The opinion posted by [USER=45726]@jarryds[/USER] and [USER=48842]@kayd[/USER] here is quite misleading and full of lies.
1. The AMS program has 0 flexibility ( Even the coordinators and the professors accept it). For example, No course is available for both Fall and Spring semesters which means that you will have to stick to the courses in the sequence recommended on the website. You can't drop courses you don't like and you can't even do any extra course without paying any extra money.
2. Only 3-4 Students to my knowledge have an internship and that internship is definitely not in a hedge fund. ( Let alone everyone receiving 5-8 job offers). I know graduates who have been deported to their home countries and seniors paying extra money to extend their stay to avoid deportation.
3. Few "Billionaires" have questionable competence when it comes to teaching as they only focus on platforms like Mathematica. They don't care enough to conduct in-person lectures and are very inaccessible. You have to get to 100s of people for 1 message to go through.
4. The department is heavily underfunded ( I don't know if they make any money let alone academics emphasizing on it's name and everything). If you are planning a Phd here, your funding may get taken away mid program and the stipend you'll receive will be barely enough to survive let alone eating healthy food or living in a clean apartment.
5. I personally do not want to work at a hedge fund, I want to work at a respectable Investment Bank and have a steadier life but one of the professors told me that like regular courses which offer you opportunities to be skillful for roles like a Credit Analyst, Investment Banker, Financial Analyst etc., this course fails to do so. Let Alone getting an opportunity as a Data Scientist.
6. You don't save a fortune after choosing this university as in regular universities, most people get TA/RA opportunities to offset their living expenses but here even Phd students do 2-3 jobs for one low stipend let alone a masters student getting paid.
7. As an international student, I feel insulted at the career fairs organized by the University as very few companies give F1 Visa sponsorships and there the competition increases even more.
8. Hedge Funds do segregate on the basis of Universities for example, Renaissance Technologies which one of our Faculties is an MD in, doesn't hire people from AMS. Imagine not being able to make your students competent enough to work for your own company in 3 semesters.
9. They don't post the employment statistics because they have nothing to show. Imagine being a Statistics department and not conducting a survey!!
In conclusion, I would like to request people to do their own research in choosing the university and don't make the same mistakes like I did as getting transferred later becomes difficult because even if you are accepted to a good college, they either wont take you in spring or won't transfer enough credits.
Thank you
