Baruch College Master in Financial Engineering program

An outstanding MFE program in NYC

What do you think is unique about this program?
What is unique about Baruch MFE is its culture of success. Dan (the program Director) has a significant effect on the program by requiring hard work and results. My impression is that other programs' key selling point is their host school reputation.
Baruch MFE on the other hand has had consistent top results in competitions with other schools. Another consequence of this trait is the very positive feedback our students get during the recruiting process.

While not perhaps unique, other useful features of the program are:
- the Quant Lab - where students can work, cooperate and have access to financial books and Bloomberg terminals.
- excellent faculty(that's an understatement) - a great mix of full time staff and industry professionals.

What are the weakest points about this program?
Nothing that comes to mind at this moment. I am sure that whatever it is, Dan is currently working on fixing it.

Career services
This is one of the best features of Baruch MFE. Dan has a no student left unemployed mentality. I applied to Baruch MFE (and only to Baruch MFE) because of the reviews that Dan got (on quantnet) and he did not disappoint. He is one of the hardest working and ambitious people that I know.

The way I see it is the following:
- the selection process is very rigorous and best applicants get admitted to the program (and the smartest among them accept).
- the program is outstanding in quality and in teaching students useful skills
- students go to interviews and leave a good impression with potential employers
- best fit students get summer internships and full time positions
- employers recognize the skill, hard work and can-do attitude of Baruch MFE students/alumni and come back for more

I can guarantee you that if you get accepted into the program and work hard you will have a good full-time job after (if not before) finishing the program.

Student body
The admission process is very good and it is easy to deal with smart and positive students. The program is very small and everybody knows everybody else. Many classes require team work. There is competition and cooperation and that makes the program better.

Emphasis on strong technical skills. Overwhelming amount of work. Fantastic career services.

What do you think is unique about this program?
Its emphasis on developing hard skills: strong familiarity with a large number of programming languages (C++, Python, R, VBA, Matlab, Unix) and methods from statistics and applied math. The curriculum also does not sacrifice a thorough review of financial concepts or advanced mathematics, like stochastic calculus. I was able to put a lot of great stuff on my resume and had a strong foundation to pursue in my career the areas I found most interesting.

What are the weakest points about this program?
It expects students to absorb a large and diverse amount of material in a short amount of time. Often it felt difficult to master the small number of things I cared about when I had to tackle so many topics. You can still be very successful in this environment, though, if you set aside enough time and take charge of your education.

Career services
Fantastic. Most of my interviews came through personal connections with faculty and alumni rather than recruiters or career websites. Career services are not limited to getting people their first placement. I have heard many stories of alumni finding their second jobs through the Baruch MFE network as well.

Student body
A diverse range of students. The students are also very hard-working and ambitious. This creates a great, competitive atmosphere that really pushes you to be the best you can be. People are, at the same time, very friendly and civil with one another. I think this is because of the small size of the program and the frequency of interaction with other students.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
BS Mechanical Engineering, West Point, 2001. Five years active duty in the U.S. Army as a cavalry officer. I studied full-time in the program from 9/2008-12/2009.

Did you get admitted to other programs?
I was also admitted to Columbia MSOR.

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
I basically had a choice between an MS in Operations Research at Columbia and an MFE at Baruch. After a challenging interview with Professor Stefanica, I realized his vested interest in maintaining a world-class program at Baruch. I was genuinely impressed with his level of involvement, and knew that was where I wanted to earn my master's degree.

