COMPARE New York University - MS in Mathematics in Finance vs Columbia University - MA in Mathematics of Finance

[Levine Push]

This is absolutely nonsense. Courant is a well known institution in Math and top notch in Math Finance.

Even the often cited US News Ranking (if you don't want to look at QN) has it #1 in Applied Math for graduate programs:

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/applied-mathematics-rankings

I understand how reputable Courant is in US but I'm not sure its reputation is known outside US. My concern is that if I were not able to work in US after graduation NYU's brand name is not as good as Columbia outside US.

 

[alain]

I understand how reputable Courant is in US but I'm not sure its reputation is known outside US. My concern is that if I were not able to work in US after graduation NYU's brand name is not as good as Columbia outside US.

It sounds you are more concerned with the name brand than your education. I can't help you with that.

 

[Levine Push]

It sounds you are more concerned with the name brand than your education. I can't help you with that.

No I actually really love the courses in Courant. I think brand name is the only concern I have about this program. Other than that, Courant is dream program for me.

 

[Zhusong Mei]

Courant is definitely one of the top tier program in MFE. If you want to work in quant finance industry (e.g. desk quant, quant trading) in the future, Courant is no doubt your better choice. However, outside of the quant finance world, people would not appreciate the brand name of
Courant. Instead, Columbia is more famous in general.

 

[QKR]

The only columbia program id take over NYU is the MFE. The MAFN program is poorly organized and is widely known to be second to the MFE. Also, if you go to the NYU program, I'd say you have a very solid shot at getting a job in the US, given that you manage your visa stuff properly. Once you start working at a top tier firm, that work experience will be more recognized and valued globally.

Goldman sachs is a bigger brand than columbia tbh

 

[alain]

No I actually really love the courses in Courant. I think brand name is the only concern I have about this program. Other than that, Courant is dream program for me.

Again, if the brand name is so important, apply to Harvard in some easy to get program and you will sail through with a Harvard degree. You can't beat that!

 

[pingu]

Courant is definitely one of the top tier program in MFE. If you want to work in quant finance industry (e.g. desk quant, quant trading) in the future, Courant is no doubt your better choice. However, outside of the quant finance world, people would not appreciate the brand name is Courant. Instead, Columbia is more famous in general.

who gives a rat's ass what people think? do you want the best education or whatever the paper say?
Follow what @alain said, if brand name is your only concern, make a list of the most brand name universities out there from your point of view. Also, make a list of the easiest programs to get in those universities, apply to those and you will get your paper with your brand name school

 

[Zhusong Mei]

who gives a rat's ass what people think? do you want the best education or whatever the paper say?
Follow what @alain said, if brand name is your only concern, make a list of the most brand name universities out there from your point of view. Also, make a list of the easiest programs to get in those universities, apply to those and you will get your paper with your brand name school

Thank you for all the replies but I think maybe you are arguing with the wrong person. A good education is actually my only concern, which is why I didn't choose those brand name schools. All I did is to analyze the situation and leave the rest to the person who posted the question.

 

[volmacro]

Again, if the brand name is so important, apply to Harvard in some easy to get program and you will sail through with a Harvard degree. You can't beat that!

Don't understand why you and pingu take a reasonable consideration of name recognition to an unreasonable extreme. You find people who consider brand insufferable to a point that you just dismiss their concern and write it off? No doubt Courant is highly reputable but fact of the matter is that Courant is not known outside of the mathematical academia world and to anybody who hasn't done any research on this stuff, which is probably >99% of people. Not everyone who goes these programs is 100% into just learning math. Each program has its merits and each person has a unique profile. Most may want to be a quant but some also recognize situations change and may find other pursuits they're interested in. You almost place too much confidence on the programs. I have found that aside from highly specialized work, most people from any of these programs can do a majority of the work that the typical graduate is placing into, and learning accelerates on the job. Most programs are good enough. Top concern of everyone else on this thread seems to program quality, brand seems secondary. Only you and pingu seem to be getting out of your seats over brand. By your stretched logic, everybody should only apply to the top program as all other programs are of inferior quality and thus pointless and shouldn't exist.

