COMPARE MFin vs. Operations Research/Statistics

[cashmoney]

Hey,

since I am thinking about applying for a MFE at Columbia and I'm also looking for an equivalent MS at MIT. Would you rather recommend the MFin or the MS in Operations Research/Statistics?

Regards,
P

 

[Joy Pathak]

M.Fin

 

[Tsotne]

MFin is better and more interesting to my opinion.

 

[PennyLess]

As an MFin candidate you can take classes in the Operations Research departments, but not necessarily true the other way around. Some of the MFin classes limit enrollment to MFin candidates only. If you want an MFE-like program at MIT, go take Analytics of Financial Engineering I & II by Andrew Lo along with other classes for optimization and PDs. Also, I don't think they accept that many MS candidates into the OR program. Most enter directly into the phD program. The OR program used to publish their admission statistics including the number admitted into MS and phD, but it's no longer the case.

On a separate note, Harvard and MIT students can cross-register in the other school, so you have access to the Harvard classes on financial derivative pricing and financial econometrics under their department of economics too.

 

[Tsotne]

BTW... How does the research experience help you in applying for PhD??? I really wonder it. And should the research papers and previous research experiences be approved by some institution??? For example universities, IBs,etc... Thanks

 

[PennyLess]

If you have published papers in academic journals, that will help a lot. The important thing all graduate institutions look at is your ability to conduct original research. So if you have research assistant experience with one of the very well known professors, and were able to obtain a letter of recommendation from him commenting your research talents, that would be good.

 

[cashmoney]

It's just that I'm missing some programming courses in the M.Fin Program. I mean instead of a M.Fin one could do a MBA with specialisation in Finance, couldn't one?

What do you think about a SM in Applied Mathematics at one the top schools?

 

[Tsotne]

If you have published papers in academic journals, that will help a lot. The important thing all graduate institutions look at is your ability to conduct original research. So if you have research assistant experience with one of the very well known professors, and were able to obtain a letter of recommendation from him commenting your research talents, that would be good.

Hi Penny. Is it necessary to have some research papers published? Is it an advantage to have conducted some independent research without having published it?

Thanks

 

[PennyLess]

It's just that I'm missing some programming courses in the M.Fin Program. I mean instead of a M.Fin one could do a MBA with specialisation in Finance, couldn't one?

What do you think about a SM in Applied Mathematics at one the top schools?

An MBA with specialization in Finance does not go into as much depth as the MFin at MIT. The MBA curriculum is very general, comprised of courses in marketing, management and accounting also. The one-year course Analytics of Finance is specially designed for students in the MFin program. There's a programming component in Matlab. Andrew Lo who teaches the course, is known in the quantitative trading business and leads the MIT Lab of Financial Engineering. I am sure you can go to him for more resources on programming for finance if you are enrolled in MFin. Here's the course description of the Analytics of Finance II.
http://mitsloan.mit.edu/academic/courses/15.968.php

People usually use an SM in Applied Math from one of the top schools as a stepstone onto getting a higher degree in finance/financial engineering. The career service of these SMs are usually not that good for getting jobs in finance directly. A good number of students admitted into the MIT MFin class of 2012 have SMs in Applied Math before applying to the program.

 

[PennyLess]

Hi Penny. Is it necessary to have some research papers published? Is it an advantage to have conducted some independent research without having published it?

Thanks

It's not necessary to have the paper published. Having conducted independent research will be good enough, especially if you can obtain a letter of recommendation from a professor that comments on your research talents. Here's the graduate student directory of MIT's Operations Research program. You can see that many have prior research assistantships prior to entering MIT's phD program in OR.

http://www.mit.edu/~orc/careers/ORCGraduateStudentDirectory10.pdf

 

[Tsotne]

@PennyLess

Thank you that's what I was interested in.