Tell us about the application process at this program
I followed the published directions and no administrative problems in the application process. I think I remember the process taking longer than other places, but learned that it is because Professor Stefanica personally reviews every application after it passes an initial filter through the admissions committee. He takes time to interview, in person if possible, each potential candidate. During the interview you get an honest appraisal of your chances as a candidate.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Yes, and they are essential. These rigorous courses enable an incoming student to achieve a base level to begin the fall semester. Even though the courses have general names, like calculus refresher and probability refresher, they introduce fundamental concepts in finance that are built upon during the program.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
For full-time students, the courses are front loaded with the basics one is expected to know coming out of an MFE program. In the second and third semesters there are electives that focus on optimization, market and credit risk, structured finance and statistics. The courses I valued the most were Numerical Linear Algebra, Stochastic Calculus and Statistics for Finance. Although the program offers an array of electives, students are free to take courses from the business school.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Most of the elective courses are taught by practitioners, which provide diverse exposure to how concepts are applied in industry. The only classes where an active TA was important was in Probability and Stochastic Calculus. Otherwise, close interaction with fellow students and professors was sufficient to learn the material.

Materials used in the program
Shreve for Probability and Stoch. Calc. Otherwise, courses reference multiple texts and are mostly taught from lecture notes.

Programming component of the program
The official language of the program is C++. However, there is opportunity for one to learn many other languages like VBA, R, Python, Perl, .NET, Java, Matlab.

Projects
Most projects are group oriented and depend on the nature of the subject. Market Risk and Advanced Computational Methods involved trading simulations. However, most of the home work assignments are projects in nature.

Career service
Professor Stefanica is fully vested in this process. He is integral ( and tireless ) with regard to internships and full-time placement.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Due to the small class size, each year group develops cohesive bonds. Every one admitted into the program is qualified to be there, so there is a high level of respect between students from the beginning.

What do you like about the program?
Hard work is rewarded with career opportunities.

What DON'T you like about the program?
Some of the elective courses are taught by multiple practitioners, which in some cases dilutes the depth of instruction. But this is a case-by-case issue.

Suggestions for the program to make it better?
Modularize the elective courses to give students more choices and give full ownership of the module to one instructor. The obvious constraint, though, is ensuring there are enough practitioners able to teach the modules, and enough students taking each one to make it worthwhile for the instructor.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Graduated with multiple offers, and will start working at the beginning of February as a commodities trader for a hedge fund.

The program has the ability to change lives.

Unique about this program
The personal attention given by the program director is something I have not seen at any other school. In addition the commitment of the alumni to help grow the program is outstanding whether it is in monetary terms or in terms of employment opportunities. Not only do the alumni assist from the outside, they come out to the events that are organised by the program. A really good friend that I made after coming to this program was someone who graduated before me. There are MANY great qualities to this program but that is what I think might be a bit unique although many schools have great alumni who help out a lot. The usual.. great placements..great job opportunities are not unique because all the top 3-4 programs provide this.

The program not only prepares you for a wall street career by giving u education but also psychologically.

Weakest points about the program
This question is a bit strange in my opinion. There was nothing that I would say I "hated" or would consider "worst" but there were some things that could be improved. The question before should have been what is "good" about this program. The two part stochastic calculus requirement can be a bit cumbersome on students who are not really interested in becoming heavy quants. It would be nice to have the first part as requirement and the second as optional. The course when I was taught was by a very mathematically oriented person leading to very minimal real world examples in my opinion. The course is taught in a three professor rotation so maybe the other professors are great.

From what I have heard this is something that is actually being looked at. Other than that I really have no complaints about this program. I was treated well, I was helped whenever possible with any queries and I made some great friends in the program.

Career services
This is probably the best thing about the program. I was someone who had no finance or business experience before I came here. I was an engineer and had mostly engineering experiences. The placement services in my mind are outstanding. I had several internship interviews and offers through the program although I chose to go with an offer that I attained myself.
The way the career services primarily works at Baruch MFE is through Dan Stefanica. We get emails around recruiting season and a few during the off-season with jobs from alumni/contacts/recruiters/firm hr/etc. The email usually asks us to send our resumes to Dan and then he takes care of it. There were students in my year who got interviews to position they never even applied to. It is a true "placement" system. You send your resume to Dan and you show up prepared for the interviews.
We now have companies who have made us a target program and the MD's come and try to recruit us personally with talks and presentations. Dan also hand picks students who he knows will succeed so if you get the interview you most likely will get the job because the program prepares you well.
When I was there, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan came onto campus and gave us a talk for their quant program. We went to UBS and got a presentation from them.
I am told now that many other quant programs of different firms are coming on campus to recruit us and the procedure has got a bit more structured where we have to apply on their website and the resumes get sent through Dan and the university recruiting system.
The best part is that, the jobs are not just entry level positions. Several jobs at senior level are sent out too since as an alumni you are put on the mailing list and anyone can apply even 5 years after graduation. Hedge funds, software and technology companies, investment banks and prop firms are all part of the firms that recruit with us now. There were a few students who got full-time positions through the career services within the 2nd semester in the program and switched to part time. There are people who are working in algo trading,research, risk management, software development, etc from my year.

