COMPARE FSRM@Rutgers vs MFE@NYU-Poly

[LeoDong]

Hi everyone,

I need to make final decision between FSRM@Rutgers and MFE@NYU-Poly. Any advice would be greatly helpful! I like both data oriented and quant oriented works. I just would like to see which school is better for placing and job hunting.

Especially for people who have experience with or heard about NYU-poly, I would like to seek advice from yours.

I researched a lot about FSRM@Rutgers and seems it has promising future, though risk is there.

so what about NYU-poly? any pros or cons? I heard they just moved their Financial engineering program to Manhattan, is that true? How is the stats for job placement and internship for NYU-poly? I heard they have MANY students there, does it mean the students there are less qualified?

Thanks for everyone!

 

[cestlecutee]

similar question....need help~~http://www.quantnet.com/forum/threads/nyu-poly-mfe-with-scholarship-vs-purdue-stat-cfs-ad.6524/

 

[pandyajwalin]

Is everyone finding it hard to get info on NYU Poly's MSFE?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

so what about NYU-poly? any pros or cons? I heard they just moved their Financial engineering program to Manhattan, is that true?

The Manhattan is a typo by a clerk as confirmed by @PZM (NYU-Poly FRE faculty)
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/threads/msf-mfe-program-selection-ideas-guys.6177/page-3#post-54210

 

[rajanS]

they have 225 students in their program. So, when you apply to companies, you are competing with the other 224 students. It would be hard to get personal attention from any single faculty member. For many programs, MFE has become a cash cow. Call recruiters and employers and ask whether they hire MFEs from NYU Poly. I would take it from there. What is their placement rate? I dont see that posted anywhere in their website or their starting salaries? I think Berkley might have a lot of students in their program as well. But, comparing Berkley to NYU Poly is like comparing apples to oranges.

 

[rajanS]

And another thing, the Rutgers program is rather new. They now have 3 quant programs...FSRM, Masters in Mathematics with option in Financial Mathematics and finally, Masters in Quantitative Finance. All three are offered from different departments. I don't see why they wouldn't allocate resources to just one program rather than confuse students and have three different programs.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

And another thing, the Rutgers program is rather new. They now have 3 quant programs...FSRM, Masters in Mathematics with option in Financial Mathematics and finally, Masters in Quantitative Finance. All three are offered from different departments. I don't see why they wouldn't allocate resources to just one program rather than confuse students and have three different programs.

For many [universities], MFE has become a cash cow.

 

[rajanS]

I didn't mean it with regards to the good ones. Just the ones that are offering like 3 quant finance programs and universities like poly or temple univ. etc

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

Simple--as someone who actually was in a program with heavy overlap with the MSMF, I can tell you right now:

Most MFEs are, as Dominic Connor has alluded to before, little better than for-profit universities like U. Phoenix. Most of the students in those programs are kids from overseas with a passable (but heavily accented) knowledge of English, who speak in their native language (usually Chinese) at every opportunity they get, and hope to get a nice Wall Street job with a stamp from at least a semi-reputed American university and do better than their parents did back home. Universities exploit this to no end, even charging a premium for going to one of their special financial engineering degree programs, rather than other programs that are more or less identical in terms of the kinds of things that the candidate would actually use at work (main ones being knowing how to analyze data, and time series).

IMO with MFE, either it's a top 10 program, or bust. Because the rest will just shamelessly take your money and give you next to nothing in return. My curriculum overlapped with quite a bit of the stuff that the MSMFs at Rutgers did, and I did very well on a Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation derivatives risk analyst interview that the hiring manager recruited mostly MFEs for (he has an MQF from Rutgers Newark FYI), and although I didn't get it (probably due to a senior guy bringing some assistant in), I got to the second round, got some very nice interview feedback, but things went south. But at the end of the day, I got my job through LinkedIn cold calling, and not through any sort of recruiting service (and Rutgers has a very weak one in my opinion from what I could tell for finance).

Moral of the story? Cash cows. The more programs you have, the more programs you can stuff 40 naive kids from China into and gouge them for their parents' life savings.

 

[alain]

Simple--as someone who actually was in a program with heavy overlap with the MSMF, I can tell you right now:

Most MFEs are, as Dominic Connor has alluded to before, little better than for-profit universities like U. Phoenix.

You have to be very careful on what you are saying. It sounds to me like sour grapes and some people will think that you couldn't hack it to make it to an MFE and that's what you got into another program.

and I did very well on a Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation derivatives risk analyst interview that the hiring manager recruited mostly MFEs for (he has an MQF from Rutgers Newark FYI), and although I didn't get it (probably due to a senior guy bringing some assistant in), I got to the second round, got some very nice interview feedback, but things went south.

