COMPARE Master Programs Comparison: Which quant program to choose?

[Prospective Quant]

taking the other side of the trade! I love it! It's similar to Groucho Marx - Why would I want to be in a club that would have me as a member?

success is a mean reverting signal lol, better lever up

 

[Risky Business]

just go to princeton. the graduates of their program are generally very successful. let's run large and say you take 200k loans to cover tuition and living costs for the entire 2-year duration. that's a formidable amount for most people indeed. but you should be able to pay it all back well within 5 years after you obtained your degree. just ask the admin to refer you to some alums. i bet they will all say the same

Would your recommendation stay the same in the case of an international student? (You are completely depending on being able to find and keep a job that pays in dollars though all the market cycles)

 

[Risky Business]

@quanttrader - maybe the CMU scholarship is a signal; you're the first I've heard getting 75% - I've heard 25% max in the past for a top candidate. That means they've identified you as a top priority for the program, which puts you at the head of the queue for the networking, professor connections. When their top industry contacts call and ask for the best student, most schools have 1-2 "go-to" candidates. At least, this was my experience when I went to a low/unranked MBA but was the top student and ended up doing quite well after. CMU is not a low ranked program, but it sounds like you'd be "a big fish" there. There's something to that.

UCB MFE has a solid reputation, as you know. I like that they've increased their pre-req requirements, which means their data science offerings will be more serious. Adjuncts there are pioneers in quant equity investing - think blackrock, Axa Rosenberg, Barclays out of the San Francisco office.

Princeton more theoretical - the program was started by Ben Bernanke when he was there and I kind of think of it as central banker training school. The princeton network, and ivy league prestige are no joke, to @Soccent 's point. CMU was my top choice, then I read more about the Princeton program and found an unbelievable amount of cool stuff there. If you know exactly what area you want to specialize in, or consider a future PhD, or really like macro forecasting Princeton is tough to beat.

CMU has a more focused course plan, one that seems closely aligned w/ industry. If you're not sure what area you want to get into, then CMU might be the better approach because you'll get a broad, solid foundation in quantitative finance. I can say those interns I worked w/ from CMU, both grad and undergrad, were several standard deviations above other schools. The computational training seems top notch.

Another way to think about this - technical skills are more important earlier in your career, so the initial "bang for your buck" might be more out of CMU. Princeton may prepare you more for the long game, when you'll need to formulate the investment thesis rather than implement it. But it could be challenging out of the gates if you don't have the programming skills to implement.

Alumni interviews are probably your best source of information. More important even might be defining what you want after the program.

This is nice! Thank you very much!

 

[Prospective Quant]

Would your recommendation stay the same in the case of an international student? (You are completely depending on being able to find and keep a job that pays in dollars though all the market cycles)

I think if you stay ambitious, you can turn any quant job from this program into a solid buyside quant job and make enough soon

 

[zzwang]

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I’ll definitely take this all into account.

My initial thoughts are that I genuinely do want a more well-rounded finance education and am not as interested in becoming a full time developer - I want to be a part of both idea generation and implementation. That being said, I know that both programs have their major advantages, and I’m planning on speaking with some students and alumni in the upcoming weeks.

Just so you know, almost no one in MSCF becomes a developer. In the current class there is 0 student who will be working this summer as a developer. Most of students ends up with full time/internship in the front desk of a BB, and that will most definitely involve idea generation. In fact, almost all Princeton student will see some mscf student in during his/her internship and most mscf student will find some mfin student in his/her internship class. If you take away the ibanking/consulting roles that some Princeton students have, both programs place most of their students in very similar roles. CMU has a well-rounded program; it wouldn't prepare you for consulting or banking, but the classes there covers just about everything else in finance.

 

[Risky Business]

I would like to add a point - If you're the smartest in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Having said that, it looks like you're on CMU's priority list, thereby putting you in the crest of their cohort. Purely for that reason, I believe Princeton might be a better choice.

I think this might be flawed a bit .... Since Princeton doesn't give scholarships, how do we know he isn't a top candidate at Princeton as well? There is the probability (which I think is pretty high) that he would do well in either program.

 

[Risky Business]

Less than 2 weeks to choose, does anyone want to add anything?

 

[Onegin]

Yes. I have the answer. You take CMU, @quanttrader takes Princeton, and report back in 5 years. We need to keep the quantnet portfolio diversified.

This is a fantastic problem you both have, and I think everyone is cheering for you. Can’t go wrong here. . .

 

[yuyuyuyu]

Hi guys, I received offers from both CMU and Stanford and I'm struggling between. On one hand, MSCF is a long-established and courses and career services are great. On the other hand, Stanford is Stanford. Yet there is not much discussion about the MCF online so this kind of stopping me from this program. Does anyone know about the Stanford program? Please give me some suggestions and any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[cheron_jrm]

Hello, congrats on your offers !
Indeed, CMUs is more established and will help you land a great job ! The curriculum is really strong in computing with a good education in math. On the other hand, Stanford may give you a more in-depth background in math, with a strong education in CS. However, you won’t get much help landing a job.
If you have an already strong background in stats, CS, proba... and a good CV, I think Stanford may be a good choice since you may learn top skills. If you lack in some areas, CMU’s well rounded and well structured curriculum may be better, and help you more with job seeking.

Good luck deciding !

