2011-2012 Quantnet Ranking of Financial Engineering (MFE) Programs

[didje]

How should I feel if the MFE I want to apply to is not ranked here ?

 

[Connor]

An addition I'd like to see, that FT does with its rankings, is have a column with the previous ranking (so in this case column 1 is 2011 ranking and column 2 is 2009 ranking) to allow easy tracking of changes in ranking.

 

[Sherlock]

How should I feel if the MFE I want to apply to is not ranked here ?

People from the top 10 schools in this ranking find it hard to find a job so think about it.Still I am sure if you are good enough you will find a job - this is the ultimate goal after all, right? I know people here hate what I am going to say but I believe it really is still true - the name of the university counts

 

[Connor]

How should I feel if the MFE I want to apply to is not ranked here ?

Depends on your background, situation and the program you want to apply to but in general concerned would be a good feeling to have. If your program is not on this list then you may find it more difficult to get a job in a major financial center.

 

[bigbadwolf]

How should I feel if the MFE I want to apply to is not ranked here ?

Take these rankings with a pinch of salt. Ultimately you have to decide on what you are going to get out of a particular program and whether your cost-benefit analysis of the program makes it worthwhile -- or whether the cost-benefit analysis of some other program also willing to accept you makes more sense. These rankings are meant only to be guidelines. For any program examine the course content, placement figures, and tuition for yourself.

 

[Lyosha]

Seem reasonable.

 

[TBeas]

What are some reasons that a program might not be ranked?

 

[Lyosha]

there are a great deal of schools that were left out of that list and it seems inaccurate to me

You mean Stony Brook and Buffalo?

 

[TraderJoe]

You mean Stony Brook and Buffalo?

Clearly SUNY-Buffalo should be ranked # 1 and SUNY-Stony Brook should be ranked #2. These rankings must be wrong. How can Princeton be ranked above SUNY-Buffalo and SUNY-Stony Brook?

 

[bigbadwolf]

What are some reasons that a program might not be ranked?

Poor quality?

 

[koupparis]

No response to inquiries sent out to amass data for rankings?

 

[Eugene Krel]

definitely a big improvement over 2009 in terms of methodology.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

In the interest of full disclose, the MFE programs participated in our 2011 ranking survey with an understanding that the data they submit will not be made public in the ranking, either aggregate or program specific. It will only be used to produce a partial score on which the ranking will be based.

So no, we will not release any data we have collected from the programs as well as from hiring managers.

If you are a current student or alumni of any MFE program, I invite you to take the initiative and ask your program to be more open and transparent in making the data available on their website. Not only it will help applicants make better decisions, it also will encourage more programs to open up. Only then, we will be able to publish the data in our future rankings.

 

[Joy Pathak]

The methodology definitely is a huge improvement and seems relatively fair. Going forward hopefully programs can provide more data and the methodology can be refined even further.

 

[CN Chen]

In the interest of full disclose, the MFE programs participated in our 2011 ranking survey with an understanding that the data they submit will not be made public in the ranking, either aggregate or program specific. It will only be used to produce a partial score on which the ranking will be based.

So no, we will not release any data we have collected from the programs as well as from hiring managers.

If you are a current student or alumni of any MFE program, I invite you to take the initiative and ask your program to be more open and transparent in making the data available on their website. Not only it will help applicants make better decisions, it also will encourage more programs to open up. Only then, we will be able to publish the data in our future rankings.

I think the ranking methodology is much better than the 2009 version. Thanks, Andy for putting this together. In terms of transparency, would it be too much trouble to re-index the top program's score to 100 and work down from there? That way we can see what the separation is between each ranking slot. Also I'm curious, how close do the scores have to be to warrant a tie?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I'm curious, how close do the scores have to be to warrant a tie?

The tie is determined after the final scores were rounded up to the nearest integer. To warrant a tie, two programs need to have identical final score.

http://www.quantnet.com/2011-mfe-programs-rankings-methodology/
Overall score/rank

• A score for each program is accumulated from the points in each category multiplied by the category’s assigned weighted average. A 5% bonus was awarded to the score for each of the 19 programs who responded to the survey. The final scores were rounded to the nearest integer. A tie is determined if any two or more programs have the same final score.

 

[fallingleaf]

I wonder if Baruch does not advertise here and Andy did not graduate from that program, will Baruch still rank this high? Who would choose Baruch over Berkeley or Stanford if they are admitted to both programs?

 

[atreides]

I wonder if Baruch does not advertise here and Andy did not graduate from that program, will Baruch still rank this high? Who would choose Baruch over Berkeley or Stanford if they are admitted to both programs?

It seems the ranking was done based on the data provided. One thing I'd like to know is who responded and who didn't

 

[koupparis]

Emalu, doesn't every ranking have doubtable data accuracy? Andy "heard it from the horse's mouth", it can't be that skewed can it? Would you like him to produce sworn testimonies and/or notarized statements?

Subjective weighting? I didn't realize there was a universal standard to conducting rankings, let alone MFE rankings. Please provide Andy with the references and I'm sure he'd oblige and recalculate the rankings.

Remember nobody is perfect and this is by no means a be all end all ranking. There is room for improvement, but compared to the next best thing (which is?) this is an incredible ranking attempt.

You may have some valid points hidden in your post, but you failed to demonstrate any clearly, professionally or objectively.

 

[bansalmohit]

This Andy Nguyen is a joke.

Let me just point out one thing:

Using this guy's funny methodology, we can easily rank any good headhunter on the street a better MFE program than any school on the list: just pick up candidates with high GPA/GRE and place them all with high first year pay, and DONE, you are now a TOP MFE program!!

Don't forget what you're trying to rank are progams in schools.

Any MFE rank that is not totally insane should place a high emphasis on the course setting/quality of teaching. However, Mr.Nugyen's "rank" totally ignored it.

This is major failing, and should keep us from viewing it as a resoanable rank. So I don't even need to point out other problems it has, i.e. doubtable data accuracy, subjective weighting, etc.

I suggest that Mr. Nguyen should go and try to find a real job. Probably not a too quantitaive one though. I wouldn't suggest any financial institute to hire any quant modeling like this. LOL

Atleast he is going a lot for the community. What are you doing? Sitting in your mothers basement and crying like a baby. Go call your mother if your university was not ranked.

I am not in any of the ranked universities but i will apply for Fall 2012 and appreciate greatly what Andy has done. I can only think of one thing for you: Old Stale Fart