Imperial RMFE vs EPFL MFE

[JonBrody]

I have recently received offers for the master's programs Risk Management & Financial Engineering at Imperial College and EPFL Financial Engineering and am looking for advice as to what to pick. If anyone has experience with or knowledge about these programs, please feel free to offer me your advice.

EPFL MFE:
* 2 years long (1,5 years + 6 month internship)
*Lausanne, Switzerland
*Almost free (roughly 1500 dollars per year)
*Average salary after graduation: 104000 dollars (according to Risk.net)
Smaller finance sector in Switzerland, also not sure how competitive I will be in Switzerland or London should I choose to apply there as well.

Imperial College RMFE:
*1 year (10 months)
*London
* 51000 dollars tuition
*Average salary after graduation: 42000 dollars (according to Risk.net)
The London finance sector is definitely larger than the one in Switzerland, and I'm assuming this program will put me on the map for the companies there. I am however unsure how competitive I will be against MathFin, Oxford, and LSE students.

What program should I pick and why?

Additional question: I cannot find the salary data anywhere else, are the figures form Risk.net reliable? According to the site, Mathfin students make around 120000 dollars post-graduation. Shouldn't RMFE students be at least in the ballpark of that?

 

[aleewdewx]

which nationality are you? ( visa rules can be quiet tough in Switzerland)

 

[JonBrody]

which nationality are you? ( visa rules can be quiet tough in Switzerland)

I am from a nordic country, so EU citizen.

 

[aleewdewx]

that's good ! I would still advise Imperial RMFE, I know people who did both programs and thought they had more opportunities after Imperial RMFE, they also seemed to have ended up in more front offices role than EPFL.

I am from a nordic country, so EU citizen.

 

[JonBrody]

that's good ! I would still advise Imperial RMFE, I know people who did both programs and thought they had more opportunities after Imperial RMFE, they also seemed to have ended up in more front offices role than EPFL.

Thanks a lot for the tip, sounds like I should go for Imperial!
Would the fact that I have no previous internships in finance change your mind or do you still think I should go for RMFE? Is it hard to get a job if you don't have any previous experience or do they mainly look at other factors when assessing you? I'm asking since EPFL would give me another summer plus the 6-month internship to gather experience if that is important when seeking employment.

 

[Soccent]

If those salary figures are correct, the Imperial Program must be the Rodney Daingerfield of quant programs. Middling BAs get more than $42,000. I would verify that figure before I commit to Imperial. If that is an accurate figure, I would definitely go to EPFL. $42,000 indicates that the RMFE does not get any respect.

 

[aleewdewx]

If those salary figures are correct, the Imperial Program must be the Rodney Daingerfield of quant programs. Middling BAs get more than $42,000. I would verify that figure before I commit to Imperial. If that is an accurate figure, I would definitely go to EPFL. $42,000 indicates that the RMFE does not get any respect.

you need to take geography into account, many people at Imperial college master are of Asian origin and go back to Asia to work where salaries are much lower, most people at epfl master are European and stay in Switzerland to work, you'll see that in switzerland average salary for someone who just graduated from life science is 75 000, for chemistry 80 000, for civil engineering 83 000, while average salary for those job is more around 35k in the UK so you need to take geographical salary disparity and purchasing power in account, a cashier in Switzerland is already paid more than 3500 per month , if you go and work in Switzerland with an imperial degree of course the salary would be similar or higher than the average one reported by epfl

 

[aleewdewx]

If those salary figures are correct, the Imperial Program must be the Rodney Daingerfield of quant programs. Middling BAs get more than $42,000. I would verify that figure before I commit to Imperial. If that is an accurate figure, I would definitely go to EPFL. $42,000 indicates that the RMFE does not get any respect.

to give you another example EPFL average salary straight after graduation without degree distinction is 86 000, while 1.5 years after graduation it's 41 600 at Oxford University, so more than double 1.5 years in advance, but if you were admitted at both would you choose EPFL over Oxford ?

 

[Soccent]

Do you know for a fact that most grads of EPFL MFE are European. I am a first year in the UZH ETH (yes, that's right UZH ETH program, not the ETH program, but that talk is for later) in QF and around half the class is Asian. I doubt that EPFL has a much different student body. If you consider all the economics/ business masters programs at UZH, Asian probably are a solid majority.

Anyhow, that "many" people who are Asian at RMFE would have to be almost the entire cohort to bring a salary which would otherwise be 100k down to 42k. Suppose you have 100 grads from RMFE. Some make 100k, the rest make 30k. To get an average down to 42k, roughly only 17% would make 100k and 83% would make 30k. According to your thesis, around 83% would be Asians who took jobs in Asia.

 

[Soccent]

to give you another example EPFL average salary straight after graduation without degree distinction is 86 000, while 1.5 years after graduation it's 41 600 at Oxford University, so more than double 1.5 years in advance, but if you were admitted at both would you choose EPFL over Oxford ?

I doubt very much that Oxford grads make that little. Risk.net says 78k, which I also find hard to believe.