 

[TehRaio]

a bit of the first world problem here to be honest.
any HR department unaware of NYU brand name is a bad one.
You do not want to work for a company which doesnt know how great NYU business school, economics, math, and computer science departments are. It's simple.

 

[Levine Push]

a bit of the first world problem here to be honest.
any HR department unaware of NYU brand name is a bad one.
You do not want to work for a company which doesnt know how great NYU business school, economics, math, and computer science departments are. It's simple.

That's how I look at it now, and so I've decided to go to NYU. Thank you for the advice.

 

[rnvpx]

a bit of the first world problem here to be honest.
any HR department unaware of NYU brand name is a bad one.
You do not want to work for a company which doesnt know how great NYU business school, economics, math, and computer science departments are. It's simple.

NYU Business School isn't so hot atm. It's ranked approximately #40 in the US

 

[whoisGauss]

NYU Business School isn't so hot atm. It's ranked approximately #40 in the US

Not sure what rankings you are looking at. Stern is consistently top 15 nationwide. The master in mathematical finance is housed in Courant though, which has one of the best applied mathematics departments. I agree with @TehRaio, I wouldn't want to work for a company that thinks NYU is mediocre.

 

[Levine Push]

NYU Business School isn't so hot atm. It's ranked approximately #40 in the US

Stern? I don't think so...

 

[Ken Abbott]

T

That's how I look at it now, and so I've decided to go to NYU. Thank you for the advice.

Be sure to take my risk and regulation classes.

 

[Levine Push]

f

T

Be sure to take my risk and regulation classes.

For sure! looking forward to them

 

[ferarg]

Hi, I've been admitted to both programs and can't seem to reach a decision between them.

Most reviews on MAFN are outdated so would appreciate any advice from recent students. I like the math focus however I see there are no elective courses on Microstructure or programming focused courses in general.
As for Courant, I find the program to be more up to date however employment statistics are a bit worrying and does anyone have any idea why they teach courses in Java instead of C++? Was this a hurdle in your career later?
I believe my top choice would be Columbia MFE but haven't received a reply yet.
Also, any EU students can share a light on brand name if going back to Europe after completing the graduate course? I would expect Columbia to have a bigger brand name outside US however I might be wrong.

Thanks!

 

[Skellam]

Courant. Also, I'd rather trust the tribune in '48 before I trust a poll here.

 

[CourantMathFinance]

I'll make a quick comment about the choice of programming language. This is a question we keep revisiting. The three main choices these days are are C++, Java, and Python. In some of our courses, especially the data ones, students have to use Python and its packages. That is the language students will most likely use in their first jobs. At the other extreme is C++, which used to be the favored language, due to the powerful combination of its language features and speed. Today, this is often not the case. With greater computing power, Java and Python suffice for most quantitative modeling and only the most computational intensive models require the level of optimization provided by C++. For example, many Python packages are in fact coded in C and C++ and therefore will run just as fast as C++ code.

So, in order to serve most of our students best, we now require our students to graduate with experience in writing code in Java and Python. Since there is a lot of overlap between Java and C++, those of you with strong programming skills will have little difficulty making the initial transition from Java to C++. After that, you would learn how to code effectively in modern C++, which is a specialized skill that only a few of you will ever need.

 

[cheron_jrm]

European student here. Even though Columbia may have more « general brand name » whatever that means, I think Courant is well known to be one of the very best math department. With the exposition given nowadays to data science, and the professors in that field at Courant, I think this is not something that may change soon.
As for the programs, as you mentioned NYU mathfin is roughly equivalent to Columbia MFE (preferable if you ask me though), though I think it is superior to Columbia MAFN, which I feel is not as known as the MFE is the industry. If you don’t have a positive answer from Columbia MFE, NYU is a no brainer to me.