Self-Study > MFE/CQF for Quant Finance (For some people)

[Jim]

MFE: $45,000+
CQF: $20,000 (Shipping & Handling, etc. included)

This is a very stiff price to pay for a future PhD student interested in studying quant finance. Also, the Columbia Video Network charges a whopping $4,000 per course that's online. I'm not trying to rip on the value of the MFE/CQF/CVN. Especially the MFE, since I personally believe that students are pretty much paying for the career services and reputation of the school.

But when I take a look at the Master Reading list, there are so many books that I could buy for self-study! Instead of paying $20,000 for the CQF, which would only give me an "introduction" to quant finance, I could spend just $5,000 on buying all the books and educational materials that I need in order to obtain that knowledge.

With quant finance education becoming increasingly commoditized, I'm hoping that more and more quant finance material will become available in the near future.

-Can somebody please describe to me the benefits of receiving formal education in quant finance (compared to self-study)?
-Are there certain aspects of quant finance that cannot be taught through books? or... are a lot of the material covered in MFE programs not available on books?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Would you be interested in some MFE program putting their materials online for free?

Most MFE programs are run like for-profit universities where warning signs are all over the place.

On the other hand, at good programs where education is taken seriously, you build a lot of valuable relationship which will last throughout your career. People you take classes with, your teachers who are practitioners and potential employers, people you meet at conference.
You can study at home with books from our Master Reading list but you have to get out there to get a job.
When you stuck with a question/concept, who will help you understand?

 

[Jim]

Thanks Andy:D

So I take it that publicly available educational material is incomplete (Unlike fields such as Accounting). But as a PhD student who might be interested in pursuing a quant job, how much "quant finance" knowledge is expected? Is the stuff that I can get from books with no "work experience" enough (well I assume it "can be" but my question is, is it "usually" enough?)?