Hi All, I currently work in HK for a US investment bank in the Valuation control deparment (Back office but do valuations review for equities exotics and derivatives products). have a MBA (from singapore) and hve passed all 3 levels of CFA. doid my bachelors in computer system engineering but i dont enjoy programming very much (although I can do it if the need be) Now in order to move to front office in a more business related function lile quants, financial engineering or equity structuring, I am thinking to do some Online Masters in Financial engineering. I have a family and cant really leave my job and relocate for a FT Masters. I did some research but could not find much information on reputable unis offering Masters in financia engineering. Uni of Columbia (he online program is very very expensive and one credit hour is 4k us$!!!), cant afforf this National Univ. of singapore( its affordable and contents are good but my main aim is to get a good univ nme on my resume (reputable), so please let me know if you have heard about nus program and is it credible finanlly please let me know about any good online MFE programe being offered. Thanks a lot for the help
USC has one. Columbia has a masters in Fin with a focus is FE I think. Chicago has something too
thanks i checked and USC looks good (its againa 50K us$ commitment) i know it will be very tough but is there any chance of getting any aid etc for a distance learning program. plus i have been to USC as an exchange student and i know its a good school but still not in the top 10 league. obviously its still an option are there anyother options please thanks again
Hi All, I wanted to take more inputs from you here. First of all my profile again age:30 educations: undergrad in Computer engineering. MBA in Finance (Singapore). CFA Charterholder experience: 4 years of experienc e in Tier1 US investment Bank ( in Hong Kong) in Valuations review Now here is the problem, I am in ,honestly, middle office position wherein we review the valuation models developed by quants (in depth review and approval including the code review), review the booking & models of exotic & equity derivative trades by the equiy derivatives desk. My quants skill are intermediate and programming skills are good due to my undergrad. The issue is that although i am being paid abive average, I am getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that the growth is limited and i somehow just hate the fact that i am in middle office and not front office. My MBA colleagues have done much better and its their liuck that they got into front office trading, research etc kind of roles while I did not get the launching pad as of now. I have recentlt tried a bit for internal transfer, have contacted head hunters in the region but this has not benefited much. I have a wife and kid to support. Getting dishearted at the efforts, I came across one idea. to get another masters (this time from a US Univ. with a “brand” and not NUS Singapore). I am confidentr that i can manage to get in if I need. On this thought, please can you help me with the following two options and how would you se ethe pros and cons of each. Thanks a lot!! the ideal will be that I somehow get the front office job in quants, research, risk ec myself and dont have to do this. but thats not very easy to happen . 1. I leave my job, get a FT MFE from Haas, columbia or similar school. Costs 80-100k overall and i would have to take a loan. My wife and kid will have to initially go to my home country and would join me later towards the end of program. This is obviously expensive, risky (as i leave my job, split my family for time being etc). But then I will be on campus (btw i dont have any craving to be in US, if I land up a good well paying jon in asia, i would happily be in middle/far east or even London). 2. OK I have found this online CVN MSOR program in columbia. The fee and addmission criteria is the same. I will work toward getting a good GRE and then assuming that if I get a good score, do you think I can get in Columbia? This is the only online univ. which has a good brand name too. Now a few problems here. I will not be oncampus, I am not sure if just adding that degree on my resume will make it easir to get front office jobs , expecially outside US (offcourse i will try to market it)? secondly, its MSOR-finance but i plan to take all MFE elective and can write somethign like MSOR-Finance engineering on my resume , does this look ok? is this option worth the 50k us$ (that i somehow will manage to pay)? will it help me fulfill the goals? do you know people who took online columbia masters ? offcourse the interviewer will somehow come to know that I was doing onlike program (as i would be working at the same time as my program)? i plan to complete this in 2 years and assume that i will work hard, get good grades, manage it with my hectic jobs. I am very confused and depressed these days and your input here can help me make this life changing decision. Thanks a lot!!
I don’t understand why you are so stressed out. You have a family, a good job. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Won’t you get your CFA Charter pretty soon anyways?
Re the columbia degree - no one will know it was done online, unless they went there and know that the Master’s in Financial Engineering is full time. The online version via CVN is identical to the full time master’s, with the exception of a few seminars. You never have to set foot on the campus unless you want to. I did this degree while working full time.
