Masters in Financial Engineering

J

JesseLivermore2

Hi All,

I'm new to this site. I'm interested in pursuing Masters in Financial Engineering. Can folks with experience in the industry please comment if it is better to do it in a US or UK/Europe school?

Here is the list of schools that I have compiled based on certain personal preferences.
1.UC Berkeley
2. Columbia University, NY
3. New York University
4. Cornell
5. University of Chicago
5. Baruch: Cuny
6. Cass school of Business: City University UK
7. Imperial College UK
8. Warwick UK
9. HEC Paris
10. London school of Economics UK

I need help in rankings these schools based on their program rating, career placement etc

What are prospects after completing the program?
What is the realistic salary range one should expect after completing the program? eg Berkeley lists an average salary of about $95000 and bonus $35000 for the 2009 class, prior years were modestly better.

Background :
Degree in Electrical Engineering, MBA form highly reputable schools with excellent GPA
3 years work experience in software industry(programmer), 2 years in Solution Marketing, 2 years as Independent trader
Scheduled to take CFA 1 and CMT 1 in December

Post MFE want to work fulltime as a trader with a bigger firm for a few years.
 
Quote from JesseLivermore2:

Hi All,

I'm new to this site. I'm interested in pursuing Masters in Financial Engineering. Can folks with experience in the industry please comment if it is better to do it in a US or UK/Europe school?

Here is the list of schools that I have compiled based on certain personal preferences.
1.UC Berkeley
2. Columbia University, NY
3. New York University
4. Cornell
5. University of Chicago
5. Baruch: Cuny
6. Cass school of Business: City University UK
7. Imperial College UK
8. Warwick UK
9. HEC Paris
10. London school of Economics UK

I need help in rankings these schools based on their program rating, career placement etc

What are prospects after completing the program?
What is the realistic salary range one should expect after completing the program? eg Berkeley lists an average salary of about $95000 and bonus $35000 for the 2009 class, prior years were modestly better.

Background :
Degree in Electrical Engineering, MBA form highly reputable schools with excellent GPA
3 years work experience in software industry(programmer), 2 years in Solution Marketing, 2 years as Independent trader
Scheduled to take CFA 1 and CMT 1 in December

Post MFE want to work fulltime as a trader with a bigger firm for a few years.
More...

I would only say, that most of the people here probably have no clue about what to say to this, so make sure if you get answers, that you double check before banking your future on it.

Before countingh your $95,000 plus bonus, are you ready to work 12 hours a day, every day for the next 5-10 years? Also, after the financial collapse, I just don't know if the world you are expecting exists anymore. The financial industry has let a lot of people go, and a lot of the work is rapidly going offshore even high-level positions. Many of them are opening huge "research" efforts in India and other countries.

Further, before "compiling your list" of schools, I would say you may find you don't even get in. Be prepared to apply to quite a number and get rejected by all/most.
 
I am having a good laugh. OP wants to do finengg from top schools and his name is Jesse Livermore - what a contrast. FinEnggs quantify a lot of things, whereas Jesse used to be seat of the pants trader initially (agreed - he used to read tape though, which is essentially taking super quick trading decisions).

Btw, OP I am curious to know as an independent trader how much u made for last 2 yrs, also it will be nice if u can give me a chart of monthly % and actual profits for 2 yrs - so basically a bar chart with 24 bars approx. Also, what did u trade and what is your citizenship ?

Why should you tell me all this ? Because I can give you some well thought out advice looking at your past performance; having 'Been there, done that'.

Good Luck!
 
TraderZones- Thank you very much for your reply. While it is not very exciting to work long hours, I have worked 10+ hour jobs before while juggling other responsibilities and making $90,000+ bonus and benefits. I was just asking to check the validity of the claim made by UC Berkeley as they provide the most information of all the schools that I researched. I understand compiling list doesn't gaurantee me a seat at any of the schools but I need to start somewhere. I might or might not get accepted into any or all of the aforementioned schools but there is no harm in trying. Worse that can happen is they will deny my application.

Traderhf: Glad I could make you laugh and thank you for offering to give me some well thought out advice on my past performance. However, I'm not too worried about my past. I'm looking to do something with my future and hence exploring areas that I have interest in. I will be sure to contact you if I need help analyzing my past performance.
 
