Columbia MAFN Columbia MAFN placement data via Linkedin (2008)

[Will D]

Hi,
I've applied to Columbia MAFN, University of Chicago FinMath, Imperial MF and Michigan FE.

Of all the programs, Columbia Mathematics of Finance has the least amount of information on its website which I was told was done by a student (who obviously didn't study graphic design).

I emailed the university but no one got back to me- I called the math department and they said they don't keep track. So I did my own research and tracked the 2008 cohort for Columbia's MAFN program.

Thought this may be interesting to some people. It took a couple hours to compile this data. I thought overall the placements were very good, even for non-French students, in a bad year.


French:
Female
Calyon (London) now UBS (London) -> IRD Sales
BNP (London) -> IB Associate, Structured Finance
SocGen (Paris) -> Quantitative Risk Analyst

Male
SocGen (Paris) -> Equity Derivatives Trading
BNP (Paris) -> Equity Derivatives Trading
Credit Suisse (NY) -> Equities, Quant Developer
Lazard (Paris) -> Cross-Asset Sales
SocGen (NY) -> Equity Derivatives Sales
SocGen (NY) -> Credit Trading
Natixis (NY) -> Asset Management
Banco Santander (London), VP, IRD Trading
Barclays (NY) -> Commodities Sales
Computer Science PhD student in Paris

Non-French:
Female
CICC (Beijing) -> Sales & Trading
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (Taipei) -> Risk Management
Chubb (NJ) -> Actuarial Student
PhD student in Finance in Norway
RBC (NY) -> Risk Management
Credit Suisse (NY) -> Quant Developer
McKinsey -> Consultant, has an MD and finished residency at Hopkins
United Nations (NY) -> Economics Research

Male
Macquarie (NY) -> Infrastructure Private Equity
Prop firm (NY) -> Quant Trading
Bank of America (NY) -> Credit Risk Management
BofA Merrill Lynch (NY) -> Structured Credit Trading
JP Morgan (NY) -> Derivatives Valuation
JP Morgan (NY) -> Derivatives Valuation
State Street (NY) -> Derivatives Valuation
SMBC Capital Markets (NY) -> Quant, has a PhD in Physics from Russia
SwissRe (NY) -> Quant, has a PhD in Physics from Russia
Bloomberg (NY) -> Quant Developer

 

[Will D]

If there is interest, I will try to do a similar summary for 2009 and 2010.

 

[friendlyfire]

Thanks for the initiative. I am sure many of the MAFN applicants(like me) are interested to get such insights into 2009 and 2010 MAFN placements as well

 

[Will D]

Correction- one of the JP Morgan positions is not "Derivatives Valuation"- unspecificed, just says Associate in NY, now Vice President

Some prominent hedge fund alumni I found on the web:
http://www.aqr.com/roneni.htm
http://www.bwater.com/home/careers/employee-profiles.aspx?d=56

Antoine Guillon
Age: 29
Firm: Brevan Howard Asset Management
City: London
Trades: Credit derivatives
Nearly three years after jumping from New York to London, Guillon has already made a name for himself as a star hedge-fund trader in a city full of them. A former Columbia math whiz, Guillon developed into a structured-credit phenom at Archeus before joining Deutsche Bank.

Word in the City is that Guillon has produced huge profits for the Brevan Howard empire at $13 billion, it's one of the largest hedge-fund firms in the world- so we expect he'll be one of the highest-paid people in the business come bonus season.

 

[Will D]

Here is an article about a Chicago FinMath grad starting his own fund:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aaQQ8t4wZdX4&refer=home

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If there is interest, I will try to do a similar summary for 2009 and 2010.

Would love to see this so we all can have a better picture. You do all of us a great service even though this should be the job of the programs to provide requested info such as this to applicants.