University of Washington - MS Computational Finance & Risk Management

Please provide information about your background.
3.54/5 overall, 4.1/5 professional. Major in Financial Engineering.
Did you get admitted to other programs?
Yes, Fordham, Rutgers, SMU, Alabama, Uconn
Why did you choose this program?
The program has strong applied Math background and Statistic oriented. Also faculties are very awesome.
Tell us about the quality of teaching.
Very good. Workload is a little overwhelming, However, I got a lot coding experiences, which is very useful in job hunting.
What is unique about this program?
1. Focus on R programming, which is increasingly popular and very cool.
2. Practical oriented curriculum set. We do some practical oriented project, such as designing a portfolio strategy, doing becktesting and competing final return with classmates, also pricing options by numeric.
What are any weaknesses in this program?
Workload is heavy and study pace is really fast. I didn’t have enough time to deeply dig some point you interested in. Also, if you didn’t have a good schedule and strong motivation to push you executing your plan, you may feel bad.
What was your experience like with career services?
I thinks the career services is good enough. It truly provide me and my classmates a lot of opportunities, even though the companies are not all big names and the positions are not all what you like. I have to admit the career services of our program do their best with the limited recourses.
What is the student body like?
Math, Engineering and stats is primary. One or two are finance
Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Let the students close to live markets and pay an attention to the markest. Maybe set up a trading floor and let all the students form a mock assets management company, each acting as a role in that company and running a mock fund continuously from every beginning to their graduate.

• Please provide information about your background.
Before joining the CFRM program, I had a Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering degree and I had been working in that field for 3 years.

• Did you get admitted to other programs?
No

• Why did you choose this program?
Tuition fee was among the least as compared to other programs. One of my friends was already doing a PhD at UW when I applied, so I thought it would be easy for me live in Seattle.

• Tell us about the quality of teaching.
Quality of Teaching is great. Instructors are really helpful. Large emphasis is given to the homework assignments which are meaningful and add a lot to the learning. The program offers almost a perfect balance of breadth and depth in the field of quantitative finance.

• What is unique about this program?
All the lectures are recorded and available online. This becomes really handy later on, as you can continue to do internship/work and attend the school at the same time.

• What are any weaknesses in this program?
When I was attending this program, it was still evolving and the syllabus of some courses wasn't very comprehensive. Now, with feedback from students, it's more thorough and offers several elective courses.

• What was your experience like with career services?
Being a new program, there is a slight disadvantage when you apply for jobs and the career fair at UW doesn't get many finance firms. But the faculty and program adviser work hard to get you interviews and get placed. Overall, my experience with the career services was good.

• What is the student body like?
I was shy and didn't interact much with my class in person, but the online discussion forums were great. Several online students were working professionals and their perspective added a lot to the knowledge.

• Do you have any suggestions to make the program better?
Most of the courses in first year have smaller assignments and no big projects. So when you apply for internships, you don't have much to write on your resume. It's difficult to implement, but I feel if there was a way of doing some meaningful projects in the first year itself then it would add a lot of value to the resume and give you a great point to talk about in an interview.

• What is your current job status?
Currently, I'm working as an intern at Research Affiliates LLC, Newport Beach, CA.