Burkle building on CGU campus which houses the Drucker school.
Very weak. Number of students applying is on the decline.
Reviewed 12/16/2011
Rating 1/10
What is unique about this program?
There isn’t much to be said. It’s a weak program.
What are the worst things about the program?
So expensive for the quality eduction you get. Profsesors are leaving and going to other colleges.
Career services
None
Student body
Poor
Education in managing risk and how to spot investment opportunities.
Reviewed 11/18/2011
Rating 7.5/10
What is unique about this program?
The MSFE program is a joint program of the School of Mathematical Sciences and the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management where students have a unique opportunity to take management courses, MBA courses, along with advanced mathematical courses where your seat buddy might be a PhD student in Financial Engineering or Economics.
What are the worst things about the program?
The main shortcoming of the MSFE program is computer program, especially in C++. There are some courses that require programming in VBA, R and Matlab and most years a group of students come together and form a C++ study group. Having said that, if a student does have a background in programming, then the CGU MSFE program is absolutely excellent.
Career services
The career services has gone through some transformation in the last year or year and a half to the better. I personally received my job offer from an opportunity through the career services. The career fairs have become more relevant to the MSFE students and it seems as if the service is constantly getting better.
Student body
The students are close knit and are very supportive of each other. They come from all over the world and some of them are incredibly smart. The student body creates a great sense of community, probably in part due to its small size.
This review was submitted on 1/1/2010
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
PhD student in Economics, SUNY-Albany 09/2005-05/2007
M.A. in Economics, Wuhan University, China 09/2002-05/2005
Equity Analyst, CITICS in Wuhan, China 08/2001-08/2002
Did you get admitted to other programs?
No.
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
. It has a flexible course arrangement and a better balance between Mathematics and Management.
. A 40% tuition cut is affordable
. Southern Calif. is a better place to live.
Tell us about the application process at this program
1) Deadline is Feb 1.
2) Applied
3) Receive ad and fellowship 6 weeks later.
4) about 400 deposit.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the accessibility of the faculty and staff?
8
Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
Yes if the probability and statistics is. I think it’s useful for those person who stayed out of campus for several years.
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
9
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Management Part:
Financial Accounting
Corporate Finance
Asset Management Practium (An excellent project with a real money Fund)
Financial derivatives (a professor with experience in practical market)
Math Part:
Stochastic Process
Math Finance
Numerical Method for Finance
Credit risk
Financial Time Series
Asymptotic Method
Simulation
Math Clinic (A applied math project with industry)
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
9
Tell us about the quality of teaching
Several Lab classes were arranged in each course, including math course. And homework is plentiful but acceptable.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
8
Materials used in the program
. Hull
. Derivative Markets by Mcdonald
. Stochastic Calculus (I&II) by Steven E. Shreve
. Portfolio Construction, Management, &Protection by Strong
. An introduction to credit risk modeling by Christian Bluhm
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
8
Programming component of the program
VBA/R/Matlab/C++
Projects
Group projects were there in every course. And there is a special project in Asset Management that a real &300,000 fund was conducted by the this course students. You can test your strategies in the real market. Awesome.
Career service
Career center really work hard to help you, but seems it doesn’t work well in the bad market. Before 2008, many students had chance to do Intern or full time job in TCW and Countrywide. But it was difficult now.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
3
Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Most India students got their jobs with the help of their social network.
What do you like about the program?
flexible courses and high quality professors.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the value of the program for the price tag?
5
What DON’T you like about the program?
. no special course or seminar for programming. And there was just a discussion group by students.
. placement is not good.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
. more programming seminar because most students were not come from computer science major.
. construct a better alumni network.
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?
I graduated on Aug. 2009 and am looking for a job in New York City now.
I really hope that I can work in the quantitative field. Not easy. I am trying.
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
8
Click here to submit a review of your program
This review was submitted on 1/22/2010 at 20:43:00 by a student who studied full-time in the program from 9/2008-5/2010*
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
BS Physics & Mathematics, Loyola University Chicago
BA Economics, Loyola University Chicago
Did you get admitted to other programs?
Yes
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Flexibility. I am graduating in two years with both an MBA and MSFE because CGU has been very flexible in scheduling and allowed me to “overload” a couple semesters in addition to completing intensive courses.
Additionally I liked CGU’s access to studying abroad. FE or MBA students can spend a semester in Switzerland. Additionally there are travel courses at Oxford and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I attended the Hong Kong course and it was a blast.
Finally, CGU offered me a fellowship including 50% off of tuition for the first 16 units each semester.
