COMPARE Columbia MA Statistics vs MA Mathematical Finance

[daxson]

Hi,

Im in my final year at the london sch of econ doing Math and Economics and was looking to do a master's degree.
i am currently trying to decide between stanford's MS in MS&E vs columbia's MA in Mathematical Finance or MA Statistics.

i do not intend to become a quant so that explains why i didnt go for the financial engineering courses.

after studying the programs, it seems that the MA statistics at columbia isnt very well-known. i can hardly find any references online in such forums. (maybe bcoz everyone is looking at MFin, fin math or MFE or MBA). does anyone know much about this program? any people studying at columbia right now in the MAMF must know about this 'sister' program. from what i gather from the website, it seems that i can do pretty much everything in the MAMF, or MFE and pretty much similar to any financial math masters program out there but have more flexibility to choose more electives from econ, finance, business modules which appeals to me. but my problem is how well this program is regarded in general and whether big institutions rank this program highly. or is it considered a 2nd prize after people get rejected from the MAMF. anyone know what the intake is like??

also. i know about the Fin engine and Fin math courses at stanford but didnt apply for above reasons. does anyone know what the MS&E is like? is it a well-regarded course by employers.

any other advice about stanford grad experience vs columbia grad sch experience would be very very helpful. thanks.

 

[alain]

I think you posted in the wrong forum. We are completely focused on FE. Use your best friend "google" to find a better place to ask this type of question.

 

[Yuriy]

If you don't see many references to a program, it does not mean that the program is bad. In fact, it may mean the exact opposite. Well-established programs do not need great publicity.

I don't know about MS&E (assuming that it means materials science and engineering), but can say that any program in statistics from a well-known school must be of high quality. It is just statistics graduates don't always go into areas of great public attention. There are at least two areas where they go: pharmaceutical (GSK, Pfizer), government statistics (bureau of labor stats, census bureau). You can also go into finance, there are many positions that require strong stats skills.