COMPARE Columbia University MFE vs Carnegie Mellon University MSCF

[zzwang]

So I just called a friend who is a current student at Columbia.

Pros: MFE does have a career counselor just for this program, and students from MSOR and MSFM are not really a competition to MFE students. Many companies comes to Columbia to recruit only MFE students. People there are all really smart.


Cons: I was told that MSCF is recognized as a better program, and the placement statistics online really doesn't reflect what is actually happening in the program. He is not so much of a social butterfly but he said it should be just more than half of the students already find internship. Some people are even looking for summer research.
In addition, people in the program doesn't even know each other too well and they work as an individual.

P.S. I'm simply writing what I was told and the above does not reflect on what I think about the program.

 

[Fernando Uribe]

Would you mind sharing which one you chose in the end? And why?

 

[Susan Chen]

Haven't got back from Columbia but accepted the offer from MSCF yesterday.

 

[zzwang]

I am choosing CMU too because of it's edge in recruiting, and I don't mean the career services. I am sure the career services at CMU is excellent, but I haven't have any interactions with them yet. I've been through recruiting for IBD before, and two things mattered the most: oncampus recruiting and having a group of friends to work with. CMU are great at both, but for Columbia I am not too sure.

 

[Fernando Uribe]

Thanks for your responses! I haven’t got a response from Columbia yet either. I was still waiting for that to see if my heart would lead me to right direction lol. Still, both programs are top-notch and I don’t think one can go wrong with either one. The thing with Columbia, as you discussed before, is its international prestige, and coming from a very small university in South America, I was very attracted to it.

May I know which campus did you choose? I chose Pittsburgh campus, but haven’t accepted the offer yet. I believe I will have a decision by the end of this week.

 

[zzwang]

Undergrad reputation and graduate reputation are very different. I won’t want to work for any company that can’t tell the difference. Among Chinese people... it’s well known that Columbia has many master programs that are just not selective. Cmu is just so famous in any area related to CS. So for grad school reputation I don’t think it would be any different from CMU. Unless you want to return to South American immediately after you graduate, I think CMU is the winner here.

Ps I am admitted to NY campus. I haven’t paid the deposit tho.

 

[Susan Chen]

Thanks for your responses! I haven’t got a response from Columbia yet either. I was still waiting for that to see if my heart would lead me to right direction lol. Still, both programs are top-notch and I don’t think one can go wrong with either one. The thing with Columbia, as you discussed before, is its international prestige, and coming from a very small university in South America, I was very attracted to it.

May I know which campus did you choose? I chose Pittsburgh campus, but haven’t accepted the offer yet. I believe I will have a decision by the end of this week.

You can change your campus preference even after your accept the offer, so it's not a big deal.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks everyone for your contribution to the discussion. I find it very important that we share what we learn about each program, from any source so any misinformation can be spotted and clarified.
I saw that many of you already got very credible insight on the career services situation. Great job reaching out to those in those programs and recently graduate to get the correct info

Best of luck to all.

 

[kittkatt]

Yeah this thread has been really helpful. I wish there wasn't such an asymmetry of information between the two programs. Hopefully future cohorts of Columbia can offer more insight on their experiences.

 

[zzwang]

Thanks for the encouragement Andy!

Yeah this thread has been really helpful. I wish there wasn't such an asymmetry of information between the two programs. Hopefully future cohorts of Columbia can offer more insight on their experiences.

Hi Kittkatt! Will we be seeing you in CMU's program next fall?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Yeah this thread has been really helpful. I wish there wasn't such an asymmetry of information between the two programs.

The lack of information has been the norm as long as MFE programs exist. Very few programs are transparent with their statistics which is why our QuantNet MFE rankings have been providing crucial missing data.

 

[kittkatt]

Hi @zzwang. Most likely

@Andy Nguyen The statistics are nice to see. But since they are evenly ranked programs I feel like having more insider information in the form of student reviews would be more useful.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Hi @zzwang. Most likely

@Andy Nguyen The statistics are nice to see. But since they are evenly ranked programs I feel like having more insider information in the form of student reviews would be more useful.

I definitely agree with you but you know how hard it is to get reviews from students, specially if they are not happy.
Who wants to admit that they make a huge mistake going to a program for whatever reason and realize the reality is not as good as the website indicates and they couldn't get a job?
Those that are completely satisfied are probably busy working and have no incentive to write something.
So it's been a real struggle for me to get more reviews.
For example, CMU and Columbia MFE have been around for a long time and I only get 2 dozen reviews from CMU and only 5 from Columbia MFE
Master of Science in Computational Finance (MSCF) at Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University Financial Engineering program

 

[aaroncklll]

CMU better

 

[Andy Nguyen]

For everyone who already decided the program they will join in Fall 2018, please take a second to check the box Will Join in the Tracker so we all know who is coming and can form study group.
Thanks

 

[Jiajie Liu]

Mark

 

[CaliIBHopeful]

I graduated from CMU's BSCF program. I would go to Columbia to be honest. I didn't feel that CMU's recruiting for Comp Fi was as great as people are making it out to be here. I think Columbia's name, alumni network and location are a much greater benefit than CMU's. I got 4 offers after graduating (3 prop shops, 1 hedge fund in Connecticut) but career services didn't help a lot and none were through OCR.

 

[mhy]

I graduated from CMU's BSCF program. I would go to Columbia to be honest. I didn't feel that CMU's recruiting for Comp Fi was as great as people are making it out to be here. I think Columbia's name, alumni network and location are a much greater benefit than CMU's. I got 4 offers after graduating (3 prop shops, 1 hedge fund in Connecticut) but career services didn't help a lot and none were through OCR.

MSCF has dedicated career services & OCR.

 

[CaliIBHopeful]

MSCF has dedicated career services & OCR.

Yup and bscf students have access to that and interview for the same roles as the Mscf students since there are < 10 students in every bscf class.

 

[mhy]

Yup and bscf students have access to that and interview for the same roles as the Mscf students since there are < 10 students in every bscf class.

Is it possible that recruiters preferred MSCF graduates over BSCF? More advanced students for the same price...