I chose to go work for an investment bank for my internship out of several offers, where I was given a full-time offer for after graduation. I worked as a trading assistant at a hedge fund during the school year before I went over to the bank. There were two more in my year who got part-time jobs at financial firms in their first or 2nd semester.

The program has great career services and I can only see it getting better.

Students
I spoke about the student body above. I have been fortunate enough to make some good friends. The two friends that I hang out regularly since I graduated include one who was in my year and another who graduated before me from the same program. There was a lot of competition between students in my year but I am sure that is everywhere.

Learned about the program from Quantnet

I am a recent graduate of the program and thought I would provide my perspective in the hopes of informing prospective students as well trying to improve the experience. The program's strengths revolve around a very committed academic environment. Students work very closely with one another and have constant interaction with professors. Professors are always available and have a very good sense of how students are developing through the program. To me, this is what really separates Baruch’s program from its peers. There is a constant push from professors to improve, and I get the sense that professors take great pride in their students' development. This is aided by a relatively small class size and stands in contrast to many other MFE programs where professors sometimes view teaching as a tertiary concern.

The course selection is well done. There is a basic pricing and programming class, and two semesters of numerical methods (monte carlo, trees, pde's, every possible way to decompose a matrix...). The numerical methods courses are very C++ heavy, and I learned to love the cruel mistress of objected oriented programming. There are more topical courses, such as risk management, structured finance, and market microstructure. The largest departure from the standard MFE curriculum is the two semesters devoted to probability/stochastic calculus. This tends to be more than other programs do. While perhaps somewhat theory heavy, it does give students a very strong mathematical background, and with the addition of Gatheral to the faculty, allows students to fully appreciate stochastic volatility. The more topical courses tend to be taught by industry professionals, who then often recruit promising students for positions.

Placement is good. There are plenty of statistics on this, and I don't think they need to be rehashed here. I will say that career services tends to be somewhat informal, with much of the actual placement coming from the program director, Dr. Stefanica. The advantage of such an arrangement is that he has a very good sense of a given student's strengths and interests and is therefore able to place students in appropriate positions. I think as the program continuous to mature this process needs to be formalized and perhaps some of the work shifted to another professor or dedicated resource, as the current process seems hard to scale.

I have only one major complaint about the program, which is the lack of a formal statistics/econometrics class. This may be changing soon with a statistics class added as an option for Fall 2011. There was a three-day stats seminar that many students attended, but I don't believe that one can really absorb such a topic in 10 hour marathon sessions. For prospective students, I would try to learn this outside the program.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I entered the program straight out of undergrad in finance, with 2 years of part-time experience in consulting. My math and programming knowledge was coming mostly from high-school.
GRE: V450, Q790.
I studied full-time in the program from 9/2009-12/2010

Why did you choose this program?
Strong syllabus, good location, low tuition.

