CMU MSCF vs. NYU MathFin?

[Junyong Choi]

I am considering enrolling in one of the two programs.

I wish to work as a quant analyst/trader in an investment bank or a hedge fund.
I also wish to work as a HF trader.
I prefer to work in the US, but also don't mind working in Shanghai or in Europe.

I majored in Engineering Physics as an undergrad, and have no work experience other than a 6-month of internship at a trading company.


I don't have much experience with computer programming, so I am leaning towards CMU, where I would be able to strengthen my computer skills the most.

However, I am also attracted to NYU for its small class size and its network with Wall Street.
I also like that NYU is more math-oriented, for I have relative strength in math.


Please tell me what your opinions are.
Thank you!

 

[Dave Lee]

Being NYC will be much easier for you to land a job, since you don't have much work experience. No program will make you become a programmer unless u r a cs major.

 

[ABA]

I am also currently facing the choice between these 2 programs.
I have been selected for NYC campus for CMU.... with the location factor being discounted, what would be the best choice in order to break in quant industry.....

 

[ABA]

@Andy Nguyen, it would be nice to know your take on the strengths of these 2 programs. Thanks!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

@Andy Nguyen, it would be nice to know your take on the strengths of these 2 programs. Thanks!

It's nicely summed up here
https://www.quantnet.com/mfe-programs-rankings/

I would caution that the days of getting a trading jobs are long gone. In fact, graduates from these programs should expect to get more risk management, regulation jobs. I know graduates from these programs turn down such jobs and instead wait for HFT jobs. It's their loss and the program's loss.

On the career support front, CMU MSCF has a more organized structure to support students since they are run by the same business school.

 

[ABA]

How well is NYU Courants Career Services structured? also how strong are there links with NYU Stern in terms of networking...

 

[MNRC]

Being NYC will be much easier for you to land a job, since you don't have much work experience. No program will make you become a programmer unless u r a cs major.

I can say that even I myself (currently a master's in CS student) am not good at programming. A CS degree does not make you good at programming. It gives you the knowledge and resources to become a good programmer, but you have to do the heavy lifting yourself by actually implementing algorithms and data structures in a programming language. And nobody can teach that to you except yourself. The best way to get ready for a technical interview is to have some real world programming projects under your belt. Hackathons, writing your own iOS apps, anything that forces you to actually implement CS concepts in your own applications. In the CS major (or master's degree program) there are some courses that will require you to code data structures and algorithms for homework assignments, but only if you intentionally search those types of courses out. Otherwise CS classes are mostly theory and you're going to graduate a computer scientist that can spout out concepts from relational algebra all day but not be able to program worth a darn, which puts you in the same position as the other students from non-CS programs.

I'm just bitter because I've been learning this the hard way