Boston University - MS in Mathematical Finance and Financial Technology

Reading reviews varying so wildly can be confusing or discouraging to the reader and thus I feel it necessary to provide a detailed and objective review of the program and my experience thus far.

Let's begin with the facilities here at the school. A challenging program such as this one brings with it a great deal of stress and thus good facilities are a big plus to help with studying. The Questrom building certainly qualifies as a fantastic facility. The ample size, Starbucks located in the building, in house Pardee library, study rooms and student lounges provide a atmosphere conducive to productivity and this is useful in that one does not need to leave the building to conduct long study sessions. I will say however, that the building lacks a large communal area for studying. The lobby has a number of seating options but it is too busy in the lobby in my opinion to conduct productive study. I was recently at Harvard's new law school building. The front area of the building is a large study space that incorporates soft lighting, gas fire places, ample sofas, wood paneling, and aesthetic finishes that make for a fantastic study area. While this certainly is not a large concern area when choosing a program, these small things help throughout the semester and thus I want to detail all aspects to you. BU does have a large library and one can find enjoyable study venues there as well.

Next let's discuss classwork. I notice other reviews speak of how difficult the coursework is and how stressful it is and so forth. Let's be clear, you want challenging coursework! I see very little point in attending school and taking on the time and financial commitments it requires for anything less than coursework that pushes your mind to a new plateau. The fundamental difference between undergraduate and graduate studies is that in graduate school, the answer to a problem may come in several forms and is most often not readily available or straightforward. Problems in the professional world cannot be solved by simply reading a page or two out of a textbook. They require perseverance and deeper understanding of the material, that is what graduate school aims to emulate. Understand clearly that taking on very difficult coursework not only benefits you in the short term by improvement your mental capabilities, but also is excellent preparation for the rigors of the financial industry. So when you see comments of difficult coursework, welcome it with open arms!

Continuing with classwork, this year was the first year of the new curriculum. The compressed schedule of 2 classes every 8 weeks has been changed to the normal 4 classes for a full semester. This is great and will allow you more time to soak the concepts in. In previous reviews there are mentions of not enough time to complete tasks or the load is too bearing. I cannot comment on those statements as they were made under the old structure of the curriculum, but I confidently say that under the new structure you have enough time to do well if you manage your time well.

Onto to the professors. Let's begin with Andrew Lyasoff as he has received some undue criticism on this review feed. Lyasoff is one of the best professors you will ever have. I guarantee it. You will struggle to find another professor who knows his field as well as he does and is as committed to your success as he is. He holds office hours twice a week with the mantra 'I will hold office hours as long as you need'. He often held 3 hour sessions on Sunday as well. I challenge one to find a more dedicated professor. Having said that, his coursework is highly theoretical and very challenging. But this is a good thing! He challenges students to grow academically and if you respond positively to this, you will find it a rewarding experience. There is the drawback that if you are not seeking to be a true quant, theoretical work in stochastic methods is unlikely to be seen in your career. Thus the only negative thing I would say of his class is that it lacks practical application in certain areas. But again, if enjoy the field of math finance and want to be challenged, you will enjoy his class thoroughly.

The statistics professor is Eric Jacquier. A previous review mentions his lectures are incoherent. This is false. Simply put, pay attention in class, take notes and ask questions and you will learn plenty in his class. Another mention was of difficulty to understand his accent. Perhaps I have super hearing but I have not once thought he was challenging to understand. Additionally, he is a pleasant person and enjoyable as a professor. Jacquier's tests are challenging so be prepared for that.

Gustavo Schwenkler is the finance professor in the first semester. I do not have too much to say on this course other than it is well organized, Gustavo knows his material well, homework assignments are practical, tests are not easy but follow the coursework. There is perhaps too much focus on options throughout the course. In addition he grade deflates as mentioned in a further paragraph.

Last is the c++ course. This has been taught by the Executive Director A.Namini. Namini has however, accepted a position as a CTO at a hedge fund in Boston and thus will not be teaching the c++ course in the Fall of 2016. I cannot provide any useful information for prospective students for this class as I do not know who will be teaching this class in the Fall. On the class itself however, very useful class and the projects were extremely insightful and I learned a massive amount from working through the projects.

My only complaint on the coursework is that I think the program should be 2 years long. Given the complexity of the work, I believe students would come out the program as stronger candidates if the extra semester was present. I think that schools with a 2 year math finance program have a great advantage over BU in this regard.

Next on my list is to address grade deflation. Grading in my year has been very fair with exception to G.Schwenkler. If individuals who mentioned grade deflation were referring to a graduate school not just handing grades all B or B+ and above, that is not grade deflation. It is important to maintain a reputation with employers that when they see a GPA of 3.5 or above, they know this student really knows his/her stuff. Having said that, it is also incorrect to 'block grade' students. That is, pre-assign a certain number of grades before the class has even begun. Schwenkler's method guarantees that 25% of the class get a b- and only 10 out of almost 100 students get an A. Most graduate schools don't even accept grades below a B, so to grade this way reflects very poorly on the student in an interview or the like.

Next is the pre-requisites list. I think that the list is missing a couple of items. The list should include real analysis, a full semester of computer programming, measure/set theory. If you can do these before the program it will help quite a bit. However, many students have not done these and if you haven't you still have the tools you need to succeed. These extra classes will just make certain concepts easier to absorb the first time around.

Lastly is the admin staff. They are awesome! Whitney is the assistant director and adviser to the MSMF students and she is great. Always willing to help and organizes a lot of fun things for the students to do. The career adviser is Cris Nigro and she is great too. She will be there to help you through the career search process and I have found her advice to be very useful. She also sends out resume books to employers which create opportunities for students. Thus far, of the things I know about, a couple students got interviews within the first 2 months of the program, some got contacted by Goldman Sachs, and other by State Street as a result of her networking. Of course the school does not have the connections that Ivy schools have, but BU alumni are all over Boston and there are many opportunities out there.

So, there you have the scoop. I think this has been a great learning experience and I am happy I attended. If you approach this with the attitude of gleaning as much as you can and making the most of every opportunity, I think you will be too.

Great program, very though content. If you go to BU you should prepare to study hard. Also be patient as most of the applicable courses are towards the end of the program. Many people get good positions at good companies, although many have to settle for jobs they don't like a lot. I feel mostly the people that cared about learning got better placed, my guess is that is an effect from being able to speak much more intelligently about finance in an interview.

I feel most of the professors did a great job. They are very accessible and know very well the content of their classes. They also care about students learning well the content of the courses.

Living in Boston is great and good friendships are built during the program. Expect to always have your hands full studying and try to have one or two nights a week to grab a drink with friends.

I would sum up the masters as follows:
First semester: Introduction courses, mostly you will deal with learning stochastics and being introduced to math finance.
Second semester: half and half, still you are learning math tools but finally you are starting to go into applications by studying fixed income and computational methods.
Third semester: applications learning. Some of them are more abstract than the others, but it will build a good mind set. Sadly though many people don't take advantage of the content as they are much more preoccupied of getting a full time offer.

I would recommend this masters. The pros are the professors and the content, if you care about learning be assured that you will learn a lot. The cons would be not the best placements and I would have wished it was more computational.