt from textbooks. Another key feature of the curriculum is the use of R programming, which I believe is a successful attempt and benefited me a lot when I was trying to search for internships. Instead of just learning ‘knowledge’, the program also teaches us ‘skills’ that can be leveraged in daily work. We have learnt how to implement ideas into products whatever we prefer to use R, SQL, VBA, C++ or Excel. Equipped with programming skills and financial knowledge learnt in the program, we get better prepared for future job hunting.

The career services are also excellent. The program assigned a dedicated staff to help students launch internships and full-time positions. Faculty and other staff have also tried to help students build connections with local financial industry and provide useful advice for their career path. Almost all of my classmates successfully found a summer internship during this year and some of them luckily get their internships extended to year-long or full-time positions.

The CFRM program is relatively new but promising. The program director tried to offer students more options to fit their objectives. Students can choose to take a regular path, a Risk Management path or a Computing path based on their interest and background. I have witnessed the efforts that our faculty and staff have devoted into the program and the growing of the CFRM program. I highly encourage students who want to learn quantitative finace to consider the CFRM program at UW. I look forward to seeing a bigger success for the program in the near future.

This is a really new program, but good enough for 5-star rating.
I enrolled in this program last year (summer 2012), with good Engineering background and no finance background. Before I finally decided to come here, I had multiple choices, programs with good location, or longer history, or better reputation. I made my decision to come to CFRM@UW, and never felt regret for this decision.
Besides the good reputation of Applied Maths department -- which runs CFRM, the executive team and faculty of CFRM are always trying their best to help students, and improve the program. There are bunch of facts, I don't think I can list them all. Let me try some which I think meaningful to me:
1. Great curriculum. Program director and faculty have good connection with industry, they keep adjusting the curriculum based on the most recent feedback from industry.
2. Good industry background. Besides the faculty with diversified background, quite a few instructors are invited from industry, with big name and title. The program tries to keep good balance between academia and industry, to make sure students can both get enough quant knowledge and be exposed to the real market.
3. Wonderful career service. Usually, in US universities, there are offices of career service ran by departments/colleges/universities. In CFRM, there are extra career service. Every year, CFRM schedules workshops by experienced HR professionals from industry, and there is also a program manager, who came from industry with senior title, to promote CFRM, build and keep relationship with companies, help students with any interview-related issues, and negotiate for students with prospective employers.

Frankly I am one of the lucky students benefiting from CFRM. I got an internship this Apr in a FoF in Seattle local with the help of CFRM faculty. One year and a half ago, I made my decision to come to CFRM@seattle, I don't know whether it is the best decision and I will never know. But I am happy with it and satisfied with what I've got so far.

OK, wrap up --- You might not feel confident with such a new program -- short history, not well-reputed(YET), but I guarantee you that CFRM faculty and staffs are doing their best to make everything better and better.

Higher levels of uncertainty are associated with higher potential returns. You must know this as a prospective quant expert.

After having worked in the software industry for about 4 years, I have been thinking of pursuing the MBA in Finance. However, when I came across the MS in Computational Finance and Risk Management program at the University of Washington, I realized the program completely aligned with my interests and the curriculum that would prepare me for the industry that I wouldn't have achieved with the MBA. The bottom-up approach enabled me to understand the fundamentals of the financial world, and prepared me for the key advanced concepts including quantitative risk management, portfolio construction and optimization, trading systems, and simulation techniques. The heavy emphasis on R has also allowed me to incorporate my technical background into financial modelling. I recently graduated from the program, and I must say that words are not enough to justify the excellent curriculum and professors that the program has to offer. Above all, the encouragement and support from the faculty has been the key driving motivation for me to succeed in this program.

