COMPARE Gatech QCF & Columbia MAFN & Rutgers MMF

[Zhisheng Zhang]

Hello everyone,

As time passed by, all the results of my applications have came out. I have the above three ads and have trouble on making the decision.

Objective after graduation: I pretty like programming and I am currently working on the data analyst field. I hope I could be a quantitative developer or engage in the jobs required some programming stuff after graduation.

Criteria to pick the program: 1. The job placement rate of the international students after graduation 2. Whether I could learn pretty cool programming courses there!

Advantage/Disadvantage for these programs from my view:

Gatech QCF: Adv: high placement rate, Programming oriented curriculum. Dv: Far from market/ Fame is not so big.

MAFN: Adv: Big name, in NY, placement not bad. Dv: Mainly math courses, almost no career service

Rutgers: Adv: Cheap, good placement, near NY, good fame in Wall street. Dv: Too many math courses (and very tough), general rank is not good

Could some one shine some light on the decision based on the experience and information above? Any opinion and help will be appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[pingu]

Objective after graduation: I pretty like programming and I am currently working on the data analyst field. I hope I could be a quantitative developer or engage in the jobs required some programming stuff after graduation.

Do you mean IT? you can probably get a job like that without doing a MS

 

[mhy]

Do you mean IT? you can probably get a job like that without doing a MS

Most quant dev jobs want masters nowadays...it's crazy!

 

[DannyF]

I would say GT, my friend. You can take 3 free electives there, even in the compsci department. You can also take analytics classes, though you might already know that stuff.

The way quantnet people do not believe in GT is making me very confused. It does have bad location, though. If you like messing around with computers, GT will keep you occupied.

But I know nothing about Rutgers, hahaha. It might be better.

I have a bad feeling about that Columbia program. It might work out alright.

 

[mhy]

I would say GT, my friend. You can take 3 free electives there, even in the compsci department. You can also take analytics classes, though you might already know that stuff.

The way quantnet people do not believe in GT is making me very confused. It does have bad location, though. If you like messing around with computers, GT will keep you occupied.

But I know nothing about Rutgers, hahaha. It might be better.

I have a bad feeling about that Columbia program. It might work out alright.

The problem is many Wall Street recruiters don't give a sh*t about GT QCF. Just having Columbia on your resume will get you in the door at many places where the door will be slammed shut in front of you if you went to GT

 

[DannyF]

The problem is many Wall Street recruiters don't give a sh*t about GT QCF. Just having Columbia on your resume will get you in the door at many places where the door will be slammed shut in front of you if you went to GT

Gotcha. I did get the impression that GT grads get jobs almost exclusively through alumni connections.

What about the fact that this is not the FE program at Columbia? Does that matter to the recruiters? I was just worried that this other program might be a cash cow.

 

[mhy]

Columbia MAFN is older than MFE. It is respected, it's just not very vocal about recruiting students or publishing statistics.

 

[Zhisheng Zhang]

Do you mean IT? you can probably get a job like that without doing a MS

Not completely IT stuff, or I will go to have a CS master. I think myself is interested in the application of programming, not completely coding.

And I also need a master to keep my visa

 

[Zhisheng Zhang]

Columbia MAFN is older than MFE. It is respected, it's just not very vocal about recruiting students or publishing statistics.

Thank you for your point! The trade off is here! Columbia has a big name but the curriculum is not that good to me. And the QCF goes the opposite way. That's why I hesitate so much.

Too bad I could not solve this dilemma in C++...

 

[Zhisheng Zhang]

Gotcha. I did get the impression that GT grads get jobs almost exclusively through alumni connections.

What about the fact that this is not the FE program at Columbia? Does that matter to the recruiters? I was just worried that this other program might be a cash cow.

Hey Danny, thank you for sharing the information! To be honest, personally I lean to QCF. But all my friends and my family tell me to go Columbia. Moreover, Columbia is famous in China, which may be better for me to find a job when I go back to China in future.

But a tricky thing I found recently is that most of people who went to Columbia was already relatively successful in this field and has a strong academic background and rich experience. That's what I found when I look at the resume book posted by Columbia MAFN on their website. Perhaps they don't need an excellent program to train them to be a master, because they already are!! That's what I worried for so much!! For these guys, they already have the skill and just need to borrow the big name of the Columbia to find a good job.

And I know that I am definitely not that kind of guy and I need a good program to train me to be a master in FE...So I highly doubt that whether I could find a job like them after graduation, if I go to Columbia MAFN

 

[C S]

For these guys, they already have the skill and just need to borrow the big name of the Columbia to find a good job.

And I know that I am definitely not that kind of guy and I need a good program to train me to be a master in FE...So I highly doubt that whether I could find a job like them after graduation, if I go to Columbia MAFN

If they already have the skill, then why do they need to borrow the "big name" to find a good job? And if it's so tough that they need the brand name recognition, do you think any program can train you to be better than them?

 

[DannyF]

If they already have the skill, then why do they need to borrow the "big name" to find a good job? And if it's so tough that they need the brand name recognition, do you think any program can train you to be better than them?

I can think of a few possibilities...