Tell us about the application process at this program
Application process was smooth; everyone I had to contact was very nice. The online application tracking system is very helpful

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Refresher courses are very useful. I kept referring to my notes from refreshers throughout whole program.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
The course selection is very well structured, if not that flexible. Since I am coming from financial background, my favorite classes were those which concentrated in finance more that math or programming. Two very best classes were Pricing of Financial Instruments and Structured Finance.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Teaching is done by both practitioners and academics. All professors were available to help students, regardless of whether they work in the industry or not. Mostly I was using Lecture Notes, taken or provided by professors. Lecture notes provided in Probability and Stochastic Calculus were very helpful

Programming component of the program
Mostly C++, some VBA. We had a separate class for OOP in C++. Also program offers many weekend workshops where students can pick up basics of other languages

Projects
Everyone in the program has to do a Capstone Project, which depending on the student's preferences can involve more programming or research. Project can be done individually or in groups.

Career service
Career service is amazing. Professor Stefanica is doing great job of placing his students for both internships ans full time positions.

What do you like about the program?
There are many great things - curriculum, professors, students. The thing I like most is that MFE students have a separate library, which has all the necessary books and where we could all study together.

What DON'T you like about the program? What changes would you like made?
Some of the courses are taught by multiple professors, which makes material less structured. As I mentioned, there was little flexibility. If you were a FT student in my year you had no choice for first two semesters. I know it is changing now, and I think it's great.

What are your current job status?
Research analyst

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I studied part-time in the program from 9/2007-12/2010
no extensive background in math, but met the application requirements.
degrees in finance and banking, international business.
4.0 GPA
worked as a strategy consultant

Why did you choose this program?
Very tough to get into, great reviews on the PT track. I didn't apply to other programs

Tell us about the application process at this program
Pretty straightforward - make sure you have everything required for the application, attend the info session. then submit everything and hope you're called in for an interview. do well on the interview and hope you get an offer. worked well in my case ;]
I used QuantNet, general reading, personal contacts to learn about the program

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
A must, at least for this program. Everyone who took it, regardless of their background, were happy to have taken it.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program.
I like the combination of courses covering the fundamental concepts, and the more practical classes. the former were rather tough at times, but surviving those made the practical courses much more enjoyable.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Combination of academics and practitioners, with "more academic" professors mostly assigned to early classes in the program (e.g. probabilities, linear algebra, etc).
always ready to help, during and after the class.
TA are very helpful, partly because many had been in current students' shoes themselves.
Teaching materials are a combination of traditional textbooks, additional reading and instructors' own materials.

Programming component of the program
C++ is the king/queen in the program, with occasional use of xls/VBR. 2 classes dedicated to C++, plus numerous assignments that require C++ skills

Projects
Projects tended to be rather practical, not much pure academic research. At times involve coding, but coding did not serve as a goal in and of itself. Quite a few trading strategy projects, risk management, and related areas. Mostly group projects, but some professors insisted on individual assignments.

Career service
Extremely helpful, and that's an understatement. The Director is personally involved in each student's success with getting an internship and a job. Tons of helpful seminars, postings, and relevant information.

What do you like about the program?
Strong values
Student body that is helpful, respectful, not arrogant
Value

What DON'T you like about the program? What suggestions would you have?
With so many activities and projects, the staff looked a little overwhelmed/overworked at times. Work on improving the brand recognition, though that's definitely a matter of time at this point.

What are your current job status?
Employed FT, Head of Financial Services Team at NYCEDC

Other comments?
Overall, it's been a great experience, very happy to have chosen and gone through the program.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Worked in finance for 8 years. BBA from Baruch
I studied part-time in the program from 9/2006-12/2010

Why did you choose this program?
Liked the program director, very impressive from first time meeting him. I didn't apply to other programs

Tell us about the application process at this program
Liked the program director, very impressive from first time meeting him

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Yes refreshers are offered for about $2000. They're great but tough as heck

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
I was allowed to take some interesting classes in addition to the required ones which was great for someone like me. I like finance but I did not want to spend my entire program debugging C++ code or doing tough as nails Math if there was no finance that was shown by the instructors. Dan was really good about making sure that this was not forgotten in the classes he taught.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Dan is great at teaching in general and specifically in the subjects he taught such in intro to pricing and numerical methods and PDE's. I had the privilege of taking a class with the late Professor Neftci and it was unbelivable, he was really great at teaching.

