Berkeley MFE - Description of the Graduate Program

The Master's in Financial Engineering at Berkeley (California, USA) is one of the TOP Programs worldwide.

“The diversity and depth of topics covered in the program make the MFE program stand out relative to its peer programs as it readily maintains a sound financial markets focus as well as providing insights into mathematical dynamics behind the financial topics.”

Here are some general statistics about the graduate program at Berkeley.

Acceptance Rate: 25%
Annual Intake: 60
Application Deadline: October 1, 2007 (Spring Entry)
Average Age at Entry: 29
Average Years of Work Experience of Class: 3.78
Average Annual Compensation upon graduation: 2002-03: $112,470, 2003-04: $122,986, 2005-06: $152,313
Dissertation/Thesis: Applied finance project
Duration of Program: 12 months + 30 hour "Mathematics for Financial Engineers" refresher course and "Basics of C/C++ Programming for Financial Engineers" course.
Entry Requirements:
--- Minimum GPA of 3.00
--- 4 Year Bachelor's degree
--- TOEFL: 230/300;570/677
--- Essays demonstrating a passion for finance and potential for leadership
--- Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Numerical Analysis, Advanced Statistics & Probability
--- Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Basic Finance
--- Basic C/C++
GMAT: Average - Quant (49 = 91%), Verbal (36 = 75%), Analytical (4.5 = 59%)
GPA: Average - 3.65
GRE: Average - Quant (781 = 91%), Verbal (578 = 72%), Analytical (641 = 71%)
International Students: 61%
Male/Female: 85%/15%
Placement Rate: 2003 - 70% within 3 months, 85% within 6 months. 2004 - 91% within 3 months. 95% internship placement, 2006 - 97% within 3 months
Required Courses for Completion: 28 units
Student-Teacher Ratio: 2.4:1
Tuition (07-08): expected $49,500
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Here is the summary of extensive discussions from Global Derivatives Forums:

Positives

• Housed in the Haas Business school which promotes the MFE program
• More business oriented perspective
• Balanced program instead of being math or computation focused
• Tailored FE program is helpful to students with non-finance background
• Excellent reputation in NYC
• Strong alumni network and the UCB brand name
• 1 year program, march-march session
• program fee ~ $47,000 (partial internship offset + lower living costs)

Other Features

• Location – west coast (Away from the financial hub of NYC)
• Bigger class size (60) – Director plays an important role in placements to offset locational disadvantage
• Sponsoring this course is made easier by Haas: loans are available to even international students without any credit requirements.

Best suited for:
• Mid-career professionals with some prior work exprerience (relevant preferred)/PhDs/Fresh graduates with steller academic records and some exposure to the industry. The average entrant age is 29 years. via