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MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 17th, 2006, 1:52 pm
by bono06
hi i just got an offer today of a scholarship to study fin math at leeds. full fees are covered + 3000 bursury. Not too sure about this course. would it be well regonized by employers, ect. any views are welcome. I have unready accepted a place to study financial math in dublin.

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 19th, 2006, 2:05 pm
by dj99b
Have a surf through the careers forum on this website. I'm not familiar with universities in Ireland but the bigger names in the UK in unranked order includeOxfordCambridgeImperialKing'sWarwickLBS (although more finance than maths)BirkbeckCityLSEThere are certainly other very good universities offering Fin Maths courses. However many universities seems to have realised that if one puts together a few economics modules, a few applied maths modules and maybe a couple of other bits and given an MSc title, hefty student fees can be charged and thus there may be an oversupply of these courses. Fees alone are not the only cost - you will also be investing a year of your time. Act like a very hard-nosed consumer before you commit yourself to a course

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 19th, 2006, 6:30 pm
by bono06
so, i take it you wouldn`t take up a place. I was offered a place at imperial but the 19000 fees are just crazy. The leeds course is 12 months also and the dublin course is 9 months plus suppose to be very good. Bear in mind that im not really committed career wise, i just enjoy this kind of finance and math.

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 19th, 2006, 10:26 pm
by dj99b
Dumb question, but if you're not committed to the quant thing as a career, why do the MSc at all ? There's a ton of universities all over the world doing this kind of course, which means that within 5 years time, tens of thousands of people will have this kind of qualification for which the demand is never going to be that huge. An MBA from a top tier school has a much broader usage career wise, but won't get you into the quant niche that a Fin Maths Master's will.I live in London and simply don't know anything, good or bad, about the course at UCD - you probably need to find someone else who is more familiar with it to give you an informed opinion

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 20th, 2006, 8:20 am
by JurgenKlinsmann
QuoteOriginally posted by: dj99bHave a surf through the careers forum on this website. I'm not familiar with universities in Ireland but the bigger names in the UK in unranked order includeOxfordCambridgeImperialKing'sWarwickLBS (although more finance than maths)BirkbeckCityLSEThere are certainly other very good universities offering Fin Maths courses. However many universities seems to have realised that if one puts together a few economics modules, a few applied maths modules and maybe a couple of other bits and given an MSc title, hefty student fees can be charged and thus there may be an oversupply of these courses. Fees alone are not the only cost - you will also be investing a year of your time. Act like a very hard-nosed consumer before you commit yourself to a courseseems that you imply any university in your above list is definitely better than bono 06's choice on leeds or dublin, in terms of learning/teaching/chance of job placement? also seems that leeds and dublin programs are 2 among those many universities which combine various modules to form a program, as you mentioned, whereas those universities on your list are not this kind. right? Thanks.

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 20th, 2006, 12:03 pm
by dj99b
I live in London and simply don't know anything, good or bad, about the course at UCD - you probably need to find someone else who is more familiar with it to give you an informed opinionThis means what it says - I really haven't got enough information to give any opinion on UCD, and it would be cavalier for me to suggest that someone should or shouldn't take up a place thereI did an MSc in applied maths a while ago in the UK, and by virtue of the hall of residence that I was living in, met a number of post-grads doing a course in banking and finance. I went to a few lectures out of interest and wasn't hugely impressed. I've kept in touch with a few of them and think that only a small number ended up working in anything banking related. The number of universities in the UK now offering a Fin Maths MSc is enormous. In the same way that some universities are better at teaching chemistry than others, the same thing will happen with Fin MathsHowever, what has transpired from doing an MBA, is that the career benefits from going to a top tier place (Harvard, Insead, Wharton, etc...) are great and usually give a very positive return on investment, despite the fees - you pay a lot but can get a huge pay-back. Doing an MBA at a less well known busness school might save on the fees, but the career benefits are much less, and sometimes even give a negative ROIQuoteNot too sure about this course. would it be well regonized by employersMy implication on Leeds is that I'm not familiar with the course, but because bono asked how it would be recognised by employers, if studying in the UK, one of the well known courses might be a safer bet - a year in one's career is a big investment to make after all

MSc in financial maths at leeds

Posted: August 20th, 2006, 1:27 pm
by dj99b
I've had a look at the Times overall UK university ranking list to see howwidespread MFE courses are. I know that this is partly subjective and contains some anomalies, but it's not a bad guide, and seems largely accurate - Oxbridge at the top, Imperial at 3rd, LSE at 4 and UCL at 5, etc...Out of the top 40 UK universities in the list, ALL of them offer some sort of MFE course - there are 68 other UK universities which I didn't even look at ! Some of the bigger names admit up to 100 students every year onto their MFE course. Because an MFE course is cheap for a university to provide (doesn't need anything expensive like well-equipped laboratories - very few universities will have Bloomberg or Reuters terminals !), you can't really blame cash-strapped universities for offering what seems like such an easy way of making some money. Then factor in the universities in the rest of Europe offering this kind of course... Yes, there is a need by banks for people who've done an MFE course, but there is significant oversupply by universities. A lot of people doing this kind of course are going to end up in a job where an MFE is not really necessary, hence the need for potential students to be careful to differentiate between courses in their application. How on earth can a non-specialist in HR filtering CVs before sending them to a hiring manager possibly know which places are good or bad ?