<p>I’m an undergraduate doing IOE right now. Like Ross, grades are pretty inflated but it does not have as much competition as many students are Mechanical or EECS drop-outs. It is more quantitative than Ross but the job recruiting at Ross is a lot better. IOE is more geared toward consulting while Ross is better for finance.</p>
<p>So then if a student is strong in Math and Sciences, is interested in the Quant side of Finance and enrolls in Ross for the best employment opportunities, what advanced Finance or (outside of Ross) Math/other coursework would one recommend?</p>
<p>Reasoning: I wanted a rigorous education. Plain and simple.</p>
<p>I got a job offer on buy-side so it’s not like the end result was any different, just the path was much much tougher.</p>
<p>Nothing is on level with Ross recruiting, let’s be clear about that.
Half the reason why demand for financial math is low is because very few schools have a similar program and so recruiters are unfamiliar. It’s the undergraduate equivalent of an MFE (M. Financial Engineering, for those of you who are curious).</p>
<p>That being said, I’ve taken both Ross classes and obviously Fin Math courses. If your son is interested in the math-y advanced finance courses, take the Fin Math ones.</p>
<p>^ “Half the reason why demand for financial math is low is because very few schools have a similar program and so recruiters are unfamiliar. It’s the undergraduate equivalent of an MFE (M. Financial Engineering, for those of you who are curious).”</p>
<p>That’s not really the reason, even though I don’t doubt it’s true. The real reason why Fin Math and even most MFE programs are a shell of their pre-2008 self is because both programs give you the skillset to succeed on sellside desks. </p>
<p>Pre-2008, most of the grads from either program work as desk quants on structuring/trading desks on the sell side. Think about it, your simulation/pricing/derivatives coursework are really tailormade for the old fashion structuring desks. These once lucrative business have been decimated by unnecessary regulatory burden brought on by politicians who don’t know crap about the business. Most exotic desks on the sell side are either folding completely or downsizing significantly.</p>
<p>Everyone sees this happening, except for professors/administrators who run fin math/MFE programs alike, who are completely out of touch with the real world and still to this date have not realigned their programs to cater to buyside quant research.</p>
<p>I am quite involved with recruiting on the buyside and almost all MFE grads that come in have been disappointing. Most just come in and talk about various pricing models, arguing why they would use PDE as opposed to black scholes etc or talk about their project simulating P&L for some random highly theoretical exotics that are not even practical and no one in the real world would trade.</p>
<p>also, buyside recruiting is much harder because the available spots are less. The turnover is far lower and most firms don’t need teams and teams of quants, unlike the sell side where they would have teams of quants just for each individual asset class/product type.</p>