Rebellion Research going against BARUCH

[MikeLawrence]

Who are these people?

Read both articles, in order. It's hilarious.

In 2022 they 'and every MFE director they talked to' were shocked to see Baruch in the top 10 of any MFE ranking. Go on to compare Baruch to Rutgers and Fordham.
In 2024 they put Baruch in the top 10 of their ranking, but made sure it was listed at the very bottom by choosing to list the programs 'in reverse alphabetical order.'

Why is Baruch MFE So Good?

Why is Baruch MFE So Good? What makes the MFE program so highly ranked? Why is Baruch MFE So Good? What is the future?

www.rebellionresearch.com

Top 10 MFE Programs 2024

Top 10 MFE Programs 2024 : Top 10 MFE Programs 2024 : let's take a look at this list today and learn what we can

www.rebellionresearch.com

 

[MikeLawrence]

For some reason known only to the unnamed author, they go out of their way to attack the praise given to @dstefan over the last couple years, for a couple full paragraphs.

They then praise the leaders of Cornell, and Berkeley's programs (Victoria Averbukh, Linda Kreitzman ) and UCLA's career services (Olga).
They claim Baruch students target easier jobs, so you can't compare the employment statistics between Baruch and other schools (specifically Columbia and Berkeley) and that's why their employment rate is so high.

Interestingly, Linda Kreitzman (who had an account here, which may be deleted since I can't @ her: https://quantnet.com/members/lindak.50663/) AND Victoria Averbukh are on the leadership team for this think tank/ hedge fund/ AI (??) firm.

As is Jacob Gallice, the Executive Director of Berkeley's MFE...

... and the CEO of the group, Alexander Fleiss, taught at Cornell for 7.5 years and is married to the chair of Columbia's endowment - Karen Fleiss, who is also on the leadership team. Three graduates of Columbia round out that schools stake in RR (that I can see, there are several members of the board/leadership who's affiliations aren't made known, and I don't want to go searching right now. I do need to go back to Fourier Transforms soon.)


The list of leadership for RR is here:

Leading Artificial Intelligence and Financial Advisor - Rebellion Research

Rebellion Research is a global machine learning think tank, artificial intelligence financial advisor & hedge fund leading AI since 2007.

www.rebellionresearch.com

I would love to know the lore behind what looks to be a blatant hit piece from more traditionally elite institutions (and Fordham, who have a graduate serving as RR's marketing ands strategic decisions advisor on the board). With the amount of self-love this article was able to give its leadership team's affiliations, I'm surprised they didn't throw in a 'Go Cubs!' (Chicago baseball team, two leaderships members) or 'please enlist in the US army and navy' (one leadership member each).

 

[bsilver]

I thought Rebellion's piece on Baruch was spot on!

 

[Lukee]

I thought Rebellion's piece on Baruch was spot on!

"However, career services is almost half of the grade, frankly."
"Baruch MFE students don’t apply for as difficult jobs as Columbia or Berkeley students. So comparing the hiring rate is flawed"
These parts seems verifiably false, Baruch places students at companies like Point72, BAM, and Millenium. I don't see a whole lot of Columbia and Berkeley students landing these jobs.

"Baruch is also not well known in international finance."
This shouldn't be a huge issue considering the fact that most students apply to MFE's with the goal of working domestically in the US.

"Don’t expect Google or Facebook to give the same love they would to a UCLA or Johns Hopkins degree."
There are Baruch MFE alumni on linkedin working in SWE roles at FAANG companies

I have no affiliation with Baruch and I honestly think this is a pretty poorly written article. Not a single claim that they make is substantiated.

 

[QuantCoach]

My opinion is Baruch is inarguably a top 2-3 MFE program in terms of student talent and career placements into quant finance. However, quant finance is a fairly niche field and I do believe it's recognition outside of this field pales in comparison to Princeton for example. It's sort of a "if you know you know" situation. Then again, people do MFEs mainly as a gateway into quant anyways, any MFE program is suboptimal if the goal is to work in a SWE role at a FAANG.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Oscar Wilde

Baruch must be doing something right.

 

[MikeLawrence]

I thought Rebellion's piece on Baruch was spot on!