@cpham I am doing ok i think. salary is 90k us$ in HK and bonus is 25% of base. but i still feel that I could have done better, especially when I see my batchmates doing well and making more money and progress. this "middle/back office " tag is just very frustrating and honestly work is kidn of monotonous too. I try to conivnc myself using the same argument you gave but then these “low” days come back and everntually start affecting my sleep too @doubledip I am not in US and am in HK. If someone sees my resumes , after I am done with the online MSOR from columbia, it would be like 2011-2012 MSOR Columbia US and would also say xxxx Bank 2006-to date , HK. Anybody who read the two will know that I can do a job in HK while doing an MS in US. Do you think they would know? In your case, were you working in NY as well? or do you think people will not read in that much details? please can you help e with following 1. so you are saying that doing it online is perhaps a safer options for me? rather than leaving everything & Spilitting family (emoptionally and psychologically I also want online but i will be devastated if I spend 50k (trust me I dont even have that much savongs yet 
) and then later it turns out that in this region people just dont care about columbia much or turn me down still I will have 6-7 years of back office experience or will be 32 years old etc etc.) do you think any of these fear can materialize and how probably these are? 2. how long did it take you to do this onlie? how many courses did you take? can one manage this with a 12-14 hour workday? any caveats i should be aware of? do you think it will be career booster wherein I can get something cuz of the degree and NOT because I have ir/relevant experience Please keep your comments coming, i have been quite depressed lately and really need to discuss this. (wife also gets very upset and hence i dont want to again make her feel sad as i have been trying to move for 2 years now and nothing has happened) Thanks again, really!
guys please keep sending your thoughts. I have been waiting to get more input! thanks a lot
CQF
Doubledip -> You did the Columbia online FE masters? How was the program and would you recommend it? Was it doable considering that you have to work full-time?
Does someone have a link to the Columbia online MFE website? Do you mean this thing? http://www.cvn.columbia.edu/deg/ieor/mfms.php
bsc2010 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am doing ok i think. salary is 90k us$ in HK and > bonus is 25% of base. but i still feel that I > could have done better, especially when I see my > batchmates doing well and making more money and > progress. Envy is never a good reason, dude. You’ll always find someone who makes way better than you.
you might be right in your case (HK would indicate that maybe you did this online) but who cares? It’s Columbia. Very prestigious. The courses are identical to the full time program. Yes, Ocean Mist, I totally recommend it. Even though I work in NY, it takes about an hour to commute up to Columbia so though I could have taken some courses in person, and did sit in on one once, it’s far more convenient to me to download the lectures and watch them whereever and whenever I wanted to. On boring lectures, I could watch at 2x normal speed, or break a 3 hour lecture into three one hour lectures, however I wanted it. Yes, that’s the link. if you do the master’s in methods in finance, this is the closest to the full time program. you’ll see that the courses are identical except for the seminars.
PS I forgot to mention about the courses. you can take two courses each term while working full time, it’s quite doable, just don’t get behind. and you can enroll right now, as a non-matriculant, and start taking courses right away. I think they started this week. since you’ll be watching videos, you haven’t missed anything yet! once you have a few As under your belt, you can take the GRE and go ahead and apply for admission. I did this as I didn’t want to waste any time. Good luck to you!
DoubleDip -> Mad props to you. I looked at the coursework and requirements. Linear algebra and math stuffs that are geared towards engineers… I would probably have an easier time getting a law degree than getting this degree. I would guess that getting the CFA is “easier” to understand conceptually than the coursework?
DoubleDip is the exception though. 
I was in the undergrad program and took some grad-level courses, the math is intense (mostly the stochastic processes), and you definitely have to keep up, but of course doable.
Yes I think that the CFA material is much easier to understand, not that it’s easy to achieve. But what you’ll learn at Columbia or any other program like this will be very valuable and I think would open doors for you. Yes it’s true, I am a math nerd! However, there are less mathematical options available online and I think they are adding new degrees all the time. For example, a master’s in Operations Research is definitely impressive, and these guys get quant jobs all the time. The courses for this track are similar to those in the MFE but maybe just *slightly* less intense mathematically. mp when will you start studying? I plan to start Sept 15 along with the P90X …
Sir,this is what we call career confusion at its best…Just find a course in entrepreneurhip and networking…thats all you need CFA, MBA is enough to succeed
Ocean Mist Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > DoubleDip -> Mad props to you. I looked at the > coursework and requirements. Linear algebra and > math stuffs that are geared towards engineers… I > would probably have an easier time getting a law > degree than getting this degree. I would guess > that getting the CFA is “easier” to understand > conceptually than the coursework? OM, I’m sure you’d be fine. Linear Algebra could (and should! but i digress) be taught along side high school geometry.
justin88 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > OM, I’m sure you’d be fine. Linear Algebra could > (and should! but i digress) be taught along side > high school geometry. Coming from somebody that uses “orthogonal” to mean unrelated to…haha. No, but it is really not so bad. Pretty necessary to understand calculus in 3d.