Tell us about the application process at this program
Very timely. Pretty typical stuff, essay, recs, transcript, phone interview.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the accessibility of the faculty and staff?
9
Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
This course does not. The pre-reqs for CGU’s MSFE program are not as high as other programs. For example you need not have taken probability before. CGU starts with very basic courses so there is no need for an additional refresher.
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
5
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
I will only discuss the FE courses, not the courses I took additionally for my MBA.
MATH CORE (16 units)
Probability (4)
Statistics (4)
Stochastics (4)
Math Finance (4)
FINANCE CORE (16 units)
Corporate Finance (4)
Financial Accounting (4)
Financial Derivatives (4)
Asset Management Practicum (4)
Additionally students take 16 units of electives
I took Credit Risk (2), Quantitative Risk Management (2), Doing Business in Asia (this is the Hong Kong course) (4), Real Options Analysis (4), Energy Derivatives (2), Business Law (2)
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
10
Tell us about the quality of teaching
A couple of the professors have a few years experience in the “real world,” but for the most part courses are not taught by practitioners. The exceptions to this are Real Options Analysis and the Asset Management Practicum which have practitioners as guest lecturers. Asset Management especially makes use of this as about 1/3 to 1/2 of the lectures are by practitioners. I saw professors and TAs multiple times for help with homework and studying. They are extremely accessible. I am now a TA myself and feel a great deal of responsibility to my fellow students. The comradery of the program is pretty strong.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
8
Materials used in the program
Obviously Hull and Shreve.
Lando’s Credit Risk Modeling
Mun’s Real Options Analysis
Copeland & Antikarov’s Real Options
McDonald’s Derivatives Markets
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
8
Programming component of the program
There are quite a few options for programming courses but the core classes for the most part do not have any programming. Every year a student-led group does an into to C++. In the math courses there is generally one or two programming assignments in either VBA, R, or Matlab. This semester there is VBA lab to accompany the financial derivatives course. Aside from these courses, Harvey Mudd (a top math and science school) offers a number of programming/programming-based math courses that CGU students, as members of the Claremont Consortium, are more than welcome to take. I’ve had many friends take these courses and love them. The Mudd campus is next door to CGU so it’s rather easy.
Projects
The asset management practicum involves students running a portion of the university’s endowment. It requires everything from researching and backtesting strategies to a small group making a presentation to the board of trustees. Real Options required a small individual project applying real options analysis.
Career service
Very little currently. I would not go by past reviews for career services as this is a big priority among the current administration and should be changing. Call the program and ask them. They’re very honest about current offerings.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
4
Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
To some degree student’s self-segregate, but when Thursday and Friday come around it doesn’t matter what your background is, everyone’s drinking and having fun together.
What do you like about the program?
The flexibility. If you don’t want to be a standard cookie cutter quant then come to CGU.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the value of the program for the price tag?
9
What DON’T you like about the program?
The other side of the flexibility is that you are really responsible for your own future at this program. You can’t sit back and do interviews on campus. You have to hustle and get things working.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
More programing in the courses and more career resources.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience in the program?
10
What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
I have a job offer for structuring and analytics in electricity markets with a large investment bank.
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
5
Other comments
I put a five on the recommendation because it is difficult to say without knowing someone. If you are a real “mover” and get things done, then I really suggest CGU. You’ll have a lot of personal opportunities. But if you don’t feel like being creative and hustling the I don’t recommend this program for you.
Click here to submit a review of your program
This review was submitted on 1/24/2010 at 18:02:31 by a student who studied full-time in the program from 9/2009-5/2010*
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I graduated in Physics from Harvey Mudd College and went to work for a year in a small business software company as a consultant.
Did you get admitted to other programs?
No
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
N/A
Tell us about the application process at this program
I secured admission before leaving my undergraduate program. It was very easy to apply because Harvey Mudd and Claremont Graduate University are just across the street from each other. Thus, most of the admission process was carried out in person. During the rest of the admission process e-mail and phone communication was prompt and helpful. There were no problems with the admission process as the online application was straightforward and well thought out. I did enroll as part of a 4+1 year masters program available to undergraduates of the Claremont Colleges.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the accessibility of the faculty and staff?
6
Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
While the program itself does not have refresher courses, taking courses at the undergraduate institutions of the Claremont Colleges is both possible and encouraged.
