Here's what I got from my questions
1. Expected class sizes are 25-30;
2. They're expecting that the fall will be in person, but have not yet decided so as to maintain flexibility. Likely there will be some sort of social distancing, but the worst case scenario is hybrid with alternating days in class. In the spring when they get the new facilities they expect everyone to be in person
3. Regarding transitioning to ML roles in non-finance fields --> program helps by giving options to take PhD CS/ML courses, but these students got their jobs primarily because of their pre-existing CS backgrounds
4. In semester internships - they prefer it if these take up 1-2 days tops during the week; During covid this was suspended, expect it to be back the upcoming spring/summer. Working with hedge funds / prop shops can sometimes snow ball into a bigger workload (one student worked at millenium, went from 1->3 days and ended up having less time for school work); prefer it if students do not do it during first semester
5. Students with strong experience in some of the coursework can be exempted and substitute different classes (i.e. CS undergraduates / students with strong work experience in computing can skip the first semester computing course potentially)
6. Covid did not have much of an impact on ability to do research for those who were interested in pursuing it, did have an impact on recruiting because fall semester was slower than expected
7. if you want to transition to a PhD at columbia, you'll have to apply with the general pool, though they'll probably give you an informal evaluation earlier so you'll know what your chances are going into the admissions cycle (means you can also apply to other programs). Main advantage you have is that you've taken the coursework, so depending on your performance + research it will be clear if you're well suited
8. 80-90% of the students in the program that pursue PhDs go to Finance PhDs, some students go to other fields. That being said, very few students pursue PhDs as most students discover they prefer industry
9. There's a pre-term bootcamp which can largely be exempted from if you're coming from the workforce
10. 2 half term courses = 1 graduate course for the 16 course requirement
11. Because of program flexibility, you could technically do a majority of the CS masters your first/second year as well and maybe graduate with both degrees in 2-3 years, though you need to apply for the CS masters independently. Mentioned that a joint CS-Finance masters may be coming soon.
I discussed a couple of other things, but figured these are general things that would be helpful for everyone. I am strongly leaning towards going pending some open questions I've got for them, but overall I do think this program is a good fit for someone with some pre-existing work experience looking to grow themselves in a number of different directions. I do think this program is stronger than both UChicago and MIT as suggested by
@Zelong Qiu if you're looking to grow as a reseacher from a theoretical perspective (vs practical) and /or have inter-discplinary interests and/or already have a foot in the door in finance. Both UChicago and MIT are intended primarily for students looking to break into the US financial industry (hence why both programs are primarily comprised of international students with < 1.5 years of work experience on average)
