FE at TU Delft

[Grunn_man]

Hi all,

Was just wondering if anyone had an opinion of the Msc in Applied Mathematics at TU Delft, specifically with the financial engineering track?

Programme page : MSc Applied Mathematics

Courses on the FE track: Course browser searcher

At least for me, entry requirements are very lax, as I hold a Dutch bachelor degree -So no recommendations letters needed, no GRE, etc. Plus, tuition fees are extremely low compared to programmes in the UK or US. All of this makes it a really attractive option for me. What do you guys think?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

As far as can see this is a course on discrete optimization and related algorithms to prepare you for jobs in place such as RIVM, Erasmus, TNO etc. There's a mention of Financial Engineering but it would probably not grab anyone's attention in finance. Maybe I missed something.

I don't know what's the reason for Ethics and writing for AM. Being Delft, it is a highly applied university and focused on examples from industry, not saying it's bad. It's just that you can learn the applications 'on the job', i.e. later.

The Netherlands is strong in PhD (UVA) but if you want to do MFE you need to look at USA (Baruch, UCB, CMU,..) and possibly UK (Imperial, WBS,...). It's in the price.

BTW what was your batchelor degree in? Hoe is het met jouw C++ kennis?

// 18K for non-Dutch citizens is a steep for this course IMHO. If it were me, I would do a 3-4 year hard core applied maths course at UVA.

For the record, I live in The Nethelands.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

one question: why do you want to do FE?

 

[Grunn_man]

As far as can see this is a course on discrete optimization and related algorithms to prepare you for jobs in place such as RIVM, Erasmus, TNO etc. There's a mention of Financial Engineering but it would probably not grab anyone's attention in finance. Maybe I missed something.

I don't know what's the reason for Ethics and writing for AM. Being Delft, it is a highly applied university and focused on examples from industry, not saying it's bad. It's just that you can learn the applications 'on the job', i.e. later.

The Netherlands is strong in PhD (UVA) but if you want to do MFE you need to look at USA (Baruch, UCB, CMU,..) and possibly UK (Imperial, WBS,...). It's in the price.

BTW what was your batchelor degree in? Hoe is het met jouw C++ kennis?

// 18K for non-Dutch citizens is a steep for this course IMHO. If it were me, I would do a 3-4 year hard core applied maths course at UVA.

For the record, I live in The Nethelands.

While I agree it might not grab anyone's attention as you say, it would provide me with a good grounding in mathematics and mathematical finance.
Not even a question - I will be better off doing a US degree - but is the $75,000 difference in tuition fees worth it? The reason I would like to do FE is to get into quantitative trading or research. The Delft master does offer courses in Measure theory, stochastic calculus, financial engineering, computational finance - but also allows to take an internship as part of the degree and has a substantial research component.

My bachelor is in mathematics, with a minor in stats - and unfortunately, I do not have any experience with C++ but I do generally enjoy programming and I would be keen to learn it. However, from speaking to a few quants(at IMC, Flow traders, Citadel) most seem to use python on the job rather than C++. How common is that?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Python is used a lot for sure, depends on the job which is fine. Which does not say that C++ is not being used. Especially across the ponds. C++ and HFT is also used. C# is also a popular choice, e.g. MV.
But Python does not help with analytical thinking, whereas C++ does. Just saying.