Go Blue!
What do you think is unique about this program?
Electives are the first big plus. Students have plenty of opportunities to branch out beyond the core requirements. I used this as a chance to load up on Ross courses and differentiate myself from students in other programs.
The professors are also a differentiating factor. The program director teaches the introductory options class and is outstanding at engaging the class while forcing us to think critically about the material. The computational finance professor is equally stellar, covering an absurd amount of material but presenting it a clear concise manner. By the end of the course we were able to code numerous option-pricing and interest rate models from scratch. Another standout is the numerical methods professor, a local quant hedge fund manager aware of the latest changes in the field. It is not uncommon for a quick conversation with him outside of class to turn into an hour-long discussion on the latest methods and computing techniques.
The university's brand name is another great resource. Michigan has a much stronger reputation on Wall Street than schools like Baruch, UCB, and UCLA. This couples nicely with the school's unusually responsive alumni network. There are therefore lots of opportunities to gain access to firms and positions that don't follow traditional recruiting patterns. This, in my opinion, is one the the biggest advantages of the program. However, the onus is on the student to tap this resource.
What are the weakest points about this program?
Career services without a doubt. Students are pretty much responsible for their own fate. We have access to the College of Engineering, Ross School of Business, and LSA career websites. Since Michigan is a top ten school for engineering, math, and business there are lots of jobs on these boards unavailable to other MFE programs. The downside is they are not specific to MFEs, so we often compete with other majors or are barred from applying. However, it is possible to network your way around these application barriers.
Career services
Like I said above, there are no MFE-specific career services. Most interviews come from the engineering school which is a target for many trading firms including Chicago Trading Company, Wolverine, Optiver, Getco, DRW, TransMarket, Spot, Jump, Chopper, and Belvedere. Larger firms like American Express, BlackRock, Citi, Bank of America, and JPMorgan recruit quants from there too. The Ross career website posts lots of finance opportunities as well and is frequented by all the Wall Street firms. This is how I got placed.
Internship placement for summer 2012 was around 75-80%, but I do not know the full-time figures. I'm unaware of anyone who didn't receive at least one interview. Most people I know had several with some getting more than you can count on both hands. As far as the program goes, pretty much everyone gets interviews. How they perform after that is up to them. Most of the class seems happy with their placement. The people in my study group were placed in trading or risk management roles at companies like American Express, Bank of America, Chicago Trading Company, and Transmarket. I will be trading structured credit at a bank (GS/MS/JPM).
Student body
My year was about 70% Chinese, 25% Indian, 5% other.
This review was submitted anonymously
