Birkbeck College, University of London
This review was submitted on 19 Apr 2010 at 7:14:14 AM by a student who studied full-time in the program from 10/2008-10/2009
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Economics undergraduate with accountancy and administration working experience.
Did you get admitted to other programs?
No
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Good balance reputation/cost
Tell us about the application process at this program
Some administration problems I had during application process
I am happy enough with their assistance in this process
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the accessibility of the faculty and staff?
9
Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? What do they offer and how much it costs?
Yes, it’s taught before the programme starts and ther is an exam, related to the material seen in this pre-seasional course, that must be passed in order to gain access to the MSc
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
6
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
As many MFE it contains a Mathematical Methods and a Pricing course. It also has a Financial Econometrics one and two electives (Commodities and Risk Management). The courses I liked the most were Financial Econometrics and Risk Management.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
8
Tell us about the quality of teaching
Some courses run smothly (Financial Econometrics and Mathematical Methods), but there were two with problems, since some of the lecturers had not enough skills to teach the material.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
7
Materials used in the program
Notes provided by professors and recommend books (usual recommendations as Hull, Wilmott, Hamilton, etc)
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
8
Programming component of the program
S-Plus, Matlab and C++. Around two or three sessions of three hours lenght each
Projects
Projects were proposed by students (individually) and according the kind of project, a supervisor was assigned to the student. Projects were either coding or researching. Industry mentors could be if your supervisor was a practitioner teaching at the college. In general terms the project was a part of the course very bad organized. It was difficult to get assigned a supervisor and most of them were really difficult to reach. Most of student did their project by their own, with little support fromo supervisor.
Career service
Almost non-existent. I didn’t try to use it.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
2
What do you like about the program?
Some lectureres are really good. Commodities course seems to be a course that few universities can offer it right now.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the value of the program for the price tag?
4
What DON’T you like about the program?
The year I was enrolled it was not very organized. Some lecturers were horrible.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
Increase links with the industry, with talks, reinforcing alumni organizations and open-days. In my opinion this is the main disadventage of this programme
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience in the program?
6
What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Not employed. I would like to get a job in Risk Management or Portfolio Management
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
6
Other Comments?
I would say to prospective student, that this course is good for peolpe already in job market that want to learn more things meanwhile they are working, but if you are changing career, probably it is not the best option that you might have
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Tags: birkbeck mfe, program review
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Very helpful feedback. Thanks for helping me decide whether to join this course or not.
Saurabh, 1 year agoBased upon the last comment “I would say to prospective student, that this course is good for peolpe already in job market…”, I am just wondering it is going to be suitable course for someone who only have Software Engineering background?
Ymphyu, 9 months agoI am close to finishing studying the graduate diploma in FE (the feeder course to this programme) I can already understand and empaphise with comments made. Having spoken with Dr Baxter, the course director,who promised more support and guidance than was available on the GDFE program, I am now somewhat doubtful of the benefit of this course.
Being cynical I imagine that these programmes are generally ways for institutions to charge huge fees without the commensurate level of support so not really expecting any better anywhere else. I would be interested to hear how this helped you in terms of technical ability. Is the programme thorough enough to make up for weaker industry links? Given the pace of research I would have thought that this would be preffered in the long run.
At the moment there are many more people than places for these roles so I am not entirely convinced that a more recognisable name would add that much to those looking to get into a bank/hedge fund. Luckily I am in finance already (although not banking) so understand the relevant skills required within the sector (i.e. interpersonal skills, business acumen and guile). Observing those that do not have a technical background i can see the benefit of developing technical ability but then taking a wider business role seems to make the most sense to me.
Does anyone have a reliable table of FE/QF programmes, as despite the clear shortcomings it feels slightlypointless not to go on to obtain a masters in the area.
Cg, 8 months agoI did my Msc and PhD in mathematical finance and hunting a job in the sector for 15 months. I did over 172 applications and none replied… Do not fool people, all these programs are ripoffs.
Nikizlerli, 8 months ago