I have seen several of your posts on this forum and wanted to just let it go, but I feel this deserves a response. As recent graduate of the CFRM program, this could not be further from the truth...
The above faculty have been replaced, as instructors, by faculty who have just finished their PhDs recently. The majority cannot speak English in a manner that is comprehensible.
This is not only a ridiculous statement, it is completely insulting. The staff is diverse, and while all are not native English speakers, they all can communicate fluently and effectively in English. I never had an issue throughout the entire program understanding a professor.
The quantitative finance world, in general, is very diverse and multinational. If you expect to get a job and communicate only with native English speakers, I'm sorry to inform you that you will be severely disappointed. I feel even more sympathy for your would-be employer for your lack of cultural understanding.
I have yet to take a single course where the instructor has actually taught the course before. Every single course, so far, has been taught by a rookie, teaching the course for the first time, ever.
You must not have taken many courses because the 3 introductory courses and a Machine Learning course were taught by the two "rookie" professors to whom you are referring. They combined course material from previous years with material from previous courses they have taught at other universities.
Probably the only new faculty member who I appreciate is Bahman Angoshtari, because he works very, very hard to overcome his limitations with English; he is extremely well organized in terms of syllabus, lecture notes, R examples, etc. He actually did some teaching at UM and Oxford before coming to UW.
His limitations in English? Are you kidding me?! I'm going to assume this is a joke.
The other new faculty members, though, are completely inept, in terms of organizing their courses. Generally, they wait until the night before their lectures to prepare their material. Some of them do not even have a plan in mind until they walk into the room and start writing random bits of disparate and unrelated material on a tablet device. Of course, the output from the tablet device is sometimes "lost" for a few days.
I'm assuming you're the same student that complained about not having PowerPoint presentations (and I have a strong belief that I am correct). This is an Applied Math department. I don't think I have ever had a math class ever use PowerPoint in my entire scholastic career. So if by not prepared, you mean they (even though you're referring to one professor in particular) don't use PowerPoint and cause death by slideshow. Then, ok, they are not "prepared." The professor to whom you're referring was prepared for all classes. He simply chose to write equations and other notes as the class discussed them, all of which were posted online afterwards for review.
I say that UW is a shit show, and I hope it tanks out of the top 20, frankly.
The other 35 reviews on this site would seem to disagree...
The former Head Administrator of the CFRM program, Matt Austin, has been gone since 2017, which is about the time that things started to decline. In 2017, when I did the undergraduate QFCF pre-MS certificate program, I had nothing but positive things to say about the UW CFRM program. Now, in 2019, as an MS student, I would probably describe it as the single worst coursework experience of my entire life.
Seeing as you don't know the actual title, you must be well-informed. Laurie, the current Program Manager, has been with the program from day one and took over after Matt's departure. She is terrific and an absolute asset to the program. Karen, the Career Services Manager, joined the program in 2017 and has been great as well in building out the network for the CFRM program which was previously just the Seattle area essentially.
My grades in the MS program are fine.
Are they? Really?
I have managed to overcome the above obstacles, but in order to do this, I have had to make a great number of sacrifices and adaptations which have been costly, in terms of time and money, and such measures should not be necessary, in my humble opinion.
If your time is worth anything to you, I suggest going to a program where the faculty have a fair amount of experience in the courses they teach (i.e. > 0 hours).
#shitshow
This program is housed in an Applied Mathematics department which is one of, if not, the best in the country. Therefore, the program is heavily mathematical. If by obstacles you mean understanding and having to review undergraduate maths at times, learning from and engaging with a diverse faculty and student population, and putting in a lot of time and effort; then yes, you will need to overcome these "obstacles" to succeed.
I overcame these so-called obstacles. In doing so, I had 2 job offers before I even graduated in addition to several final round interviews with some other prominent companies. All of whom told me they were impressed with my knowledge, reasoning, and overall conduct. You get out what you put in.
My final statement to anyone reading this post would be understand who is posting. This is the same person who said:
In general, I'm not the type of guy who likes high-pressure high-stress work, except on occasion.
and not to mention this zinger of why he studies at the School of Medicine
Because 1.) the female med students tend to be very fit, 2.) they wear yoga pants to the library, and 3.) I make eye contact and then there's this dismissive look like "eww..."
The only shit show here is you.