Programming component of the program
C++, there is a dedicated class. I suck at programming so I spent quite a bit of time

Projects
Group work in class which helps students learn together, reall sense of togetherness here which is much better than the experiences I heard from other students.

Career service
Dan is always available(program is larger now so I get a response to my emails within the hour as opposed to 1 minute ). The placement is great, even during financial crisis most students were able to get internships and jobs. I did not need this service specifically though my resume getting tweaked led to more interviews when I needed them but the career service was definitely available.

What do you like about the program?
Very small group like atmosphere where everyone knows everyone (not a cog in a wheel). You can make lifelong friends (I have) and especially networking contacts. People have gotten jobs/interviews just by knowing each other because you work together and see each others strengths and weaknesses.

What DON'T you like about the program? What kind of changes would you make if you were in charge?
Some classes can be taught too theoretically without remembering finance. It might be beneficial to have the theoretical stochastic calculus taught by a professional from the industry rather than a "math" person

What are your current job status?
I work full-time for an investment bank in risk management

Other comments?
Great program, I always recommend to people looking to go into financial engineering

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
French engineer, started my career as an Information System consultant at Altran. A couple of years ago, moved to NYC to start the MBA Honors program at Baruch College, worked for Citigroup, CSFB. Realized his interest for financial engineering so completed the MFE at Baruch and works as a structured finance quantitative analyst at Vero Capital since then.
I studied full-time in the program from 9/2007-5/2009

Did you get admitted to other programs?
Did not apply to other programs.

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Top program from a public university.

Tell us about the application process at this program
No issue, the application process was very smooth.

Besides the program's websites, what alternative sources of info you used to learn more about the program?
While completing my MBA at Baruch, interacted on several occasions with the MFE body, attended lectures.

Does this program offer refresher courses for incoming students? How useful was it?
Yes, extremely useful. Besides the obvious material value, those refresher courses are a great way to meet and get familiarized with the student body, the school system, professors within a relaxed and friendly set of interactions. Although the material cover in such a short time requires some non negligible work.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
The courses selection in this program are excellent and some classes are presented by practitioners which gives an invaluable insight on the job world outside the theoretical environment.

The excellent structured finance course work presented by Sylvain Raynes is unique among MFE programs.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Practitioners are dedicated and surprisingly accessible for the students given their professions.

The support from TAs in each class is great and an invaluable help to comprehend better the class work.

Materials used in the program
Textbook used in the program are the usual top teaching material.
For some classes, the Professor being also a published practitioner, it made sense to use his book which is a great complement to notes.

Programming component of the program
The official language of the program is C++, all classes will have coding homework/projects in C++.

Excel/VBA will be the second language.

Projects
Both individual and group projects were assigned.

A "capstone" project to be completed during a semester is a more consistent and require a great amount of work and dedication, but very rewarding in terms of learning and experience.

Career service
The Baruch MFE provides a great internship and full time placement service through the great connection and reputation of it s alumnus and professor body.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
The MFE program at Baruch is like an extended family. The class size is relatively small and we formed a great group inside the larger Baruch College cohort.

What do you like about the program?
I liked the challenging and great quality of the learning, the great interaction with professors, TA and students, facilitated by an online forum tool used for classes, but also other topics such as members helping others in their area of expertise.

The students have all great human qualities and the general atmosphere is not so much competitive but rather everybody helping out to get all learn the most and the fastest.

What DON'T you like about the program?
I have to admit that I did not enjoy too much the logistics for some classes.
Those non-core classes very popular were packed and it was sometimes bothering me to be squizzed in inappropriate size classrooms. I believe that this was quite a long time ago and with the rising popularity and success of the MFE program within Baruch, more and larger classrooms are available now.

