“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria RobinsonAs many of you have heard, I have decided not to attend Illinois Institute of Technology’s Master in Finance program, and instead opted to enroll at Baruch College in their Masters of Science in Financial Engineering program. I am not going to get into the details of the application process, and so on.  As it is obvious, the decision of admission came in at the 11th hour. I was all set to move to Chicago and then ‘it’ happened. In a short span all that could happen, happened, and I was set to move to New York. I was admitted to Baruch College in their MS in Financial Engineering program. It took me less than 4 hours to reply back with a decision to opt for Baruch program.
In this post, I will outline, as to what it is about Baruch that made me go for this big switch. I lost more than $2000 overall in the switch, but well worth it. We all know that Baruch is one of the top programs in the Financial Engineering in the world, but I will outline in particular the reasoning behind the switching and WHY I believe that they are such a great program.
I will not be flat out comparing, IIT MS Finance with the Baruch MFE, program although a subtle comparison can be seen at times. I hope that the post of mine here could be helpful to those of you, the prospective students to evaluate which school to attend. Compare your program using these factors and decide which place is the optimal for you to attend.
1) Curriculum:
My goal, as can be seen from my previous posts, was to enter a program where I can really develop and enhance my mathematical and programming skills with strong application to financial applications. I had a particular set of classes that I was particularly interested in taking for my graduate studies. These included: Stochastic Processes, Object Oriented Programming, Algorithmic Trading Development, Commodities Trading, and Time Series Analysis. I wanted some variation of these courses in my program. In addition, I had other interests that I wanted to pursue, for example, taking electives in Volatility Trading, Structured Finance, Statistical Arbitrage and Risk Management. To my luck and great surprise, Baruch just released a BRAND NEW Curriculum. The program requires one to take 7 core classes and the rest of the 5 courses are ELECTIVES that we can pick from a range of courses. Such curriculum makes Baruch one of the most flexible programs out there. One can basically pick one whole semester at their discretion to specialize in certain areas. Not only, am I able to get all the courses I wanted, I will have the opportunity of learning it from some of the top practitioners in the field, who have equally very strong research credentials. The curriculum is effectively set up to prepare you for a large range of jobs in the field, from Quant Developers, Statistical Arb Quants, Structured Financial Analyst, to Quantitative Strategists. Such spectrum is just enormous making Baruch program very unique. The computational and mathematical components are at par with the other Top schools offering similar programs. This was one big difference between the MS Finance program and the MS. Financial Engineering program. For me to take additional mathematical courses elsewhere, I had to go out of the program, register in courses with the Mathematics department, and fulfill the requirements. Having the ability to pick from a range of courses within one single housed program is truly great at Baruch. There is no job within the Trading and Quant world of Finance that Baruch curriculum does not prepare you for whether you want to become a Structured Finance Quantitative Analyst at a top consulting firm, or an IT analyst at a brokerage or get together with your friends from Baruch MFE and open your own Quant Hedge Fund. (BTW, those are all things Baruch alumni of the program are doing).
In addition, the program has refresher seminars. I think EVERY program should have a refresher set of courses. If you have a look at programs like CMU,Columbia,UChicago, Berkeley, etc, they all have refresher courses offered to their students to prepare them for the rigors of the program so that the students can truly succeed and learn effectively throughout the program. A program with refresher courses is a must for the discipline like financial engineering.
2) Faculty:
The faculty at Baruch has the perfect blend of practitioners and academicians. Over the years, Baruch program has evolved and the credit MUST go to its administration. Now, the teaching faculty of Baruch program is one of the BEST lot of bright, experienced, and personal achievers. I am providing you with achievements of only some (there are great many more) Baruch faculty in financial engineering program below:

• Dan Stefanica (Author of A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering)
• Sylvain Raynes (Author of The Analysis of Structured Securities: Precise Risk Measurement and Capital Allocation and The Elements of Structured Finance)
• Jim Gatheral (Author of The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner’s Guide (Wiley Finance))

The program is full with extraordinary people (http://mfe.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty). I mean honestly, who wouldn’t want to be taught by Jim Gatheral? He is one of the most famous quant in the world. The faculty range from current Managing Directors at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, to Research head at Bloomberg, etc. At the same time there are academicians teaching the core theory classes that is so imperative to the MFE base education The concentration of knowledge at the MFE Faculty at Baruch is unimaginable. The proximity to Wall street also attracts some amazing guest speakers, and adjunct lecturers. Having a great faculty like this, with deep connections in the industry is a dream comes true for any student.
3) Overall University Impact:
This is a very subjective criterion. Yes, it can be understood that a layperson might not know who/what Baruch College is, but does that really matter? Baruch is very well established in New York City and its MFE program is well entrenched in the financial world through its alumni and faculty. Do the Wall Street decision makers know about Baruch MFE? The answer is a definite, yes. Baruch MFE has grown into a very established program with strong placements on Wall Street. People know how selective Baruch is and what quality of students it produces. Students usually have multiple interviews/job offers upon graduation for a reason. As long as the hiring manager at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas know about your program, that’s all that matters. And yes, they know it VERY well. If you search through some old articles on Google, you will see how strong the program is in the eyes of people who matter. It is a general understanding now in the eyes of people who matter, that Baruch MFE is a top program now along the ranks of NYU, CMU, Princeton, Berkeley, and Columbia.
4) Placements:
Do I really even have to say anything here… Let the facts speak for themselves…
Graduation DateGraduatesPlacement RatePhD/MSDid Not LookLowHighAverageDec’09-May’102927 of 290075K110K90KFirst Year Starting Salary for Students with No Work Experience
Graduation DateGraduatesPlacement RatePhD/MSDid Not LookLowHighAverageDec’09-May’102221 of 220075K97K88KI mean, honestly, who puts up stats of students with no work experience? I have not seen such an open and transparent display of statistics anywhere. It is amazing to see the high numbers nonetheless.
While at Baruch, I will not be looking to settle with ‘any job’ as I would have to if I was elsewhere. Here, at Baruch, I will be aiming as high as one can possibly imagine, and why shouldn’t I? The students have all gone on to do great things, at some of the biggest companies in the world. It’s not too much to think about getting a quant position at Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, or Bank of America as a student at Baruch.
The one good thing about Baruch is that, I don’t have to be worried anymore about getting a job upon graduation. All I have to do is focus on my studies and try to learn as much as I can during the program, as the job…will follow. I haven’t even started the program, and I have already had emails forwarded to me regarding trading related jobs at Bloomberg and various other banks by the program director at Baruch.
Although, Baruch has VERY high placement rates with very high starting salaries, it does not mean that I have a guaranteed job and nor should anyone think that they will have a guaranteed job. It does however mean that the probability of me getting a good job increases considerably compared to other universities; I will still have to work hard to get a good job.