The tough choice results from the fact that I've been admitted to NYU's full-time MBA program (w/ scholarship). The Stern students are allowed to take courses from the Courant Institute (there are even a certain number of seats reserved for Stern students in these courses - and from what the admissions office tells me, the demand from MBA students of these Courant courses is not that high - as most could not handle the math.Also, since I am a career changer - the summer internship is a huge bonus for me. Note that the MFE program is 1 year - no time for internship (unless you do something part time while going to school full-time). Tough decisions...

QuoteOriginally posted by: jagThe tough choice results from the fact that I've been admitted to NYU's full-time MBA program (w/ scholarship). The Stern students are allowed to take courses from the Courant Institute (there are even a certain number of seats reserved for Stern students in these courses - and from what the admissions office tells me, the demand from MBA students of these Courant courses is not that high - as most could not handle the math.Also, since I am a career changer - the summer internship is a huge bonus for me. Note that the MFE program is 1 year - no time for internship (unless you do something part time while going to school full-time). Tough decisions...I'm really wondering what you are smoking... you got a scholarship to NYU MBA and you have a tough time deciding?!?! I don't see ANY reason why you even need to consider the Columbia MFE.

QuoteOriginally posted by: tabrisQuoteOriginally posted by: jagThe tough choice results from the fact that I've been admitted to NYU's full-time MBA program (w/ scholarship). The Stern students are allowed to take courses from the Courant Institute (there are even a certain number of seats reserved for Stern students in these courses - and from what the admissions office tells me, the demand from MBA students of these Courant courses is not that high - as most could not handle the math.Also, since I am a career changer - the summer internship is a huge bonus for me. Note that the MFE program is 1 year - no time for internship (unless you do something part time while going to school full-time). Tough decisions...I'm really wondering what you are smoking... you got a scholarship to NYU MBA and you have a tough time deciding?!?! I don't see ANY reason why you even need to consider the Columbia MFE.The decision is tough ... but, given that NYU costs you nothing AND you can take Courant Institute courses (take as many as possible, perhaps you could get an M.S. from Courant; contact Peter Carr at Bloomberg), NYU might well be the more pragmatic choice.

QuoteOriginally posted by: abeilisQuoteOriginally posted by: tabrisQuoteOriginally posted by: jagThe tough choice results from the fact that I've been admitted to NYU's full-time MBA program (w/ scholarship). The Stern students are allowed to take courses from the Courant Institute (there are even a certain number of seats reserved for Stern students in these courses - and from what the admissions office tells me, the demand from MBA students of these Courant courses is not that high - as most could not handle the math.Also, since I am a career changer - the summer internship is a huge bonus for me. Note that the MFE program is 1 year - no time for internship (unless you do something part time while going to school full-time). Tough decisions...I'm really wondering what you are smoking... you got a scholarship to NYU MBA and you have a tough time deciding?!?! I don't see ANY reason why you even need to consider the Columbia MFE.The decision is tough ... but, given that NYU costs you nothing AND you can take Courant Institute courses (take as many as possible, perhaps you could get an M.S. from Courant; contact Peter Carr at Bloomberg), NYU might well be the more pragmatic choice.You must be smoking some bomb stuff with your boy Jag! How can people say this decision is tough. Quant work is for PhDs with a very very small group of Masters/MBA types. MBA is broader than a FE/CF/Math Fin degree. If one day he decides that he likes management or marketing or even finance jobs such as M&A, what use would a Math Fin degree do? Where as, I have seen plenty of Risk Management positions filled by MBA with their undergrad in Math/Statistics. As for interesting work, how would anyone even know what interesting work is if they never worked in finance? I see no reason to distinguish that different group works on more interesting thing than others because that is rather subjective.Also, NYU's MBA career placement program will probably pimp slap the Columbia FE's career placement left and right. I can't imagine how Columbia's FE career placement will be comparable unless the Columbia business school decides to let the IEOR department use their resources. Otherwise, people need to stop smoking on a Monday morning.

LOL, I'm not smoking anything at the moment. I'm actually leaning heavily towards the NYU MBA, I just want to make sure that I'm making the right decision and I want to consider all my options fully.And I said scholarship, not full scholarship . The MBA would still cost more than the MFE since it's a 2 yr program.Thanks for all the advice.

QuoteOriginally posted by: jagLOL, I'm not smoking anything at the moment. I'm actually leaning heavily towards the NYU MBA, I just want to make sure that I'm making the right decision and I want to consider all my options fully.And I said scholarship, not full scholarship . The MBA would still cost more than the MFE since it's a 2 yr program.Thanks for all the advice.If you are able to fully pull all your weight and utilize the NYU MBA and NYU career placement center to get an internship for the summer (don't hesitate to apply for internships in London) then most likely the internship would cover the second year tuition. Whats left would be mainly living expense. Don't quote me on this but most summer internships for MBAs I seen pay fairly well. You might be able to beat the MBA career placement center around for the statistics but I think they probably get around 15k for three months of work.

I have 2 internship offers. One is 16K for summer and other is 14K, so 15K it is.I think I would go with the NYU MBA with lots of quant finance courses. Plus you canalways sit in on the courses at Columbia. Two teachers so far have let me sitin on their courses in Colombia's program, inclding Derman (seems like a very nice guy who cares for students). The partial scholarship is not huge in the long run, give nthe industry you aregoing into. The factors I would consider are 1) quality of education2) quality of job opportunities after doing degreeSeems to me NYU MBA here is the better choice since Columbia's programis struggling.

I agree with fxislander. Money should not be an issue. I already did an MBA at a top school, got an I-Banking job and paid off my student loans with my first bonus. I wanted to move into derivatives, and with my industry connects was able to get interviews, but with only a couple of MBA derivatives courses (everything offered), derivatives groups felt like my learning curve would be too long.I've been taking upper level math courses and now I am going back to get a Math Fin. Masters in September. My opinion is that you have to decide what you want to do and that should make your decision easy. If you want to go into derivatives or work as a quantitative analyst, you'll have to get the Math Fin whether it is through MSFE or MBA + Courant - though you should check how many electives you'll have after you fulfill MBA requirements and any finance concentration requirements that must be taken at the B-School, because taking four or five courses at Courant will not pre-pare you the way that taking the entire program would. However, if your background in Stochastics, PDEs and computing is already great maybe you can still cover most of the material in the program. Good Luck in making your decision