Suggestions for the program to make it better
The Director is the greatest asset of this program, he is doing a remarkable work. I may try to talk to the Dean in order to better organize the logistics for those few very popular classes.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Structured finance quantitative analyst

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I had a Masters in Management Science with computing and had worked in India for 1 year. I had a certificate in portfolio management from NYU.
I studied full-time in the program from Jan 2004- Dec 2005

Did you get admitted to other programs?
Yes

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
This was the most competitive and cost effective program

Tell us about the application process at this program
No problems. The response time was great. Dan Stefanica is amazing.

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
Yes they do and the refresher courses were brilliant.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
I loved the Advanced stochastic calculus, Princples in Fiancial Engineering and the risk management course.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
The teachers are from the industry and give the student a good perspctive on the real world.

Materials used in the program
Principles of Financial Engineering - Salih Neftci
The Analysis of Structured Securities - Sylvain Raynes and Ann Rutledge

Programming component of the program
C++, Mathematica, Matlab. VB

Projects
Individual and group

Career service
Dan is great is finding opportunities and now with the help of alumni the program is becoming stronger in terms of finding opportunities.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Its great.

What do you like about the program?
The love and care is unique.

What DON'T you like about the program?
A little more practical training.

Suggestions for the program to make it better
I would not change anything except make it a little more practical so that the students are more marketable.

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Business Development Manager. I am looking to work in Risk.

Can you tell us a bit about your background
MBA; 3 year working experience (2 non-us; 1 us)
I studied full-time in the program from 9/2005-5/2007

Did you get admitted to other programs?
this is the only one i applied

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
1) faculties are easy to access
2) working knowledge oriented
3) cost and benifit consideration
4) location
5) director was pushing very hard so that graduates can get a job (even before graduation)

Tell us about the application process at this program
1) send in all materials
2) schedule a meeting with the director
Initially the situation was tense due to it's competitive nature, but then it turns out to be a very pleasant experience

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
I took only C++ in 2005 summer. (they offered probabilities and calculus as well).
I didn't know how to write "hello world" before I went to the refresher course. After the refresher course, I can write basic application such as curve bootstrapping, matrix solver, etc.
No doubt that refresher course taught only entry level programming skills, but for people(like myslef) who didn't aim at those hard-core programming type of jobs, the material is enough for someone who wants to descide their career path later (programming- or analytic-oriented type of work)

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like
Calibration taught by Salih Neftci in 2006 fall.
Numerical linear algrbra I and II taught by Mayo in 2005 fall and 2006 spring.
Stochastic calculus.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Theoretical side is a bit weak. but the practical side (computing numbers) is strong
The instructors are always reachable for all kinds of matters. No need for looking for TA.

Materials used in the program
Besides some must-buy "big name" text books in the field, papers and notes (published or un-published) from other practioners are used as well. I would say the techniques in the papers are much more helpful in terms of interviewing for a job (provided that you are already 80% comfortable with the material covered in the text books)

Programming component of the program
C/C++ required.
VBA/mathematica if you are interested.
Long in short, i suffered while i was in the program. But I am now happy that i was suffered.

Projects
Implementing/computing projects (option pricer, sensitivities, CDO, VaR, etc) done in C/C++/EXCEL/Mathematica

Career service
The director basically asked (haunt) you about the status every time he saw you. He also hooks up a lot of opportunities for you.

What do you like about the program?
I spent 20k on tuition (and roughly another 20k on living expense). I got a lot more than those back first year at work.

What DON'T you like about the program?
none

Suggestions for the program to make it better
I would have done nothing different.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
Groups get assigned by director based on different background (good chance to practice on how to get along with others even if you dont like them in the real working environment).

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Working in a major financial institution as a senior quantitative analyst. At current stage, i am happy about where i am.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Baruch College BBA in Computer Information Systems, and Minor in Mathematics. I studied part-time in the program from 9/2002 - 12/2004

Did you get admitted to other programs?
No, I did not apply to any other MFE program

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
Same college as undergraduate studies, therefore convenient in many ways.

Tell us about the application process at this program
Easy to apply. Very friendly and helpful people taking care of application process.