 

[yuyuyuyu]

Hello, congrats on your offers !
Indeed, CMUs is more established and will help you land a great job ! The curriculum is really strong in computing with a good education in math. On the other hand, Stanford may give you a more in-depth background in math, with a strong education in CS. However, you won’t get much help landing a job.
If you have an already strong background in stats, CS, proba... and a good CV, I think Stanford may be a good choice since you may learn top skills. If you lack in some areas, CMU’s well rounded and well structured curriculum may be better, and help you more with job seeking.

Good luck deciding !

Thank you so much for your advice! It really makes a lot of sense. In this case, I am more towards Stanford. I feel like my initial motivation to do a graduate program is to learn more skills, and Stanford is stronger in this aspect. Then the only concern left for me is about networking. I'm definitely not good at networking. Do you think that is a deciding factor when choosing programs?

 

[Onegin]

Take this for what it’s worth, but I (working on east coast) haven’t met someone from Stanford working on the field; I’ve met UCLA, UCB, MIT, Princeton, Illinois, CMU, NYU, Cornell, etc. but not Stanford. I don’t know anything about their program. Take a close look at employment outcomes, try to do a search on linked in for alums and see what they are working on 1-3 yrs out. Be careful of choosing a school just based on reputation. Good schools can have lackluster programs, and sometimes less prestigious schools capture lightning in bottle (eg Baruch).

 

[ooAugust]

I got accepted into Berkeley and Stanford. For me, I will place Stanford over any other program (except Princeton) due to its flexibility to either PhD and the industry.

I can only speak for myself, let me know when you make your decision.

 

[yuyuyuyu]

Take this for what it’s worth, but I (working on east coast) haven’t met someone from Stanford working on the field; I’ve met UCLA, UCB, MIT, Princeton, Illinois, CMU, NYU, Cornell, etc. but not Stanford. I don’t know anything about their program. Take a close look at employment outcomes, try to do a search on linked in for alums and see what they are working on 1-3 yrs out. Be careful of choosing a school just based on reputation. Good schools can have lackluster programs, and sometimes less prestigious schools capture lightning in bottle (eg Baruch).

Sure I will do that. The webpage mentioned that the employment rate is 100% and also named some companies that hire the students, but I still somehow feel worried. I will try to dig out more information and thank you so much!

 

[yuyuyuyu]

I got accepted into Berkeley and Stanford. For me, I will place Stanford over any other program (except Princeton) due to its flexibility to either PhD and the industry.

I can only speak for myself, let me know when you make your decision.

Maybe can you share more about your reasons? For me Berkeley seems really good.

 

[ooAugust]

Maybe can you share more about your reasons? For me Berkeley seems really good.

ICME master program stand at the intersection of research and industry. You can go either way, and the program has a "pathway" for placement in ICME's PhD program, although it's not guaranteed and official. But references from Stanford professors will greatly improve your chance if you want to apply for PhD in the future. Masters programs at CMU and Berkeley are intense and career-oriented, you won't have too much time to do research in my eyes.
In terms of career, Stanford's career service is clearly not good. But it is still target program and target school of almost all banks & buy-side companies. During my undergraduate studies in UK, I feel career service is not so important for our placement into front-office & quant roles, especially directly from undergraduate. Most of my friends secure internship/full-time offers by mass application/networking etc. But maybe US is different.

 

[ZFL]

Hi guys, I received offers from both CMU and Stanford and I'm struggling between. On one hand, MSCF is a long-established and courses and career services are great. On the other hand, Stanford is Stanford. Yet there is not much discussion about the MCF online so this kind of stopping me from this program. Does anyone know about the Stanford program? Please give me some suggestions and any suggestions are appreciated.

I have voted for Stanford. I believe if you don't have too much work experience or eye-catching resume, and as a result need more career support, CMU would be a good choice. You will land on good jobs more easily due to the network and career support. If you envision your first job out of school is in Asia instead of USA, Stanford is no doubt a better choice. My two cents.

 

[quantbucks]

I guess another point worth noting is that while CMUs program is very targeted at the finance industry, Stanford keeps the door open for a switch to data science or something of the sort at any point of time (perhaps in the unlikely scenario that it becomes a necessity). Many alums from Stanford are working in the Silicon Valley right now, which possibly addresses @Onegin 's observation of not having met many on the east coast (lower numbers). This is also evident from their incoming class profile where they value a strong mathematics background more than having financial exposure. The MCF curriculum includes a breadth of data science electives which must be completed.
This is not to take anything away from the fact that it does allow for one to get into finance completely by appropriately altering the flexible curriculum.

 

[yuyuyuyu]

I have voted for Stanford. I believe if you don't have too much work experience or eye-catching resume, and as a result need more career support, CMU would be a good choice. You will land on good jobs more easily due to the network and career support. If you envision your first job out of school is in Asia instead of USA, Stanford is no doubt a better choice. My two cents.

Thank you so much! My plan as for now is to work in the US for several years then go back to China, then Stanford is definitely more well known in this case.

 

[cheron_jrm]

Thank you so much for your advice! It really makes a lot of sense. In this case, I am more towards Stanford. I feel like my initial motivation to do a graduate program is to learn more skills, and Stanford is stronger in this aspect. Then the only concern left for me is about networking. I'm definitely not good at networking. Do you think that is a deciding factor when choosing programs?

I don’t know much about networking. I’m from EU and there you can land a job without networking and career service...
I really think both programs are good. If you think you already are strong in CS, stats, numerical methods, proba, ML and have a bright resume, go to Stanford ! If you need help with landing a job or need strong foundations in different areas, go to CMU.
you can’t go wrong with either choices, which to me are among the very best programs (on par with UCB and Princeton)

It wouldn’t be a bad reasoning to just go wherever your heart wants to !