Hi Everyone, I need advice in choosing between UC Berkeley MEng Industrial Engineering & Operations Research (IEOR) with a concentration in Fintech, Columbia MA in Mathematics with a specialization in Mathematics of Finance (MAFN), and UCLA Masters in Financial Engineering (MFE). I want a program which is strong in machine learning and its application in finance. I am 50-50 about working as a data scientist at a top tech company/ fintech startup and quant at a top-tier hedge fund (Citadel, AQR, etc). Also, I have kept the option of entrepreneurship in fintech open incase I want to return to India after working in the US for a few years. It is really hard for me to make the decision. I really appreciate if people could give their valuable insights! Thanks.
Background
Degree - MSc Physics + B.E. Mechanical from Tier I college in India
Experience - 2 months internship at an oceanographic research institute, 5 months internship at an entrepreneurship-focused research institute, 6 months internship in operations management at Amazon, worked for 3 months as equity research associate at a stock brokerage firm, working as Senior Analyst in the Complex Securities Valuation department of EY since 1st week of Jan,2022
Technical Skills - Good knowledge of R, Python, SQL, and MATLAB
Additional Info - FRM Level 1 Cleared, 10+ MOOCs from Coursera, Udemy, and EDX related to Finance & Data Science, Will (hopefully) clear FRM Level 2 by the time I join in Fall 2022
UC Berkeley MEng IEOR (Fintech) Pros – reputation of UC Berkeley, proximity to silicon valley (ideal for data science roles), 9 months capstone project with JP Morgan, great career service, small batch size of fintech (~40) Cons – short duration of course (9 months), fintech concentration was introduced in 2017 (less industry connections)
Columbia MAFN Pros – ivy league, located in NY (great access to finance companies), well-established alumni network of MAFN graduates, ideal duration of course (15 months) Cons – internal competition with MSOR and MFE programs, poor career service, larger batch size (>100)
UCLA MFE Pros – ideal duration of course (15 months), applied finance project, Cons – less flexibility in course selection, less prestigious, offered by business school (less rigorous)
If your family will be able to complete a certificate of finances for any of these universities…they are all very good. You might want to think about other things that you want in a college…
Weather. The weather in NYC is very different from the Bay Area of CA, or LA.
Ease of travel. It might be easier for you to travel to India from CA than from CA…that would need to be checked.
Did you include health insurance and travel in your costs?
I think the costs of off campus housing are similar but you might want to check that too. Cost of living in all of those areas is HIGH.
For Quant finance firms, they like students with pure mathematics background, and can do well on analytical tasks. Having CS will also help. I don’t think there is a huge difference between UCB and Columbia. If you want to be on the west coast, then UCB is probably better. But if you want east coast firms, then Columbia would be easier for networking.
I know numerous Indian nationals who (if engineering grad) do 1-year stem degrees in the US and borrow. We have recruited these grads and it seems that there are good private lending schemes for 80k+ US masters. 1 year masters = 3 year work visa and 3 shots at H1B visas (more reserved for masters degrees).
I wouldn’t advise any student to take $80,000 a year in loans…for any profession. That’s a lot of money…and there will be interest.
Sorry…maybe these loans are available…but I personally do not think they are advisable.
Your company sounds willing to deal with sponsoring those who are not citizens. There are many places that don’t…and I know of companies that used to, but they don’t need to now…so they don’t. YMMV.
Just giving my perspective. It’s worked out for many foreign masters students I know - for very specific 1 year programs. A 3 year U.S. work visa is nothing to sniff at.
I have applied to the MSOR program ( decision pending) offered by the IEOR department as well. However, I would be preferring the MAFN program over MSOR program.
I have gathered a lot of information about the Columbia MAFN and Columbia MSOR programs from the quant net website. However, there is a lack of awareness about the UC Berkeley MEng IEOR Fintech program on that platform.