Full disclosure: I'm not the one who found this, but I assumed something similar before the lead.

Because this user created the account, left this one bland but supportive comment, and then logged out in less than a minute, and still hasn't logged back on - another user and I assumed it was a RR affiliate attempting to give a good backing.

Odds are, we were right:
@bsilver, I won't link your actual linked in page, but since you used your real name as your username I have no problem asking: what does it mean to be in the private Research Rebellion Alumnus LinkedIn Group? Is there a program y'all all graduated from?

Can you expand on why you think the article is spot on, and why your affiliates turned face and put Baruch in THEIR OWN top ten ranking just two years later?

There is much Baruch love on this forum, I'm always interested in a differing opinion.

 

[MikeLawrence]

Guys, Rebellion Research edited the original hit piece like it was a high school freshman's first draft. I'm including more direct quotes this time so that we can have them in writing if they change the entire article again. I'm glad @Lukee had more on his comment above.

Why is Baruch MFE So Good?

Why is Baruch MFE So Good? What makes the MFE program so highly ranked? Why is Baruch MFE So Good? What is the future?

www.rebellionresearch.com

On one hand, I appreciate them taking a second look. The original version had many flaws.

On the other, doing so without any notification on the site, especially given their previous comments venom and outright incorrect statements bordering on premeditated lies, seriously lowers my opinion of the group. The original piece gave them a horrible taste in my mouth, but they didn't even try to stand by it.

Rebellion Research decided to quietly remove some of the more controversial bits, water down others, and even insert the claim that '[They] are happy to have Baruch on [their] top 10 list. But, it isn’t number one. [They] would rather a Princeton or Berkeley degree over Baruch." which is what they were explicitly denying Baruch deserved in the original piece.
They now state 'Firstly, Baruch is a very good program' 'Without a doubt Baruch is excellent, but not as vaunted as many will say.'
and 'Dan Stefanica is a great teacher and program director.'

I hate to tussle with Rebellion Research, because they're very well connected and interact with top quants on LI all the time (and offline, I'm sure, but I speak to what I see) and bring in great speakers for that one Fordham event and all that. However, this quiet whitewashing makes me question the intellectual integrity of the entire organization.

@Olga Inglis, you're lavished with praise in this article (and several others, including their review of UCLA's program). And, until they removed the venom they threw at @dstefan, you might have been the only person who received praise who doesn't sit on their leadership team. Can you share your relationship to Rebellion Research, any interactions you've had, and help us understand more about this group? From the writing, they seem to know much about you, and given your placement consulting and experience I expect that cuts both ways.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

As an author, I would suggest doing some grammar checks. For example, " We will not." should be "we shall not".
It could be structured better.
Personally, I hate the widespread use of commas to structure sentences.

 

[MikeLawrence]

As an author, I would suggest doing some grammar checks. For example, " We will not." should be "we shall not".

None of the writing published by Rebellion Research is well polished. It reads like they ran it through google translate and then shuffled the order of sentences. And the website formatting is terrible (but not in the 'we're old and don't care about marketing' way that actually makes me trust the fund managers MORE).

I'd completely write them off, if they didn't seem to garner real respect among other well respected quants.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Matthew 7:1-6

 

[MikeLawrence]

I hope others hold me accountable to this same standard. As an anecdote, when I first joined this site I had some interactions with @Andy Nguyen and @marcusaurelius where I explicitly stated that I refuse to edit (wrt whitewashing or materially altering meaning) or take down my posts (or post anonymously) because I want them to stay there as a marker to myself and others, in order to avoid exactly the situation Rebellion Research is now in. This came after I took down the very first post I ever made after @marcusaurelius lampooned me for it (wrt length and rambling). I believe I've held true since then. The most I usually do now is put "edit: " and an explanation. Marcus and Andy can confirm the veracity of this retelling, if they remember the incidents. I won't go back and pull screenshots of our conversations.

I'm not a world class writer, but the way they write is sloppy for a professional publication. If I ramble on an online message board, that's one thing, publishing it on my company website is another. Even then, all my messages here are more coherent than the piece under discussion.

 

[ExSan]

NYT- Baruch College, an Upward-Mobility Machine​