Hi all,I've recently been admitted by the Msc in Mathematics & Finance program at Imperial College. Could anyone who have experience in that program share some related information? I am really interested in the following aspects of the program. Thank you very much!1. Placement upon graduation (How many people get admitted to investment banks / consulting firms / hedge funds normally? In what division they are usually placed? Can all students land a job in the finance industry upon graduation?)2. How about the placement for international students? (I'm from HK and I would work for a while in London before returning to Mainland China or Hong Kong)3. I learn from the program website that the number of students in the program is around 35. What is the class profile of this program? How about their previous majors and nationalities?4. Can 4-month project at the end effectively help students in the program to land a job in the finance industry?5. How much and what kind of help can you get from the career center of Imperial College during you job-hunting?The website for this program is not informative. Plus the program is really expensive. I really need your help for making a decision. Thank you!Regards,mzys

Depends on whether you like maths or not, you'll either love or hate this program.If you have never done any measure theory before, it's not the program for you. You'll suffer a lot in the first term. In particular, if you did badly in stochastic processes (say, you didn't pass, which there are always a handful out there), you may not get a chance to do your project in the industry.Very honestly, the course is unimaginably competitive. Unless you were top few in your class in one of the top uni's in the UK/you were from France, you would feel that the world is not yours when you are here. The course is "MATHEMATICS" and then finance, and so if you don't have a rigorous maths background, try other courses such as MSc Finance in TBS, MSc Econ & Finance in LSE or MPhil in Finance in Cambridge.Regarding the projects, not much too say...So, conclusion: if you want a job in trading/structuring, a econ/finance degree with significant mathematics is preferred. If you like solving SDEs and doing programming, MathFin (not just Imperial) sounds like a good choice.

I'm intrigued, hasn't Imperial told you this stuff ?

QuoteOriginally posted by: stueetDepends on whether you like maths or not, you'll either love or hate this program.If you have never done any measure theory before, it's not the program for you. You'll suffer a lot in the first term. In particular, if you did badly in stochastic processes (say, you didn't pass, which there are always a handful out there), you may not get a chance to do your project in the industry.Very honestly, the course is unimaginably competitive. Unless you were top few in your class in one of the top uni's in the UK/you were from France, you would feel that the world is not yours when you are here. The course is "MATHEMATICS" and then finance, and so if you don't have a rigorous maths background, try other courses such as MSc Finance in TBS, MSc Econ & Finance in LSE or MPhil in Finance in Cambridge.Regarding the projects, not much too say...So, conclusion: if you want a job in trading/structuring, a econ/finance degree with significant mathematics is preferred. If you like solving SDEs and doing programming, MathFin (not just Imperial) sounds like a good choice.Agreed. Kids with wealthy parents but very little maths background SHOULD NOT APPLY. You'll be wasting your time and everyone elses.Cheers,TJ.

Maybe I've exaggerated the "love or hate" statement. I take it back. You probably won't hate it. Yet, some people would, after taking the course, begin to ask questions like "Do I want something related to SDEs in my job?"Imperial's program is a very competitive one in terms of job hunting in quant(-ish) areas, no doubt about that.

I've never really understood why certain people in this industry encourage people who aren't very good at maths to "stick with it". It is money motivated. It's not done out of kindness. Kindness would be to tell the truth which is, stochastic calculus is really fucking hard, kids. In fact it's so hard that you should not waste your time unless you have a good PhD in mathematics (preferrably statistics) or physics. Anything less and you will be wasting your time and your (or your parents') hard earned money. Go on, download a paper on stochastic calculus form the Internet, read it and then ask yourself, is this something you would study for the fun of it in your sparetime? If the answer is no, then you'd be better off spending your time and your money on something else that you enjoy doing. It can still be in finance, or whatever. The schools are to blame by not screening the students sufficiently. By the time you've paid a good chunk of your high fees, it's too late to get your money back, and you realise you've been duped, badly. A simple, but rigorous, pre-screening maths test issued by the schools would be sufficient to screen out those who would gain nothing from the MFE but stand to lose a large amount of money and time and feel bad because they are lost and lowering the standard of the class. Ho hum.TJ.

mzys, I suppose you are also admitted by other top programs.can you share with us what other offers have you got? by the way, i'm also from hong kong. i'm from cuhk. which school are you from?

he is from hkust

I too had admission from LSE econ & Fin and Imperial Math-Fin few years back......I wonder where usually the graduates from these two program goes....I tried to look at their websites but hardly could find anything on placement stats as comapred to CMU or Berkeley......I usually assume no stats means not much is available with those guys to write..not sure how true it is.....

