COMPARE Imperial RMFE vs Michigan MFE

[kuberkhan]

Hi All,
I know the comparison is not completely appropriate since both programs have their own set of positive aspects, making it even more difficult to decide.
I've been doing research on both the schools, talking to alumni and current students. Couple of threads on quantnet and thestudentroom.co.uk

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Imperial RMFE ||||Michigan MFE
Duration ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||1 year |||||||||| 1.5 years
Total Cost(tution, living) approx |||| 38000 GBP ||| 73000 USD
Reputation ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Good in Europe |||| Good in general

Student profiles |||||||||||||||||||||||| Varies a lot ||||| Varies but little

Internship opportunities ||||||||||||||||||||| Good ||||||||| Good
VISA |||||||||||||||||||| Already holds a valid VISA till Dec 2012 ||||||International student
Location ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| London |||||||||||||||||||| Not New York
Career Services ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Good ||||||||||||||||||||||||| Not bad
I just wanted a poll and a couple of comments (if there is something positive or terribly negative about the other program). Please spare a few seconds and give your feedback.

 

[kuberkhan]

@Andy,
Why can't I paste a table from Word document here without losing formatting?

 

[Kusu]

It seems that the U-M 2011 internship placement is bad. One current student said probably only about 10 students got their internships.
It is about 20%. This is clearly the negatives of U-M. In terms of career sevice, it is obviously that Imperial is better than U-M....
But, when it comes to full time job after graduation, they say U-M can even beat top private school(like Princeton, Columbia).
I don't know why especially this year the placement was so bad. Previously, the rate is at least over 30%.
Maybe it is just a temporary result. I heard the MFE visibility is increasing.

The intake of RMFE in Imperial College is over 100(U-M is about 50). Maybe this number is too much. In addition, there is other program like Mathematical Finance and (general) Finance. In my opinion, if you only plan to look for job in UK, it would be very tough because of the huge number of competitors. Aside from it, I think they have good program contents, strong alumni network and good career service. It is true that their career service is good, but in their HP(course carriculum), I found they recommend perspective students to do internship before enrolling RMFE. It is weird, isn't it?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

@kuberkhan
My guess would be that the editor strip out all the HTML code for security reasons. You can paste into Notepad to see the same effect.

 

[kuberkhan]

It seems that the U-M 2011 internship placement is bad. One current student said probably only about 10 students got their internships.
It is about 20%. This is clearly the negatives of U-M.

2011 Students graduate in December, don't they? So there is still time? When will their internships start?

It is true that their career service is good, but in their HP(course carriculum), I found they recommend perspective students to do internship before enrolling RMFE. It is weird, isn't it?

@Kusu,
where did you read this? I don't think it's true.

 

[Kusu]

@kuberkhan
I checked Imperial HP again, but couldn't find it. Maybe it is that if you did internship, you would be more likely be admitted by the program. Sorry for confusing you. But actually I'm sure I saw sentence says that before the start of this program is internship term somewhere. In RMFE, project course can be replaced by internship. Check the program course.

I heard Michigan students usually do their internship from May to August. I don't know if they have kind of vacation, but
the program staff told me that usually students got 33 (out of 39) credit by April. So from May to Dec, they must be very flexible to
make their study plan. Maybe they can get remained 6 credit in summer and do internship on fall instead. But of course it depends on what classes are offered in what term.

 

[kuberkhan]

Also, regarding the video recording of classes. Chekc this out:

Crystal Grant We use a system called Echo360 to video-record lectures throughout the year - they are then available to re-watch via Blackboard (our virtual learning environment). This means that if you miss a lecture or want to watch it again, you can.

 

[Kusu]

So did you decide to go to Imperial College?

 

[kuberkhan]

Senior members and aspirants who researched extensively on both US and UK grad schools, if you can comment and/or vote, it will really help me decide. Thanks in advance!