How do you classify a good FE program?

[kean]

How do you classify a good MFE program?

(Note: Please exclude employment factor. I welcome any comment on the quality of the program, such as teaching quality and learning experience)

Thank you.

 

[Yuriy]

This one needs some thought.

1) Course Selection - There are courses that I would like to take, and it is very desirable to have them offered.
2a) Faculty Expertise - Teaching faculty need to be experts in areas that they teach (for example, professor teaching probability needs to be an expert in probability).
2b) Factulty from Industry - It is very desirable to have faculty who have worked in the industry.
3) Course Availability - One thing is to list 50 courses, the other is to actually offer them.
4) Industry Exposure - Real world examples and situations (as part of coursework) are very desirable.

 

[kean]

Point (2), (3) and (4) are difficult to get.

 

[quantwanabbe]

I would say industry exposure

 

[kapil354]

Location - NY

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Good environment for study: that includes friendly classmates who are willing to help each other.
Supportive faculty and staff.

I can't stress this enough. mfe study is really hard, with supportive classmates and faculty, it just make the whole experience worthwhile. And best friends during the program will become valuable industry contacts.

 

[Yuriy]

Good environment for study: that includes friendly classmates who are willing to help each other.
Supportive faculty and staff.

I can't stress this enough. mfe study is really hard, with supportive classmates and faculty, it just make the whole experience worthwhile. And best friends during the program will become valuable industry contacts.

But there is really no way to find out how good the environment is without actually enrolling in a program. Baruch is a nice exception

 

[Yuriy]

Point (2), (3) and (4) are difficult to get.

(1) is not easy to get either. there are couple of excellent courses that are offered only by a few schools and nowhere else.

 

[Yuriy]

And another one is : Help from TAs
This one proves to be crucial in certain cases.

 

[kean]

hard

Andy, how hard do you mean MFE is really hard? I mean your statement can be scary in view of your strong maths and computing background. :tiphat:

Good environment for study: that includes friendly classmates who are willing to help each other.
Supportive faculty and staff.

I can't stress this enough. mfe study is really hard, with supportive classmates and faculty, it just make the whole experience worthwhile. And best friends during the program will become valuable industry contacts.

 

[Uncle Max]

Andy, how hard do you mean MFE is really hard? I mean your statement can be scary in view of your strong maths and computing background. :tiphat:

I would say it's intensive, not hard. If you spend a fair amount of time studying, then everything will be fine. And you will enjoy the process.

 

[Yuriy]

It is difficult to quantify "how hard" A lot depends on your background. For some, math is a piece of cake, some might find it very challenging. The same can be said about C++ or finance.
But overall it is fairly challenging, giving you enough to be busy