UC Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program

UC Berkeley Master of Financial Engineering Program

Application deadline
Four rounds, generally January, March, July, and October
Your entire Berkeley MFE experience is designed to give you the knowledge, experience, and connections you'll need to immediately launch a successful career in finance and data science. Fintech, blockchain, and artificial intelligence are just a few of the technologies disrupting the finance sector and our location in the heart of the Bay Area puts you at the center of all the amazing innovation taking place.

The Berkeley MFE Program at the Haas School of Business provides a depth of study in finance that reaches beyond basic business concepts to teach you how to combine modern portfolio theory with computational methods. Through the coursework, financial practice seminars, and tailored industry projects, you'll have many opportunities to learn firsthand how to apply these theories and methods to real-world situations. You will also benefit from the quality of students, breadth of activities, and network of impressive alumni contacts inherent to a top-ranked business school and a world-class university.

From your first day on campus, you benefit from access to a team of MFE-focused career specialists whose connections run both deep and wide across industries and around the globe. You also become part of the Haas Alumni Network— over 41,000 leaders influencing the future of business and finance. No matter which direction your career takes you, you can rely on the Berkeley Haas alumni network to connect you to the local community. Our students have gone on to work at companies like Goldman Sachs, Google, and Citadel to name a few.
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60,922
Rating
4.79 star(s) 24 reviews
Students Quality
5.00 star(s)
Courses/Instructors
5.00 star(s)
Career Services
5.00 star(s)

Latest reviews

Headline
Phenomenal program
Class of
2022
The MFE is one of the top financial engineering programs and has been since it was started by quant finance legend Mark Rubinstein. The program has maintained its pedigree by employing world class faculty and updating its curriculum to keep up with rapid innovation in the industry. In addition to its traditional quant classes, the MFE has expanded its course catalog to incorporate deep learning, AI, and even a crypto class that straddles the boundary between finance and tech. Due to its location and course catalog, the MFE is well equipped to provide various skill sets depending on each individuals career interests. Between the world class faculty and my diverse cohort of students attracted to the MFE, I had countless opportunities to learn from both my professors and my classmates. The program is incredibly well designed to encourage as much collaboration as possible to encourage you to get to know your classmates and to replicate the experience of working in a professional environment.

The only part of the program that I found less than ideal was that the timeline was a bit awkward. The program starts in March and ends in March with a winter internship period which is fairly atypical. I arrived the first week and found myself immediately applying for internships over the summer and during our winter internship period before I had covered any of the coursework. Despite this, the career advisers have managed to convince firms to create winter internships cycles specifically for this program. It’s not as robust as the traditional summer timeline but it does mitigate some of the opportunities missed from the misaligned timeline. That being said, this timeline isn’t without its perks; it’s only one year long and limits the opportunity cost of spending time in school in lieu of earning a salary and therefore makes it financially more reasonable in the long run than some of the alternatives.

All in all I was extremely thrilled with my experience (despite the whole COVID restrictions and limitations while I was in school) and would strongly recommend to any potential applicant.
Recommendation
Yes, I would recommend this program to a friend
Students Quality
5.00 star(s)
Courses/Instructors
5.00 star(s)
Career Services
5.00 star(s)
Headline
Strongly Recommended
Class of
2023
Just graduated from UC Berkeley. Excellent professors, seamless exposure to industry gaints, abundant career resources make it one of the wisest decisions for me to choose Berkeley MFE program.
Recommendation
Yes, I would recommend this program to a friend
Students Quality
5.00 star(s)
Courses/Instructors
5.00 star(s)
Career Services
5.00 star(s)
  • Anonymous
  • 5.00 star(s)
Headline
Great program with great people
Class of
2023
Joining and completing the MFE at UC Berkeley is a challenging and greatly rewarding experience. The program will give students all the tools they need in order to succeed in the quantitative/data industry in a short, intense time. Career services make themselves available at all times and provide valuable advice and great interview opportunities.
Recommendation
Yes, I would recommend this program to a friend
Students Quality
5.00 star(s)
Courses/Instructors
5.00 star(s)
Career Services
5.00 star(s)
Headline
Great program!
Class of
2023
I have just graduated from Berkeley's MFE and I can honestly say it has been one of the best decisions of my life.
The teachers are great, the students are competitive and the MFE office is always there for you.
Jacob Gallice, who replaced Linda Kreitzman last year, is extremely efficient to help you find a job and makes every effort possible to find you a job that suits you.
Recommendation
Yes, I would recommend this program to a friend
Students Quality
5.00 star(s)
Courses/Instructors
5.00 star(s)
Career Services
5.00 star(s)
Class of
2019
I am the current student at the Berkeley MFE program (class of 2019). This program is great! Linda Kreitzman, the director of our program, is extremely helpful and dedicated, knowing everyone on the wall street. The program is intense, fast-paced, offering state of the art skillsets both in buy-side and sell-side.
I graduated from this program and found it to be outstanding. Linda Kreitzman, the director of the program, is extremely dedicated and her outstanding effort to place students is truly remarkable. The program provides a foundation for careers on the buy side and sell side and several students have gone on to work as data scientists at technology firms. The program is extremely intense and fast-paced, so be ready. The only weakness of the program is that it is relatively far from NYC, although places just as well as other programs there and is well recognized in international financial centers (London, HK, etc.).
I was graduated from this program in 2013. I think It is a great program offered me with systematical training in Quantitative methods, financial knowledge, analytical skills and market intuitions. The career service is helpful to ensure everyone's internship and full time placement.
I am a graduate of this program (class of 2015). This program is outstanding. The faculty are excellent, and the dedication of the program office to the students is inspiring. My background before the MFE was in analysis of PDE, and I came to the program to build that skill set into one that is applicable in a wide variety of settings in the financial services industry.
I am a current student at the Berkeley MFE program. Joining this program has been one of the best decisions in my life so far. This program brings excellent professors, courses, students under one roof in a intensely packed program. The three terms I have taken till now have brought out the best in me (and has made me so tired as well). I did not know I could do so much. I have learnt a lot and feel confident that with a brand like Berkeley Haas MFE, the amazing learning opportunities, the efforts that I have put in and with the career service that one gets here - I will get job offers that I would like to take up. Most people in my batch do feel this way. Having said that its important to stress that this is a very very intense program and apart from technical abilities and intelligence having the right attitude is also very important to do well in the program. Its very easy to get demotivated because you are tested day in and day out ( whether its assignments, exams or interviews) and its not possible for somebody to do well in everything at all point in time. Accepting the fact that its ok to do average or less than average in some or multiple facets is a fact that many students here feel difficult to deal with.The program is competitive but not as much as I thought before joining. Classmates are very helpful. Further though one competes with classmates for jobs one competes with only a subsection for a particular job because people bring different skills are of varied experience and age in here.
I attended the program in 2014. The curriculum structure is amazing. Great balance between academic vs profesional courses. You get chance to meet and taught be some of the reverred name from industry and academia.
Support from MFE office is very helpful. They keep in touch even after you graduate and make sure that you are happy with your current job. They provide us with feedback on our interview skills and resume even before we reach Berkeley. From day one we get seminars from different organizations telling us what they do.
Other than MFE life at Berkeley in general is awesome, and I am very happy that I decided to do MFE from Berkeley.
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