No, you didn't get the reason of me asking for your past performance. I am not going to analyze your past performance for you. You are smart enough to do it yourself.

I would have rather given you some feedback abt finengg in general and as to how finengg from a top school can get you closer to your goals. Thats why I asked what instrument etc. you traded. Been There done that referred to finengg + trading. In case you ****ed up in trading for last 2 yrs, you don't have to be ashamed about it. Its normal! Anyways your choice if you want to share info or not.
 
Has anyone here actually done an MFE ?

If so did it help in the real world of trading?

ie can you make real & consistent money in the markets from what you learnt (as opposed to salary & bonus etc) ?

Be interested to hear your experiences
 
I have a Masters in Computational Finance, which comes very, very close to an MFE. To get into these programs you need to be extremely good at mathematics, programming, and get a killer GMAT or GRE score. And as to whether it helped in the world of trading? The markets are nothing more than a non-stationary, infinite time series and that's precisely what you will study in this program so in a word, yes.

I would recommend to the OP that he get as much experience/education in C++ and statistics as possible before applying to these schools. TraderZones brought up an extremely interesting point. The field you are looking at may not exist the way it did prior to 2007 but that doesn't mean you can't be successful in this business. There's no reason you can't start your own business with this sort of education. The thing that concerns me the most about entering a program like this is chatter about things like 1/4% transaction taxes. Make sure you assess all your threats before you commit 100's of thousands and 2+ years of your life.

Quote from mbbcat:

Has anyone here actually done an MFE ?

If so did it help in the real world of trading?

ie can you make real & consistent money in the markets from what you learnt (as opposed to salary & bonus etc) ?

Be interested to hear your experiences
More...
 
you forgot MSCF at CMU, in my opinion the best program out there but possibly the most expensive as well.

Dont listen to day traders and other wannabes here, if you are willing to put in the work, effort and time (12 hours are regular days for me, if not more, am PM now as part of a prop setup). PM me if you want more info on CMU's program, I know it very well.



Quote from JesseLivermore2:

TraderZones- Thank you very much for your reply. While it is not very exciting to work long hours, I have worked 10+ hour jobs before while juggling other responsibilities and making $90,000+ bonus and benefits. I was just asking to check the validity of the claim made by UC Berkeley as they provide the most information of all the schools that I researched. I understand compiling list doesn't gaurantee me a seat at any of the schools but I need to start somewhere. I might or might not get accepted into any or all of the aforementioned schools but there is no harm in trying. Worse that can happen is they will deny my application.

Traderhf: Glad I could make you laugh and thank you for offering to give me some well thought out advice on my past performance. However, I'm not too worried about my past. I'm looking to do something with my future and hence exploring areas that I have interest in. I will be sure to contact you if I need help analyzing my past performance.
More...
 
i could not disagree more, the demand for quant traders and quant strategists is higher than ever. You may want to be a little flexible when it comes to location, there is a reason Asia has become the number one priority for pretty much any global investment bank over the past 2-3 years.

Quote from the1:

I have a Masters in Computational Finance, which comes very, very close to an MFE. To get into these programs you need to be extremely good at mathematics, programming, and get a killer GMAT or GRE score. And as to whether it helped in the world of trading? The markets are nothing more than a non-stationary, infinite time series and that's precisely what you will study in this program so in a word, yes.

I would recommend to the OP that he get as much experience/education in C++ and statistics as possible before applying to these schools. TraderZones brought up an extremely interesting point. The field you are looking at may not exist the way it did prior to 2007 but that doesn't mean you can't be successful in this business. There's no reason you can't start your own business with this sort of education. The thing that concerns me the most about entering a program like this is chatter about things like 1/4% transaction taxes. Make sure you assess all your threats before you commit 100's of thousands and 2+ years of your life.
More...
 
You may be right Asia. I don't work in the industry anymore. I'm self employed so you would probably know better. I suppose if the market is open there is a need for quants whether the market goes up or down, and regardless of whether the middle class becomes richer or poorer. The market is not a poor man's game. Good luck to the OP. I see no reason you shouldn't go for it.

Quote from asiaprop:

i could not disagree more, the demand for quant traders and quant strategists is higher than ever. You may want to be a little flexible when it comes to location, there is a reason Asia has become the number one priority for pretty much any global investment bank over the past 2-3 years.
More...
 
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