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
0
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
There is a set curriculum of core courses taught in a specific order. Of the 12 required courses, 8 are mandated parts of the curriculum and 4 of the courses are electives. Selection of elective courses is highly teacher specific. If a good teacher is teaching a class it will be gold. The courses I especially like were Financial Accounting (a required part of the curriculum) and Fixed Income (an elective) and I liked those courses because the teachers in the courses were excellent.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
9
Tell us about the quality of teaching
The teaching quality is quite variable. One of my favorite teachers has won 14 teaching awards during his time at several of the Claremont Colleges. The other favorite teacher is a retired accountant and has put in the effort to write his own book that we use in the classroom. Due to both natural ability and conscious effort, he is an excellent teacher. Other teachers I have encountered have been ‘good,’ although one teacher was terrible. These solidly good teachers give instructive classes but would could to put more effort into coordinating their classes, better tailoring their homework problems, and sharing more ‘pearls of wisdom’ from outside the textbook.
My teacher rating of 8 indicates that there are at least two excellent teachers, and the majority are good teachers.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
8
Materials used in the program
Shreve: Stochastic Calculus for Finance I and II
Hull: Options, Futures and Other Derivatives
Ferris and Wallace: Financial Accounting for Executives
Ross, Westerfield and Jordan: Fundamentals of Corporate Finance
McDonald: Derivative Markets
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
3
Programming component of the program
This is the biggest weakness of the CGU MFE program. Little to no programming is done in the core curriculum and the possible programming electives are not well taught nor tailored to finance. The good news is that this weakness has been recognized and is starting to change this year. An independent weekly workshop in C++ is being tested this semester and the Financial Derivatives class from this semester onwards will include a weekly VBA lab.
Languages: C++, VBA, MATLAB
Projects
Two projects are offered. In the asset management class, the endowment for the Peter Drucker School and Masatoshi Ito school is partially managed by teams of MFE’s mixed with MBA’s. There is also a research project in Financial Derivatives.
Career service
The career services coordinator is incredible. He and his staff work very hard and he has significant connections with companies ranging from Disney and Barclays. The Claremont Colleges all share the same career services jobs and internships network, thus graduate students can also pursue opportunities from Claremont McKenna College and Pomona.
There is a small but growing web of alumni contacts, and Professors do pass along job prospects from time to time.
It is easy to find an internship or full-time position if you take charge. There is not as much active assistance as in other programs I have heard about but the resources are here if you put in the effort to make use of them.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
6
Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
The CGU MFE program is predominantly foreign of which the majority are Chinese. The program itself is nearly majority Chinese. There are several MFE program-wide events during which interaction occurs between all groups. On a day-to-day basis none of the groups all sit together in cliques.
What do you like about the program?
CGU’s best attribute: There are at least two excellent teachers, the majority are solidly good, and a terrible teacher can be easily avoided because they are only teaching elective classes. The teachers are accessible.
Second best: The high proportion of Chinese students allows for an intimate exposure to China. I sure will use my contacts in China in the future and I have been able to ask colleagues for their opinions on all news I get from China.
Others: The integration of the CGU job posting network with those of the excellent undergraduate universities nearby allow for a much broader range of opportunities. There is a lot of freedom to take advantage of the resources offered by the school, but the onus is on you.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the value of the program for the price tag?
5
What DON’T you like about the program?
The fact that programming is not well integrated into the courses and homework is a severe shortcoming. Also, the program is quite theoretical and should be more applied. It many respects the program is a series of classes connected only if the courses are taught by the same teacher. Better integration of the classes into a coherent program would be desirable. There was an attempt to have the Mathematical Finance class integrate with the Numerical Methods for Finance class, but due to a lack of communication between the different professors the classes complemented each other very little.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
The suggestion that more programming be introduced into the curriculum has already been somewhat addressed with an independent C++ workshop and weekly VBA lab period. The integration of classes into a coherent program with a single well designed syllabus is a must.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade your experience in the program?
7
What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
The connections the CGU MFE program has in East Asia have been invaluable. I have an internship lined up in Tokyo with Barclays Capital for the Summer of ’10. The internship is in Fixed Income IT support.
Since I trained as a physicist and worked in business software for a year, I am not sure where I want to head. I will be better informed after my internship.
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
9
Other comments
This program is very close to making it big. The alumni network is growing under the expert management of the current career services office, and programming classes are being incorporated into the curriculum. I expect my degree to be worth much more than I paid for it in 3 to 4 years as those graduates in my class and the year before begin reaching high-level positions. I plan to be actively involved with the school in the years ahead and am working to improve the program myself.
Click here to submit a review of your program.
Tags: cgu msfe, claremont graduate university, financial engineering, program review
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