COMPARE BU MSMF vs Rutgers MQF

[Clark Henry]

tl;dr - "Which program has better math and programming? Which city is better for aspiring FO quants?"

The cost is comparable, but I'm not too concerned with that anyway. I just want the best program for me in order to reach my goals.

I've been reaching out to the schools. Still, I would appreciate advice, especially from people who either have first hand or second hand knowledge of their curriculum, and the knowledge about the industry in Boston vs New York. I think the investment community can provide better advice about careers in those cities as opposed to career placement staff. I'm not knowledgeable about it myself.


My Background:

B.S. in Finance. CFA Level 3 Candidate. 4 years work experience as financial analyst in retail firm. So, no real relevant experience. Been trading equities in personal account for 8 years. Took C++ online course on this site, and completed typical math prereqs for grad programs, but I lack as extensive a math background as many applicants, since I was a Finance major. So, my finance is really strong, but no finance experience. My math grades are good, but I don't have a ton of math classes like engineers or applied math majors. I've been using MATLAB in college and C++ for the Baruch online pre-MFE program. No further programming experience. What I lack in formal math and programming experience and education, I make up for with a passion for TRADING!


My Objective:
Always wanted to get into trading. I'd like to get as close to a front-office quant as possible, or portfolio manager. I know front-office positions are highly competitive, so I'm interested in perhaps risk management or model validation type positions in the back-office right out of college. I want to be in a highly technical, fast paced position utilizing a great deal of programming.


I'm looking for the program with stronger math and programming classes. But, I also want to weight that against the job markets in Boston vs Manhattan for the type of positions I seek.

Are there any current or former Boston MSMF or Rutgers MQF students? Or has anyone spoken or worked with students from these programs? Boston seems stronger in math, particularly stochastics and optimization. I'm concerned whether their time series curriculum is strong enough. MQF seems a little more finance focused, but offers time series electives and seems to have many programming classes.

Also, which city is better for my career objectives?

Thank you!

 

[diegosanaz]

I spoke to a girl that graduated from BU in 2010, so the program was the same as it is right now except with a different director. She chose that program over CMU and NYU because she was offered an extremly generous scolarship from BU and her plans were to return to Mexico, were there are not many quant qualified people, so school brand does not matter much at the moment (I still would have chosen NYU).

She said that there are not many buy-side oriented classes. There is an elective taken in Saturdays that the school director gives on the third trimester (Quantitative investment strategies) and also Portfolio Theory from the 5th. But other stuff are taught in other course that can be usefull.

In placement, she said is good, but BU students dont get into top firms like Goldman or Morgan Stanley.

I have no idea about MQF, but good luck with your decision.

 

[Clark Henry]

Nobody can even comment about whether NY or Boston would be a better place for quant traders?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You will get a slight NYC bias here as most of us work in the tri-state area
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/finding-quant-job-in-boston-a-new-yorker-story.10017/

 

[diegosanaz]

The only problem I see with Rutgers MQF is that it competes with many programs: NYU, Columbia MFE, Columbia MAFN, Baruch MFE and CMU MSCF. In addition to Rutgers MSMF and now Rutgers MS FSRM. I believe many BU students are getting Boston based positions.

 

[Clark Henry]

You will get a slight NYC bias here as most of us work in the tri-state area
https://www.quantnet.com/threads/finding-quant-job-in-boston-a-new-yorker-story.10017/

Thanks, Andy. I've read this several times. It has great info about living in Boston. What I can gather from the article is that

Boston has a huge concentration of institutional money managers, whereas... New York has hedge funds, sales and trading and prop traders.

Does that mean the kind of quant trader jobs I seek are not abundant in Boston?

 

[Clark Henry]

The only problem I see with Rutgers MQF is that it competes with many programs: NYU, Columbia MFE, Columbia MAFN, Baruch MFE and CMU MSCF. In addition to Rutgers MSMF and now Rutgers MS FSRM. I believe many BU students are getting Boston based positions.

Doesn't NY have considerably more positions?

Also, in Boston, aren't I competing with MIT MFin and now Harvard CSE students? That's tough competition.

 

[kevinxu]

Doesn't NY have considerably more positions?

Also, in Boston, aren't I competing with MIT MFin and now Harvard CSE students? That's tough competition.

It's great to find a similar peer as you according to the UG background and work experience, as well as the career goal.
I have asked the admission officer of MQF Rutgers, the reply was not cheerful because she said C++ or other programming language grade shown on the transcript is required(mandatory). And I specifically mentioned Pre-MFE C++ certificate from Baruch, she just said no. Did you take any programming language classes in college?
Thanks.

 

[Clark Henry]

Hi kevinxu. I haven't taken any programming classes in college. My only formal programming training was this Pre-MFE C++ certificate from Baruch.

After submitting my MQF application, they quickly scheduled an interview with one of their professors. He asked about my programming experience. I dropped a few C++ buzzwords during the interview, "operator overloading, polymorphism, templates, STL, Boost, Monte Carlo, etc." The interviewer was impressed. It was not a technical interview at all.

They offered admission shortly afterwards. I have to say, they really didn't hassle me about my programming background, which is not very extensive. I'm sorry to hear that your experience has been different. Also, I never asked whether the certificate would be good enough, instead of classes in college.

 

[kevinxu]

Hi kevinxu. I haven't taken any programming classes in college. My only formal programming training was this Pre-MFE C++ certificate from Baruch.

After submitting my MQF application, they quickly scheduled an interview with one of their professors. He asked about my programming experience. I dropped a few C++ buzzwords during the interview, "operator overloading, polymorphism, templates, STL, Boost, Monte Carlo, etc." The interviewer was impressed. It was not a technical interview at all.

They offered admission shortly afterwards. I have to say, they really didn't hassle me about my programming background, which is not very extensive. I'm sorry to hear that your experience has been different. Also, I never asked whether the certificate would be good enough, instead of classes in college.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I wish I could see this earlier. Maybe my lesson learned is I just have to skip the AO chatting and simply apply.

 

[Mayank.S]

Can anyone throw some light on the job opportunities after both these programs? BU has their placement stats on their website. But I could not find anything on the Rutgers' website. If someone could provide even the rough stats, it'd be great. Also, I had a chat with a Rutgers MQF student. He was pretty disappointed with the whole career service of Rutgers Business School and told me that there are a handful of students who have got placed in his batch, making the number even lesser than the previous year.

Regards!