COMPARE CMU MSCF vs Columbia Financial Economics

[Dinghui Li]

Hi all,

I am now admitted to both programs and I am facing a dilemma which to choose.
My career goal to do quant research on buy side after graduation.

Columbia MSFE ( Financial Economics) is at CBS so it obviously has amazing faculty. Considering the fact that it's a small program, I think everyone would get great resouces. But the drawback is that the curriculum is too theoretical and doesn't have as much training on quanitative skills as CMU.

MSCF, however, has a great curriculum that is very useful for career as a quant and without doubt have great placement records.

I hope anyone can give me some advice or more insight into the program.

 

[qdogg]

As far as I know as a Columbia alum, "Columbia financial economics" was just CBS's half-assed attempt to get a late piece of the well-established gravy train that is overpriced quant programs at Columbia-- go with CMU.

 

[Varun Dubey]

CMU MSCF is more aligned with your career interests

 

[Dinghui Li]

As far as I know as a Columbia alum, "Columbia financial economics" was just CBS's half-assed attempt to get a late piece of the well-established gravy train that is overpriced quant programs at Columbia-- go with CMU.

I understand that CBS obviously have not make great efforts to build this program. But the existing faculty and alumni resources still seem tempting. Do you think these will help me secure a good job?

 

[qdogg]

Faculty generally don't get students jobs, and I don't know much about the "alumni resources" but with it being such a small, relatively young program, I'd think CMU's alumni network would be exponentially larger

 

[DavidHilbert]

I understand that CBS obviously have not make great efforts to build this program. But the existing faculty and alumni resources still seem tempting. Do you think these will help me secure a good job?

It's extremely tought to get into buy side quant research even from top MFE programs. Sure it will secure you a good job, but with 0.99 probability not in quant research.

 

[TehRaio]

@Dinghui Li

think of it this way: columbia already has 2 mathematical finance programs: the MAFN and the FE masters.
If what you want is to get into Quantitative Finance research the MFE is not the right choice, and it's not advertised as such anyway. It'd be good if you want to work with economists instead of Mathematicians. What do you want?

 

[IntoDarkness]

i like theory and would suggest doing msfe. many ppl overlook theoretical coursework and think they r overkill. however id argue its very very difficult to get real "research oriented" quant job without rigorous theoretical background and it will prove quite useful on the job as well. cmu's classes r practical but too watered down for research.