I tried searching the forums. Can anyone of you provide a review of Baruch's Pre-MFE's Seminars? I know the website provides reviews with a few sentences each.
http://mfe.baruch.cuny.edu/pre-mfe-seminars-feedback/
I was wondering if someone could give some more detail? For example, did the course go to0 fast? Was the professor or TAs great? Was he or she accessible outside of class? Was the exams hard? Homework hard? Was it worth the money to spend to try to get into an MFE program? Is there any preparation you would do before taking those seminars? Thanks.
I am also currently enrolled in the PRE MFE Advanced Calculus seminar, so hopefully I can also help shed some light on this.
The lectures do move quite fast, but if you read ahead of time you should be able to follow along without too much difficulty. Also, I found that the lectures helped me understand many concepts I didn't entirely grasp after reading them initially. The professor explains all of the ideas very clearly and thoroughly, and is always open to questions regarding the material during the lecture. After each 3 hour lecture there is a 1 hour recitation where the TAs are available to answer any questions regarding the lecture or homework (very knowledgeable and helpful). Outside of the classroom, the TAs and professor are accessible via email. However, the most useful resource outside of the classroom would be the online forum where all of the students, TAs and the professor ask and answer questions.
Workload: There are 6 homeworks and 1 exam. The HWs are not extremely difficult but definitely do take a good amount of time to go through to properly answer all of the questions and understand all of the concepts. I can't speak for the exam yet, but based on previous exams it seems that it will be quite similar to the HWs that are given throughout the seminar. Also, the exam is open books and open notes if that helps.
To sum up my opinion: I enrolled in the seminar with several goals: a) I wanted to see what the classroom experience would be like in the Baruch MFE program b) I wanted to see how math/finance/programming intense the material will be and c) I plan on applying to programs for financial engineering/mathematical finance in the future and wanted to develop the necessary background. All of these goals (and more) were met, so I am happy I enrolled in the seminar (and plan on enrolling for the next ones as well) so to me it was money well spent.
Now to answer some of your questions about a mathematical background. Personally, I have a B.S. in Mathematics and I am a recent college graduate so most of the math is still quite fresh. I have a very minimal background in finance, and a minimal background in programming (one introductory course). Now that you know my background, here is how I feel about the course.
If you don't know calculus before coming into the course you will definitely not be able to keep up with the course at all. Everything is extremely math related, and the math itself is at a decently advanced level (for calculus), so without any background there is almost no chance of success. Before coming into the seminar you should have a background in differential, integral, and multivariable calculus (usually called calculus 1,2, and 3, respectively). Perhaps audit some classes at a local college.
Besides for the math background, you should also know how to program somewhat decently (
c++ seems to be a popular choice). This is where I have had to spend a lot of time while studying and doing homework. Since my background in programming was not very strong it has definitely been a learning process, but I am improving as time goes on. As mentioned earlier, if you are able to program all of the pseudocodes that are in the book (there are about 7-10 essential ones) before coming into the program, you will have a great head start.
In terms of finance, I have found that most of the ideas covered in the seminar are pretty straightforward and easy to pick up on if you don't know them before coming into the seminar.
Once you register for the course, they suggest you read the first 3 or so chapters of the book and do the problems from the first chapter. I did exactly what was suggested (time was of the essence), and it helped me a lot for the beginning of the course. If you are able to read through the book and be able to understand all of the math in there (i.e. first half of each chapter), you will definitely be alright in the course (from the math perspective). If you can read the whole book and work through all of the problems ahead of time (as well as the programming) then you will almost definitely be able to breeze through the course.
Hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.