Still sound like sour grapes. The interview might have gone great in your eyes but you didn't get the job so there was something wrong. Be thankful that you are in a place that you like now.

 

[LeoDong]

Moral of the story? Cash cows. The more programs you have, the more programs you can stuff 40 naive kids from China into and gouge them for their parents' life savings.

FYI I am Chinese. I certainly dont want to be the that kind of typical Chinese you have described. In terms of overlaps with MSMF, r u a Rutgers student now? And would you say Rutgers FSRM is another way of exploiting students' money?

 

[LeoDong]

they have 225 students in their program. So, when you apply to companies, you are competing with the other 224 students. It would be hard to get personal attention from any single faculty member. For many programs, MFE has become a cash cow. Call recruiters and employers and ask whether they hire MFEs from NYU Poly. I would take it from there. What is their placement rate? I dont see that posted anywhere in their website or their starting salaries? I think Berkley might have a lot of students in their program as well. But, comparing Berkley to NYU Poly is like comparing apples to oranges.

Seems like student needs to stand out at NYU poly to draw attention. Since over 200 people in this program, do it mean many students are delaying their graduation due to bad economy? (they should have 70,80 students each year, totaling 150 for the whole program).

 

[rajanS]

FYI I am Chinese. I certainly dont want to be the that kind of typical Chinese you have described. In terms of overlaps with MSMF, r u a Rutgers student now? And would you say Rutgers FSRM is another way of exploiting students' money?

who knows. there is an article in this website where Dr. Paul (director of MSMF at Rutgers) expressed some concerns with the new program.

 

[rajanS]

Seems like student needs to stand out at NYU poly to draw attention. Since over 200 people in this program, do it mean many students are delaying their graduation due to bad economy? (they should have 70,80 students each year, totaling 150 for the whole program).

perhaps you can get into NYU Poly and then transfer out? Make sure you get straight As however.. I don't want to downplay any programs without having first hand experience in the program. Their course offerings certainly looks very good. But I remember some student saying that many of the teachers weren't qualified in the courses they were teaching and showed no interest in the courses as well.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

FYI I am Chinese. I certainly dont want to be the that kind of typical Chinese you have described. In terms of overlaps with MSMF, r u a Rutgers student now? And would you say Rutgers FSRM is another way of exploiting students' money?

I was an MS stats because they charged an extra $3000 a semester for their MSMF. And of course it's another way of exploiting students' money. Undergrads get financial aid, PhDs get stipends--where does the $ come to support everyone? From the state and from students like you.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

who knows. there is an article in this website where Dr. Paul (director of MSMF at Rutgers) expressed some concerns with the new program.

http://www.quantnet.com/rutgers-launch-third-quant-master-program/

 

[CrazyRussian]

I keep seeing people say that one can "transfer out" of MFE programs. I don't understand how that can be possible, unless you are transferring from a two year program to a two year program. In the case of NYU-poly and other similarly structured programs, you would usually complete the program in 1 - 1.5 years.

To be honest, it really bothers me that such a large and old program like Poly doesn't offer employments/admissions stats upfront. It leads me to believe that they are hiding unpleasant information. I understand that as an engineering school Poly is among the best, but I am uneasy about the MFE program. My feeling is that a school that has had so much time to perfect its program should have something to show for it. In my mind, they either lack the organization to gather and process data of their alumni or they are obscuring negative results of their program.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You can't transfer. You need to reapply to another program and "hope" that the credits you already earned can be counted in the new program. Since the length of MFE programs are very short (1-1.5 years and about 12-15 courses), they are very restrictive in accepting other programs' credits.
There are many students from NYU-Poly who apply to NYU MSFM after a year in the hope of getting in and use the career services. I do not have any hard numbers on if and how many of these students got accepted.
In general, jumping from one MFE program to another is a very rare event and something not encouraged. Best case, you will get into a better program but still have to redo most of the course.

 

[LeoDong]

I just got offer from MSMF@Rutgers, would people say this is a better approach than FSRM@Rutgers and MFE@NYU-poly?

 

[Som]

I would say this...the FSRM at Rutgers is run by Rong Chen(who is quite a good time series instructor and was generally a pretty amiable guy) so I don't doubt that this program will turn to be a good educational experience. I would however in this case choose the MSMF program because it is more established and has been under refinement. I do like the structure of the course work in the FSRM degree and think it will be really useful if you do want to end up in risk management. So some of this also comes down to what kind of job you want to work at after you graduate.