COMPARE MIT Mfin vs Columbia MFE (Eng)

[WZL]

URGENTLY NEED SOME ADVICE!
I am now in this difficult situation of choosing between Columbia MFE (eng) and
MIT Mfin (18 month track, Financial Engineering track). Could anyone shed some light on which program I should choose ?

My Plan:
Upon graduation, I plan to seek for job opportunities in HK, ideally in the buyside (AM，prop shop and hedge fund ).
I also consider the sell side （Quant AM in BBs such as QIS team so I can easily switch to Buyside later on)

From what I learned from the forum, MIT Mfin is normally considered as a tier 2 program while Columbia MFE is more solid and prestigious in area of Financial Engineering. Furthermore, MIT starts too early in the beginning of July, eliminating any possibility of completing a summer internship.

However, the fact that Columbia MFE has way larger class size and weak career service has made me hesitant on accepting the offer, Moreover, the reputation of Columbia is uncompetitive to that of MIT in HK.

 

[WZL]

Many Thanks!

 

[xxzritazxx]

Congrats! I would say MIT.
Eventually both school names/programs will get you the interview, but then it is your interview performance that matters.
Considering you are planning for a career in Hong kong, I think MIT's reputation will better help you succeed. The technical strength of the Mfin program really depends on which courses that you choose to take. Also, you said Columbia MFE has way lager class size so it is possible that Columbia MFE students receive insufficient career support.
I think what job you end up with really depends more on your personal efforts than the program you are in. So it is up to your preference.
My answer could be biased because I also got admitted to MIT for this fall

 

[WZL]

Congrats! I would say MIT.
Eventually both school names/programs will get you the interview, but then it is your interview performance that matters.
Considering you are planning for a career in Hong kong, I think MIT's reputation will better help you succeed. The technical strength of the Mfin program really depends on which courses that you choose to take. Also, you said Columbia MFE has way lager class size so it is possible that Columbia MFE students receive insufficient career support.
I think what job you end up with really depends more on your personal efforts than the program you are in. So it is up to your preference.
My answer could be biased because I also got admitted to MIT for this fall

Thank you so much for your reply and big congratulations to you as well ! I can't agree more that everything boils down to self-preparation and the performance at the interview.

 

[mitmastermind]

did you receive a hone call from MIT?

 

[WZL]

did you receive a hone call from MIT?

Yes I did. It was yesterday from my interviewer Sue Kline.

 

[WZL]

The current result seems to contradict with the previous post on COMPARE. Guys， feel free to share some comments/explanation for your votes so that others can refer in the future

 

[mmmmmw]

Just to clear some misunderstandings:
1. As far as I know, for quant positions, the reputations of Columbia MFE and MIT MFin have roughly no difference in HK. If you target IBD and S&T, MIT will be absolutely better but this is not the case for quant positions.
2. The class size of Columbia MFE and MIT MFin are roughly the same according to QuantNet information. I heard that for the Fall 2021 entering class of MIT MFin, a majority (70-80%) of students were interested in quant tracks. So the class size should not be a huge difference.
3. It is true that Columbia's career service is incomparable to other tier1 MFE programs, but it is being improved. The career support of MIT MFin is also not that competitive either according to comments in QuantNet.
Back to your question, I totally agree that for quant finance career, Columbia MFE is more rigorous. So your choice should depend on whether you want the bright title of MIT, or the solid preparation in Fin Eng by attending Columbia.

 

[quantM]

I've been accepted to MIT MFin too. I'm confident in the program for quant finance. They have strong quant and financial engineering courses that you can take on and you can register for maths/stat/CS courses at MIT if you think it's not enough, so you'd definitely have all the resources you need. And of course MIT is a brilliant accreditation and both MIT and Sloan are renown for their contributions to finance and financial engineering (Thorp, Black and Merton, Cox, Cootner, etc).