COMPARE Toronto MMF and Waterloo MQF

[nidaye]

Hi, I have been admitted into these 2 programs and am still hesitating to make a decision. Could anyone share experience or ideas on them? Understand that both of them are almost equal in terms of reputation and placement in Canada. My career goal is to do some work relevant to risk management or quantitative analysis in Toronto. I know that most grads from MMF went to risk management in major banks, but how about MQF?
Any suggestion or recommendation would be highly appreciated.

 

[Pangpang]

r u kidding? toronto mmf is definately better than waterloo mqf..........

 

[James McGill]

@Pangpang Why is that?

 

[Vincent Yang]

Waterloo hands down!! MMF is not on par with the rigor of MQF's curriculum. The tuition is also cheaper(you can almost cover the tuition from internship)

 

[yo yue]

Waterloo hands down!! MMF is not on par with the rigor of MQF's curriculum. The tuition is also cheaper(you can almost cover the tuition from internship)

yeah... thats probly true on the curriculum side... but placement rate might not be as good as Toronto MMF...

 

[mzamfir]

yeah... thats probly true on the curriculum side... but placement rate might not be as good as Toronto MMF...

I don't know what Toronto's MMF placement rate is, but from UWaterloo's MQF website, looks like during the last few years, there has been at most 1 person who didn't get placed upon graduation, out of ~20ish. Seems pretty good.

 

[Mike Rudd]

From what I've read in the last half year (mostly on this site) both are excellent programs with a very good reputations on Bay Street. The MMF is almost definitely better known internationally (see QuantNet rankings) but maybe doesn't deserve to be.

Based on the job postings I've read all of the most interesting (my opinion) risk-related jobs seem to prefer candidates with a PhD. If you decide to go for a PhD after one of these programs then it seems the MQF would more appropriate, as Vincent said it much more theoretically rigorous than the MMF.

If not then it's a tougher decision. I assume from the way everyone points out how much more theoretical the MQF is that it might not be as practical as the MMF. You would have to ask yourself what would suit your career goals better.

 

[IntoDarkness]

bay street is so small. not many jobs there