Toronto MathFin Questions for mmf program at U of T

[alex yang]

Hi everyone, I am a newly admitted student to mmf program at U of T. I am glad for receiving it. I would like to congrats to those who have been admitted to mmf or other programs at other school, also, for those who have not heard anything back yet, I wish all the best luck to you guys.

I just want to ask some questions for this program, because my optimal goal is to do Phd in math/stat/actsci (TBD), does this program provide lots of theoretical background which might help me in the Phd level studies. I am really concerning this right now since I only have like 4 days to make the final decision. Thanks a lot for those who have seen and reply this post.

 

[Canuck]

Hi everyone, I am a newly admitted student to mmf program at U of T. I am glad for receiving it. I would like to congrats to those who have been admitted to mmf or other programs at other school, also, for those who have not heard anything back yet, I wish all the best luck to you guys.

I just want to ask some questions for this program, because my optimal goal is to do Phd in math/stat/actsci (TBD), does this program provide lots of theoretical background which might help me in the Phd level studies. I am really concerning this right now since I only have like 4 days to make the final decision. Thanks a lot for those who have seen and reply this post.

The MMF is an applied masters that prepares you to join the financial work force, it is not optimized to cater to students who want to do a phd afterwards.
That being said there are students that do go on to do phds (most of our TAs are those kind of students), but they are the exception to the rule usually having done a very intense mathematics based undergrad.

Full disclosure: I am a current MMF student

 

[alex yang]

The MMF is an applied masters that prepares you to join the financial work force, it is not optimized to cater to students who want to do a phd afterwards.
That being said there are students that do go on to do phds (most of our TAs are those kind of students), but they are the exception to the rule usually having done a very intense mathematics based undergrad.

Full disclosure: I am a current MMF student

Thanks a lot Mike, for your reply. How hard do you find the program is. By hard, I mean, how abstract the math did you learn in the courses.

 

[Canuck]

Thanks a lot Mike, for your reply. How hard do you find the program is. By hard, I mean, how abstract the math did you learn in the courses.

That is a very subjective question, to people who had never done pure math some of the courses could be viewed as overly-rigorous while pure math students might find them just right.
I found that pricing theory hit the mark perfectly, although the best (and most fun) course was investments with Prof. McCurdy.
Again if you want to do a phd this is probably not the masters for you, do a 2 year math masters with dissertation et al.

 

[VickyLiu]

That is a very subjective question, to people who had never done pure math some of the courses could be viewed as overly-rigorous while pure math students might find them just right.
I found that pricing theory hit the mark perfectly, although the best (and most fun) course was investments with Prof. McCurdy.
Again if you want to do a phd this is probably not the masters for you, do a 2 year math masters with dissertation et al.

Hi, I just received the offer from UT and could you please tell me how you evaluate this program. And I also appreciate more information about internship, career service and placement. Thanks a lot!!!

 

[Canuck]

Hi, I just received the offer from UT and could you please tell me how you evaluate this program. And I also appreciate more information about internship, career service and placement. Thanks a lot!!!

The first semester is very difficult and you will be challenged mentally and physically (ie. lots of difficult work and little sleep). You really need to take a minute and think if you can handle this, as it is an extremely heavy workload and is done at a blistering pace.
Although I found it was great prep for the internship, since you will have the best work ethic in the office. The program also makes you into a self starter, nothing is spoon fed and you're expected to keep up, which again is excellent preparation for the work place.
Internship placement this year was 100%, roles were diverse including desk quants, model vetting, consulting and asset management. These were mostly in Toronto with myself and a couple other students finding roles abroad (London and Mexico respectively).
In terms of last year's full time placement, from what I've heard, all have found jobs in finance (risk, trading, asset management).

 

[VickyLiu]

The first semester is very difficult and you will be challenged mentally and physically (ie. lots of difficult work and little sleep). You really need to take a minute and think if you can handle this, as it is an extremely heavy workload and is done at a blistering pace.
Although I found it was great prep for the internship, since you will have the best work ethic in the office. The program also makes you into a self starter, nothing is spoon fed and you're expected to keep up, which again is excellent preparation for the work place.
Internship placement this year was 100%, roles were diverse including desk quants, model vetting, consulting and asset management. These were mostly in Toronto with myself and a couple other students finding roles abroad (London and Mexico respectively).
In terms of last year's full time placement, from what I've heard, all have found jobs in finance (risk, trading, asset management).

Thanks sooooo much! The information you provided is really helpful! My undergraduate major is financial engineering but I did not learn much about the programming language. Are the courses in the first semester mainly mathematical ones or programming?

 

[Canuck]

Thanks sooooo much! The information you provided is really helpful! My undergraduate major is financial engineering but I did not learn much about the programming language. Are the courses in the first semester mainly mathematical ones or programming?

Every course requires that you program, but don't worry as there is a long training period in August.
If you have little programming experience I would recommend that you do some extra work over the summer, I did the C++ course on quantnet which definitely helped.

@Andy Nguyen
Andy could you please tag this as a UofT MMF thread?

 

[VickyLiu]

Every course requires that you program, but don't worry as there is a long training period in August.
If you have little programming experience I would recommend that you do some extra work over the summer, I did the C++ course on quantnet which definitely helped.

@Andy Nguyen
Andy could you please tag this as a UofT MMF thread?

Thanks for your advice!Really helps me a lot!