University of California, Berkeley - Master of Financial Engineering

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 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.

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.

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.

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.