A little too much Lost

I think I watched a little too much 'Lost' last night. I finished season 3 and I went to sleep at about 4 am only to awake after a gunshot to the back of my head from Ben, the leader of 'the others,' ended my visit to his Pittsburgh home.

You know those conversations in the show where Ben talks to Jack and you know he's just playing mind games with him? We were having one of those conversations, in his house and I was trying hard not to give anything away. You know, holding my cards close to the vest. At one point I even contemplated shooting him. Eventually I took the glasses, from a table, that I had come to pick up. (And I have no idea why these glasses were so important)

So, I said goodbye to Ben Linus, and right after I turned my back and was about to reach for the front door, BANG I felt my head jerk forward as a bullet hit me in the head. I fell to the ground and looked up at him and he taunted me with something like, "Nice try."

DANG IT! Why didn't I shoot him when I had the chance!? Stupid Ben Linus.

Top Financial Engineering Programs

Getting a degree in Quantitative Finance can be a great career
move. It can be very expensive as well. So I just want to call it from where I sit. I'm sure my opinions will change over time. Feel free to add comments.

I really like reading lists of things and so I'm going to publish a list of something that I actually have an opinion about: financial engineering master's degree programs.

Are you stoked?

1. New York University (NY, NY)

Masters of Science in Mathematics of Finance
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences

In the heart of Wall St. and housed in a really good math program.

2. Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA)

Masters of Science in Computational Finance
Tepper School of Business

These guys do it right, interdisciplinary, career services available, internship after 2nd semester, and probably the biggest alumni network (for their program, not school).

3. Cornell University (Ithaca/NYC, NY)

Masters of Science in Engineering (Option in Financial Engineering)
School of Operations Research and Information Engineering

Third semester is in Manhattan at their Broad St. campus, which is a big plus for networking.

4. University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)

Masters in Financial Engineering
Haas School of Business

Probably the best public university in the world, and a top ten business program. On top of that you have the option of looking for work on the east and west coast. The program is short, so it seems like it is most beneficial to those with some industry experience.

5. Columbia University (NY,NY)

Masters of Arts in Mathematics (Specialization in Mathematics of Finance)
Departments of Mathematics and Statistics

6. Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

Masters of Science in Financial Mathematics
Departments of Mathematics and Statistics

7. Columbia University (NY,NY)

Masters of Financial Engineering
Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research



This list pretty closely resembles how I would respond to each of the schools if I were admitted to all of them. Fortunately I only applied to 3 of them and was admitted to one so my decision wasn't too difficult. It represents my overall view of the quality of the program, including job placement.

The first three programs (NYU, CMU, CU) top the list because they have summer internships built into the system, which is a must for me, coming without prior financial industry experience. CMU and Berkeley rank highly because they are both housed in B-schools and offer a lot of career assistance. CMU is the oldest of the programs, I'm guessing NYU, Stanford, and Columbia MAFN are the most mathematically intense, and that NYU, CMU, and Columbia have the best reputations on The Street. Although, I have heard negative things about Columbia's MFE program from multiple sources.



This seems like a pretty good resource with some basic info on different programs.
Quantnet 2009 Rankings
Top 10 Quant Schools
Global Derivatives rankings