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
This program offers these courses. They were quite useful to me.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Numeric Linear Algebra was my favorite course. The selection of courses in the program was good.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
The teachers are well prepared. TAs are quite helpful. The athmosphere is positive.

Materials used in the program
All good textbooks.

Programming component of the program
C++. Enough programming is done to give a good amount of practice.

Projects
Depending on the course, either individual or group projects were assigned. When group projects were assigned, the class was divided in groups with similar overall strength.

Career service
The director of the program puts a lot of effort into helping with the placement of graduates and alumnis. A very good alumni network is available for this purpose as well.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
I recall networking and socializing with students from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds.

What do you like about the program?
The people in the program (both students, teachers, the director, etc) made the program what it is. There was and still is a positive good feeling being part of it. We became a group of friends, not only colleages at school. Extracurricular activities helped us bond and relax even more.

What DON'T you like about the program?
A couple of courses were quite difficult for me, so I ended up needing extra help with them. Of course this was my shortcoming, not the program's

Suggestions for the program to make it better
It couldn't be better!

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
I am now a consultant for my previous employer on a part-time basis, as I am taking care of my child.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?
No previous experience in finance.
I studied part-time in the program from 8/2004-12/2006

Did you get admitted to other programs?
No. The only program I applied to, and was admitted to, was Baruch MFE (known as Applied Mathematics for Finance)

Why did you choose this program (over others, if applicable)?
I audited a class and was immediately attracted by the way the instructor interacted with the students. Moreover financially it made the most sense for me at the time.

Tell us about the application process at this program
After submitting my application and being interviewed by Dr. Stefanica, I was informed of my admission to the program.

Programs like Baruch MFE, UCB MFE have refresher courses for incoming students. Does this program offer such courses? How useful was it?
Yes, attended Baruch's three refresher courses: linear algebrea, advanced calculus and probability. Absolutely a must as the MFE program builds on these courses.

Tell us about the courses selection in this program. Any special courses you like?
Elective courses that I particularly enjoyed:

Risk Management class taught by Dr. Lev Borodovsky (Guest lecturer and co-founder of GARP). Why? the course focuses on the PRACTICE of risk management taught by a leading practitioner.

Structured Finance by Dr. Sylvain Raynes. Why? taught by a practitioner who believes in making a science out of finance, particular structured finance.

Required courses that I particularly enjoyed:
Advanced Computational Methods in Finance by Dr. Salih Neftci. Why? Dr. Neftci made seemingly difficult suggest accessible. One of the best professors I ever had. Will be dearly missed.

Numerical Linear Algebra and Numerical Methods for PDEs in Finance by Dr. Stefanica. Why? The foundation of financial engineering numerical methods and computation.

Required courses that I particularly appreciated:
Probability and Stochastic Calculus by Dr. Elena Kosygina. Why? appreciated the rigorous teaching handed down by Dr. Kosygina.

Tell us about the quality of teaching
Program had a nice blend of practitioners and academicians. TA's for the most part were helpful.

Materials used in the program
Standard textbooks in financial engineering were used.

Programming component of the program
C++ and VBA. Except the probabililty and stochastic calculus classes, almost all courses had a programming/computation element.

Projects
These were mostly group projects. The exception being the probability and stochastic calculus courses.

Career service
1. Program director and faculty referral (extremely helpful)
2. Alumni referral (extremely helpful)
3. The standard school career service (somewhat helpful)
4. Career fair (not so helpful)

Most of the students got placed via the first two routes. I have also heard of people getting internship via school career service.

Can you comment on the social interaction between students of different ethnics, nationalities in the program?
People from different ethnicities got along extremely well. There were no divisions along nationality or ethnic lines.

What do you like about the program?
The high degree of interaction between the faculty (including the director of the program) and the students. Every student receives individual attention from the director.

Leading industry practitioners such as Peter Carr, Jim Gatheral, as guest lecturers in the program.

What DON'T you like about the program?
Hard to say since the program has improved significantly since I have graduated.

