University of Illinois
Dec 9, 2009 – Through our working relationship with Dept of Finance at University of Illinois, QuantNetwork is proud to introduce to our members the first press release about the newly announced Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) degree from Illinois.
Joinly run by Department of Finance in the College of Business, and the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, the new MFE program is set to accept the first applications in Dec 15, 2009 with the first entering class will be admitted for Fall 2010.
The program website is at msfe.illinois.edu
Prior to this annoucement, QuantNetwork sat down to interview Prof. Neil Pearson, Professor of Finance and Harry A. Brandt Distinguished Professor of Financial Markets and Options. He is also on the executive committee of the MSFE program.
QuantNetwork: What are the differences between the MFE and MSF program at Illinois?
Pearson: The MSFE prepares students for quantitatively-oriented finance careers,including careers in derivatives valuation and hedging, risk management, and quantitatively oriented trading and portfolio management positions. The curriculum includes applied mathematics and statistics, computer programming, and finance, with half of the courses taught by engineering faculty.
In contrast, the MSF degree is less quantitatively oriented and prepares students for a broad range of careers in finance. All of the teaching in the MSF program is done by finance faculty, with the exception that students may take elective courses offered by other departments. (The MSF curriculum does include two elective courses in Financial Engineering that some students take.)
QN: What differentiates the MFE program at Illinois from the many similar programs in the US?
Pearson: A major differentiation between the Illinois MFE program from similar programs in the US is the joint effort between a solution-focused engineering department and a problem-oriented finance department, the former with expertise in the modeling and solutions of quantitative finance and investment problems and the latter with expertise in topical financial problems. This combination of expertise lies at the core of the financial engineering area which pertains to the application of engineering methodologies for the solution of financial problems. Many similar programs are operated either completely from an engineering department or from a mathematics department, or in the case of Princeton, between engineering and economics.
QN: Is the program offered on a full-time basis only? Do you have a quota or class size in mind?
Pearson: The program is full-time, the targeted class size is 30, eventually growing to 50 or 60.
QN: Are classes offered at night?
Pearson: Classes are only offered during the day.
QN: Thank you, Prof. Pearson.
