Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“I highly recommend the MFin program”
Submitted: 5/15/11
Score: 10/10
Would you recommend this program to a friend: Yes
I highly recommend the MFin program. Our class had 58 students with extremely diverse background from country of origin, undergraduate studies, and work experience. The program is divided into three semesters (summer, fall, and spring). The summer session begins in early July and last till late August, and it can be quite extensive without a financial background. The course curriculum is very flexible depending on your career and academic interests. Required classes include corporate financial accounting, financial theory, analytics of finance, and a proseminar. Courses at Sloan stress team work and most of the assignments are case studies with a group of students. Classes are also a good mix of lecture based and case study based.
The students in the program pursue a wide range of different career paths from traditional investment banking, sales and trading, prop trading, asset management, consulting, and alternative investments. Students can also cross register and take Harvard Business School courses and MIT graduate courses in different departments.
Reviewer’s background:
Engineering
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This review was submitted on 3/4/2010 by a student who studied full-time in the program from 7/2009 – 6/2010
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Undergraduate degree in Economics
Various finance summer internships
Did you get admitted to other programs?
Columbia QMSS
Yale IDE
Duke Economics
UCL Economics
Warwick Finance & Economics
Among others…
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
I chose this program because of flexibility of the curriculum, the strength of the faculty and I knew that my fellow students would be some of the best and brightest. I was particularly excited about taking the first-year Finance PhD courses.
Tell us about the application process at this program
The application process is relatively straightforward. I think a few things have changed since I applied; I think an interview may now be required.
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?
We had a “refresher” course. This involved a one week prep, covering financial economics and then the Finance Theory course which covers investments and corporate finance. The vast majority of the students found the class to be extremely engaging and a lot of information to help them jump start the program. This was particularly important, as job recruiting would begin in the fall.
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
8
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
The course selection is divided between required courses, restricted electives and unrestricted electives. Restricted electives tend to be the typical finance courses. Required classes are the finance theory, a proseminar (which involves helping a company with either a financial engineering problem or a financial management problem.)
Almost any graduate level course at MIT can count as a unrestricted elective. I pursued a financial economics pathway. I took the first 2 classes (1 each semester) of the Finance PhD track, which included Financial Economics with Stephen Ross. This was probably my favorite course.
Other students took courses in mathematics, statistics, computer science, english/literature, game theory, negotiation.
You can actually take many elective courses, if you have the time.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
10
Tell us about the quality of teaching
The quality of teachers varies. All of the full professors are top researchers who all have published in the leading economics and finance journals. Many of them run their own hedge funds or are advisers and have a unique professional and academic insight.
Despite this, some professor are better at teaching than others.
The practitioner professors are more often teaching project based classes, such as Proseminar or Practice of Finance seminars.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
9
Materials used in the program
Required courses:
Usual stuff, BKM, BMA, Hull, etc
Cochrane, “Asset Pricing”
Campbell, Lo, McKinlay, “Econometrics of Finance Markets”
Electives: Tons of books, a sample
Leroy, “Principles of Financial Economics”
Ingersoll, “Theory of Financial Decision Making”
Sterman, “Business Dynamics”
Duffie, “Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory”
Oksendal, “Stochastic Differential Equations”
Grinold & Kahm, “Active Portfolio Management”
…
And many more. And of course, these vary depending on your choices.
Note: Below on the practicality, I chose a more theoretical courseload than most.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
7
Programming component of the program
We are free to use whatever language and tools we want to help us. And we are expected to either know this already or learn this ourselves. While here, I have used stat/math packages such as R, MatLab and EViews.
Projects
I have done two main projects (among countless smaller ones). One involved designing better optimization algorithms for factor portfolios for a large asset manager. The other involved designing a new investment product.
Career service
There is a dedicated career adviser within MIT Sloan’s career services center that works purely with M.Fin. students. Furthermore, as students at Sloan, we have access to both the career services, interviews and job postings at both regular MIT and Sloan.
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
9
Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
This dynamic may change next year; but we were a very small and tight knit group, regardless of nationality, etc.
What do you like about the program?
The flexibility is what drew me to the program and that’s still what I find best.
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?
There are so many things to do/see/take advantage of at MIT (guest lectures, classes, conferences, events) and I don’t particularly have the time to do these things.
The MIT Sloan facilities, in a physical sense, ie number of classrooms, study spaces, etc is somewhat limited and old. However, a new building should be finished this fall, just in time for my class not to be able to use it.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
I would consider rearranging the order that the students take some of the required courses. I would also help employers understand the nature of the program. It is a Masters of Finance degree; not necessarily an MFE degree, albeit a student could tailor it to a quantitative finance degree.
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 accepted a job offer to work in a bank in NY.
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
10
Other comments
Being in Boston is good for those looking to get into asset management.
Click here to submit a review of your program
Students studying at MIT Sloan business school
This review was submitted on 3/4/2010 at 15:59:47 by a student who studied full-time in the program from 6/2009-6/2010*
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
undergrad education in computer engineering
work experience in software
Did you get admitted to other programs?
Columbia FE, LSE FinEconomics, etc
Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
perfect balance between MBA and Financial Engineering
(narrower than MBA but broader than master of financial engineering)
Tell us about the application process at this program
straight forward. Mandatory interview from 2010
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?
Yes. Referesher courses in the summer. Especially very useful for non-business/finance/economics majors
On a scale of 0-10, how would you grade the usefulness of these refresher courses?
10
Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Very flexible.
Analytics of Finance
Advanced corporate risk management
Investments
Options & Futures
Also, you can take any MIT/MIT MBA course as elective.
e.g. parallel computing, stochastic calculus, statistical inference and data mining. Also, you can take any Harvard/HBS course as elective (cross-registration)
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the flexibility of the curriculum?
10
Tell us about the quality of teaching
MIT’s unique lecture + recitation system
excellent professors
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the quality of teaching?
9
Materials used in the program
a lot
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the practicality of the curriculum?
10
Programming component of the program
no particular programming experience is required
MATLAB is used in many of the quantitative courses
Projects
many quantitative finance projects
many investment projects
many valuation projects
and many many more…..
too many projects…….
Career service
Full support of MIT Sloan career services office plus dedicated career adviser for MFin students
On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade the career service for internship and full-time job?
9
Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Very tight group; we hang out together and have a lot of fun
What do you like about the program?
The best thing must be the extremely flexible curriculum and elective choices. Also, MIT’s reputation for innovation and quantitative powerhouse helps in the job market.
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?
Too short. I wish i could spend more time at MIT.
Suggestions for the program to make it better
Perhaps an option to stay longer, for thesis
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?
Got an offer for a position in quantitative financial modeling; new york.
On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend this program to others?
10
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Tags: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, mit master in finance, program review, sloan
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