Suggestions for the program to make it better
Establish direct and formal recruiting relationships with more leading financial institutions (this has been the focus for a while and significant progress has been made through persistent efforts from the director and growing alumni base)

What are your current job status? What are you looking for?
Working for the current employer since graduation.

Other comments
Joining Baruch's MFE program has been one of the best decisions in my life.

I joined Baruch straight out of Bachelor’s (Math/Finance). I had one finance internship prior to joining.

Baruch was the obvious choice over other programs for a variety of reasons: cost, close-knit classes, excellent professors, and exceptional job placement.

The refresher courses offered (mandatory) are essentially sped up pre-MFE courses. They are incredibly difficult with a class and homework every day of the week. But they really prepare everyone and put them in the right mindset for how difficult the actual courses are.

The course selection is truly amazing. There are classes for everyone from Market Microstructure to Risk Management. All courses are taught by real life practitioners which is very evident; you can almost smell their passion for the material they are teaching. Dan Stefanica himself teachers the two Numerical Method courses, and he is a fantastic teacher as well. Most of the professors are engaging and exciting. Homeworks are mostly completed in groups but that does not change how difficult they are. People with full time jobs should absolutely not do this program full time.

While the only requirement in joining is some C++ knowledge, students leave this programming knowing C++, VBA, Python, and R (at least). Since most of the teachers are practitioners they require that their homeworks be submitted in their native programming language. This leaves the students having exposure to a much wider variety of languages then is found elsewhere.

As far as job placement is concerned. It is not just that “Baruch has excellent placement”. It is that Baruch molds us all into “place-able students”. We are literally taught everything from what shoes to wear to how to conduct ourselves at interviews. While most programs focus 100% on course material, Baruch understands that no matter what job one is applying for there will always be a large soft-skills component. I can say firsthand that this feature alone has changed my life.

But perhaps everything aside what stands out more than anything in this program is how close all the students are with one another. Each student cares deeply about the wellbeing of the other (as does the Dean!). My friends not having an internship became my problem as well. When I was having difficulty with a particular programming project I had no less than five other students working with me for hours in order to ensure I submitted my project on time. I will most likely keep in touch with these guys for my entire career.

1. Dr. Stefanica, the program director is one of the most devoted and dedicated people I've met. He genuinely cares and helps the students to be successful.
2. The program provides a variety of opportunities ranging from specific opening to general professional development.
3. The alumni network is very strong with Dr. Stefanica being the central node.
4. I always received help whenever I reached out to my classmates.
One of the best decisions I've made in my life.

Baruch MFE is a small and highly demanding program. Its director Dan is extremely dedicated to the success of his students. He gives great support to all his students for them to be successful in their careers.

If you feel very lucky, do not take it for granted. The professors really did a lot of networking for you behind the scene.

If you feel unlucky, do not give up. Have faith in the Baruch MFE community and there will be a way out!

The program which giving you full support and all you need for success:
Most devoted director + top tier faculty + strong and reachable alumni network + close connection to academic and industry + very high placement rate + part-time student friendly + affordable tuition

One thing that Dr Dan Stefanica mentioned in the pre-MFE class is that the program is planning to launch a "accent reduction" program, since a great port of the student body is from non-English speaking countries. I can hardly imagine that any other program would even think about issues like this, and believe it or not, this might be surprisingly useful. And beyond that, only programs as caring as the one at Baruch would come up with ideas like this.

I think that among all the programs out there, Baruch has one of the strongest group of faculties. They are excellent on both academic and industrial side, and more importantly, they are extremely considerate.

Application process is fast. First from Wang and Second round from Dan go in less than a week.
Smaller group than other MFE program, which makes everyone know each other and 1.5yr time enough to help you make real new friends in Baruch. What's better, the alumni are really nice and helpful. I think it is also due to the small communities.
Cutting-edge and advanced courses. Sometimes you find you have known it in work before it is published. Also, this is highly-recommended when in the interview, the interviewers are also familiar with Baruch MFE. So, no worries about the “big name”.