I am a recent graduate of the program and am currently employed with an accounting firm. This was one of the few programs which was offered by a math dept and as such was the only program I applied to. Faculty members involved with the program are leaders in their respective fields and have a vast amount of experience in the field of quantitative finance. The curriculum is very well conceived and the breadth of topics should keep people new to the field as well as veterans equally engaged. One of the most notable aspects of the program is how well academic work is fused with programming and other application oriented work. One of the key takeaways for me was how to quickly transform complex mathematical models into functional code which can then be used to solve problems. Though there is a lot of focus on being able to use R for problem solving, there are enough resources and incentives to learn other languages like Python and C++. I believe the focus on risk management is unique to the program. Quantitative risk management is not only complex (mathematically) but very relevant and the program is well equipped to provide its students with the right knowledge and the right set of tools to help them succeed. Courses are challenging, some more than others but enough to keep the students very busy. I had some great teaching assistants who made the whole experience much more enjoyable.

The program attracts exceptional students from all across the globe. Students come from a variety of different academic and professional backgrounds. The program has made it a point to develop good working relationships with a lot of corporate entities thus ensuring good future prospects for its students. A lot of courses are offered by industry veterans who work for firms like BlackRock and Russell Investments. This ensures that professors are not the only resource available to the students. I enjoyed my time at UW and would recommend the program to anyone considering a career in the field of quantitative finance.

Did you get admitted to other programs?

Yes, I was admitted to several other programs.

Why did you choose this program?

Because I love its strong teaching resources including Chief Economist, Chief Risk Officer from Russell Investments and Director of Risk Management from BlackRock. Also, the curriculum of the program is very practical and well tailored for a career in asset management and risk management.

Tell us about the quality of teaching.

The quality is very high. Many professors are working in the finance industry and have 10+ years' experience. They share their insight when giving lectures and design projects based on what is really going on in the industry.

What is unique about this program?

One policy I feel really excited about this program is it allows students to have at least a year's internship experience while you are taking courses, if you choose corresponding paths in the program. An internship experience like this will well position you in the job market after graduation.

What are any weaknesses in this program?

The only "weakness" in this program is it is still relatively young, but it also means everyone in the program are working much harder than relatively mature programs. And we feel so proud that we have seen rapid and dramatic progress along the way.

What was your experience like with career services?

The career services are functioning very well. We have well maintained relationships with many companies on the West Coast. Also, our program is sponsoring lots of CFA networking events, where we can network with professionals from top companies. In addition, we have tours to Chicago and New York, where many students get internships and full-time jobs.

What is the student body like?

Students are from top universities and companies around the world. Some of them have (multiple) master's degree or PhD degree. And some of the part-time students are working in top investment management companies.

Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?

Keep expanding opportunities will make the program even better.

What is your current job status?

I am currently having a year-round internship with an asset management company on the West Coast.

I recently graduated from the program in 12/12. I had high expectations for the UW Computational Finance and Risk management graduate program, and my expectations have been exceeded. I came into the program with more than 20 years of practical trading and risk management experience, or so I thought. I looked at several programs to enhance my skills in finance. This program was able to take my basic understanding much deeper, and cover many newer developments in financial mathematics I was not even aware of. The program is certainly challenging and the expectations from the instructors is high. The core instructors are tops in their fields and UW enjoys the good fortune to have ongoing relationships with top firms like Black Rock and Russell Investments. Some of the top professionals at these firms also serve as visiting professors. The class discussion forums were also particularly useful, and the course TAs are outstanding and helpful. There are so many very smart experienced industry professionals that are students in this program with a variety of backgrounds with a great deal to contribute. In my research of the UW program and my experience in the program, I believe UW has one of the finest distance learning platform at a major university today. I would have never been able to attend such an outstanding program, without the online component, and for that I am very grateful.

I am even more excited about the field of computational finance than when I started. Unlike many fields in mathematics and science, financial mathematics, statistics for finance and econometrics are very dynamic, with new research and breakthroughs made every year. The professors in the UW program are some of the key contributors in the field. During every quarter, I was able to take the course work, especially the completed R problem sets, and weave them directly to my work as a Risk Manager/Portfolio manager. For anyone in the field with an MBA or an engineering degree you will add invaluable knowledge that you cannot not obtain in a MBA or advanced engineering program. You will be very pleased with how much you will learn from this program; I was.

This program has an excellent teaching staff that makes themselves available for any guidance you need as well as a good number of industry professionals that give you a real world perspective. I feel totally prepared in my career to succeed in anything related to quantitative financial analysis