Being a current student of this course, I would like to share my opion with those who are interested. Hope it is helpful.First, I want to talk about the students in our class. 90% of the studentsstudied maths in undergraduate before. Some of them are quite good in maths (especially probability theory). However, that does mean all of them are very good in math. As you may know, you can get a bachelor degree in 3 years in UK, while some other country takes you 5 years. An interesting thing is, some of the students do not know what quant is. Some complain why they study C++. So my suggestion is, make sure you know what you are going to study. Being accepted does not mean it is suitable to you. Several students failed in the first semester because they have not expected such intensive maths.Second, about the course. I would say it is rather theoretical. After this course, you can either work as quant or do a Phd in math finance provided you do well on the course.Third, they do make effort on pushing the students to the market. But from my observation, they are not as good as those TOP MFE programs in USA in the sense of pushing you to the market. One of my friend in USA told me they have 3/4 students who already got internship now, but we are still working on internship or projects (they have 80 students, we have only 36 students). My feeling is, different place, different culture. Forth, Imperial College has very strong networking in London. We benefit a lot from this in submitting resume. Especially in this hard time.

Hi all,Many thanks for all your valuable information and candid advice. People here are quite nice. I'm sorry for my late response, a lot of coursework stuff to be done these days...I posted this thread a month ago when my primary concern was placement records. Yet from what you've been discussing here, I realize the key question should be whether I am a good fit to the program. Thus I would elaborate my academic background. I'd be grateful if you could kindly have comments on my profile and indicate whether I'm suitable or not. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.I'm currently an undergraduate student in the EE Department at the University of Hong Kong. Here are the math courses I've taken. All courses listed are offered by the EE department. Thus they're not hard. I would say they are more practical than theoretical. two courses in calculuslinear algebraordinary differential equationspartial differential equations (this is a course for engineering students, whose main focus is on solving typical pdes instead of proving theories)probability & statisticsnumerical methodsdiscrete mathThe above is pretty much my math background. I don't have knowledge in stochastic process, let alone more advanced courses like measure theory or stochastic differential equations... I'm quite familiar with common language features in C++ but don't know much about STL. In fact, I'm a bit confused now... I kind of have the feeling that this program is too hard for me due to my lack of formal math training. Really need your suggestions based on my profile so that I can make a wise decision. Thank you!Regards,mzys

Actually from what I see, I believe you background is not that unlike many people doing the course.

Thanks a lot! I have contacted two Chinese students currently enrolled in the program. Their opposite feelings confuse me hugely and to some extend reflect your "love and hate" statement. As you have indicated, the key question should be whether I'm in a good shape given my math background. I guess I might not be from your last post. Then the next question is:Is it a realistic idea for me to pick up the necessary math courses (e.g. probability theory, stochastic process, measure theory, etc) in my three and a half month's vacation before joining the program? Honestly, I do like math and I got good grades (a or a+) in most math courses listed. But the problem I see is my lacking of training in math. So based on my case, which do you think really matters, interest in math or math knowledge already possessed?Thanks again!mzysQuoteOriginally posted by: stueetDepends on whether you like maths or not, you'll either love or hate this program.If you have never done any measure theory before, it's not the program for you. You'll suffer a lot in the first term. In particular, if you did badly in stochastic processes (say, you didn't pass, which there are always a handful out there), you may not get a chance to do your project in the industry.Very honestly, the course is unimaginably competitive. Unless you were top few in your class in one of the top uni's in the UK/you were from France, you would feel that the world is not yours when you are here. The course is "MATHEMATICS" and then finance, and so if you don't have a rigorous maths background, try other courses such as MSc Finance in TBS, MSc Econ & Finance in LSE or MPhil in Finance in Cambridge.Regarding the projects, not much too say...So, conclusion: if you want a job in trading/structuring, a econ/finance degree with significant mathematics is preferred. If you like solving SDEs and doing programming, MathFin (not just Imperial) sounds like a good choice.

Thank you for your candid suggestions! The risk of being as pathetic as you mentioned is not what I'm able to accept. I will look into SDE and get some sense first.QuoteOriginally posted by: TraderJoeI've never really understood why certain people in this industry encourage people who aren't very good at maths to "stick with it". It is money motivated. It's not done out of kindness. Kindness would be to tell the truth which is, stochastic calculus is really fucking hard, kids. In fact it's so hard that you should not waste your time unless you have a good PhD in mathematics (preferrably statistics) or physics. Anything less and you will be wasting your time and your (or your parents') hard earned money. Go on, download a paper on stochastic calculus form the Internet, read it and then ask yourself, is this something you would study for the fun of it in your sparetime? If the answer is no, then you'd be better off spending your time and your money on something else that you enjoy doing. It can still be in finance, or whatever. The schools are to blame by not screening the students sufficiently. By the time you've paid a good chunk of your high fees, it's too late to get your money back, and you realise you've been duped, badly. A simple, but rigorous, pre-screening maths test issued by the schools would be sufficient to screen out those who would gain nothing from the MFE but stand to lose a large amount of money and time and feel bad because they are lost and lowering the standard of the class. Ho hum.TJ.

to koatse & mit: As I mentioned, I'm from HKU. I do know someone from CUHK with really strong background applying for financial engineering programs this year.Actually I didn't get admitted by other financial engineering programs up till now. I've applied several in the US but still haven't got response yet. If this program is not right for me, I will choose from three other options, a master degree in EE from a top engineering school in the US, analyst position in IT department of an investment bank, or Master of Financial Economics at Oxford. (The latter two haven't been confirmed yet but don't hurt to consider.) Perhaps I'll start another thread when I get more choices.Regards,mzys