 

[aleewdewx]

I doubt very much that Oxford grads make that little. Risk.net says 78k, which I also find hard to believe.

I said oxford graduate without degrees distinction, not the master in financial engineering , and same for epfl graduate , just to illustrate the salary difference between the 2 countries

 

[aleewdewx]

Do you know for a fact that most grads of EPFL MFE are European. I am a first year in the UZH ETH (yes, that's right UZH ETH program, not the ETH program, but that talk is for later) in QF and around half the class is Asian. I doubt that EPFL has a much different student body. If you consider all the economics/ business masters programs at UZH, Asian probably are a solid majority.

Anyhow, that "many" people who are Asian at RMFE would have to be almost the entire cohort to bring a salary which would otherwise be 100k down to 42k. Suppose you have 100 grads from RMFE. Some make 100k, the rest make 30k. To get an average down to 42k, roughly only 17% would make 100k and 83% would make 30k. According to your thesis, around 83% would be Asians who took jobs in Asia.

I studied at EPFL and many friends did the EPFL MFE so I think I have a very good idea, it's different than the UZH /ETH degree, just look at the course content if you need convincing ( do you know anyone who did the epfl and the imperial one ?)

 

[aleewdewx]

Do you know for a fact that most grads of EPFL MFE are European. I am a first year in the UZH ETH (yes, that's right UZH ETH program, not the ETH program, but that talk is for later) in QF and around half the class is Asian. I doubt that EPFL has a much different student body. If you consider all the economics/ business masters programs at UZH, Asian probably are a solid majority.

Anyhow, that "many" people who are Asian at RMFE would have to be almost the entire cohort to bring a salary which would otherwise be 100k down to 42k. Suppose you have 100 grads from RMFE. Some make 100k, the rest make 30k. To get an average down to 42k, roughly only 17% would make 100k and 83% would make 30k. According to your thesis, around 83% would be Asians who took jobs in Asia.

I didn't say the average salary for people staying in UK was 100k, I said you need to first take into account the salary difference between uk and switzerland, people get paid a lot more in Switzerland, look at the average engineering salary I gave you which are all above 80k for the first job after graduation in switzerland, I doubt you could find that in any UK university nor find cashier paid more than 3500 per month in the UK, then I mentioned the difference in diversity of class cohort at EPFL and Imperial

 

[aleewdewx]

and finally just an opinion @Soccent the person who created this topic asked about EPFL vs Imperial, I knew people who did both, I studied at one university so I just hoped to give him a fair view of what I had seen first hand, not a biased one (even though I studied at EPFL so I should be tempted to say EPFL is the best). While I feel your response is strongly linked to the fact that you're studying at the UZH/ETH master, think it's the same as the EPFL one (which it is not) and therefore are tempted to say UZH/ETH= EPFL = the best because it's the decision you made ( I strongly think UZH/ETH master is really good though, I mean I only know people who did the math master at ETH, not the UZH/ETH one but I guess it's similar, and I would probably choose it over the Imperial one, but it's not what the person who started this topic asked).

 

[Kerr]

RMFE is a program offered by Imperial business school, and top banks and prop shops are only targeting the master mathematics and finance offered by the mathematics department of imperial. RMFE is a huge program with more than 150 students, with most of them ending up in risk roles or "big four" if they managed to get employed.

So, you see, they are 2 programs on different level.

 

[hoeneim]

Do you know for a fact that most grads of EPFL MFE are European. I am a first year in the UZH ETH (yes, that's right UZH ETH program, not the ETH program, but that talk is for later) in QF and around half the class is Asian. I doubt that EPFL has a much different student body. If you consider all the economics/ business masters programs at UZH, Asian probably are a solid majority.

Anyhow, that "many" people who are Asian at RMFE would have to be almost the entire cohort to bring a salary which would otherwise be 100k down to 42k. Suppose you have 100 grads from RMFE. Some make 100k, the rest make 30k. To get an average down to 42k, roughly only 17% would make 100k and 83% would make 30k. According to your thesis, around 83% would be Asians who took jobs in Asia.

According to the employment report of 2020 exactly 78% of the class was composed by asian people, and only 30% of the class stayed in the UK after graduation, and 66% found a job in Asia.

 

[TheCheshireCat]

I have a friend that took the RMFE and has landed a position as a junior trader at a prop shop. When I asked him why he didn't take the Imperial MathFin course, he told me he didn't know it existed. Hope this helps in some way.

 

[Enruiz]

RMFE is a program offered by Imperial business school, and top banks and prop shops are only targeting the master mathematics and finance offered by the mathematics department of imperial. RMFE is a huge program with more than 150 students, with most of them ending up in risk roles or "big four" if they managed to get employed.

So, you see, they are 2 programs on different level.

Based on what are you saying that? As far as I know Imperial RMFE grad are landing jobs in Citi, GS, JP and others. The thing with the program is that many people do not aspire to become quants. But those who want to become quants will get there. Further, an advantage of the program is that it teaches you some corporate finance if you want to shift to a more traditional aspect of finance