ndjango Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Hi guys, could you guys help me choose between these three programs: MA Economics at NYU (Accepted) - 1.5 years MA International Economics and Finance at Brandeis (Accepted with significant scholarship) - 2 years MA Applied Financial Economics at Duke (Awaiting Decision) - 2 years Specifically, I would appreciate if you could comment on each school's academic reputation compared to each other, their recruiting facilities and employment prospects as well as career resources, taking into consideration that I am an international student. As you can tell, I'm not interested in pursuing a PhD in the future and working in the industry is the goal here. Personally, I'm interested in Financial Economics so I really like the Duke's program but am not so sure about the recruiting there. NYU is preferable in terms of location and prestige, but the program would be less financially oriented. And I just don't know enough about Brandeis but the scholarship made it a lot more attractive. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
to2012 Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Given that you appear to be interested in the financial industry I would think, without any particular knowledge of the programs mentioned, that NYU would be the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerealist Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Hey. Duke MA Econ is a great place, especially for academic placements. I see that you wrote "MA Applied Financial Economics". Now what you'll actually get is an M.A. Economics, with a "track" of Applied Financial Economics. The program is great in that it offers a lot of flexibility. You can take a limited number of Fuqua MBA courses, courses from other departments (math, stats, compsci, etc…) and get to take UG, MA and PhD courses. The problem with industry placements from a program like this is that recruiters don't know how to place you. They'd like to box you as either a undergraduate junior, or as an MBA student. However, you lack the experience of an MBA student, and you are more qualified than the undergrads. In most cases you'll be looking at post undergrad analyst positions, for which you might actually be overqualified. But remember this is not unique to Duke, the same problem would apply to NYU and Brandeis as well. It's just difficult to place MA students in the industry in the US since MA degrees aren't very recognized or common. In Canada and Europe it's a completely different story. Personally, I don't know anything about Brandeis, but I don't believe it has much name value. If you're coming from Duke or NYU everyone knows that you're from a solid institution. Duke has also made serious efforts lately to improve industry placements via the Duke Financial Economics Center. Their placements have also gotten better and better the last couple of years. I make these claims without any proof, but you could probably get it by contacting contact persons for the program. I would contact John Caccavale with any questions you may have.. He's a former ibanker and is in charge of MA industry placements. https://econ.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=13771&subpage=profile Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndjango Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 Hey. Duke MA Econ is a great place, especially for academic placements. I see that you wrote "MA Applied Financial Economics". Now what you'll actually get is an M.A. Economics, with a "track" of Applied Financial Economics. The program is great in that it offers a lot of flexibility. You can take a limited number of Fuqua MBA courses, courses from other departments (math, stats, compsci, etc…) and get to take UG, MA and PhD courses. The problem with industry placements from a program like this is that recruiters don't know how to place you. They'd like to box you as either a undergraduate junior, or as an MBA student. However, you lack the experience of an MBA student, and you are more qualified than the undergrads. In most cases you'll be looking at post undergrad analyst positions, for which you might actually be overqualified. But remember this is not unique to Duke, the same problem would apply to NYU and Brandeis as well. It's just difficult to place MA students in the industry in the US since MA degrees aren't very recognized or common. In Canada and Europe it's a completely different story. Personally, I don't know anything about Brandeis, but I don't believe it has much name value. If you're coming from Duke or NYU everyone knows that you're from a solid institution. Duke has also made serious efforts lately to improve industry placements via the Duke Financial Economics Center. Their placements have also gotten better and better the last couple of years. I make these claims without any proof, but you could probably get it by contacting contact persons for the program. I would contact John Caccavale with any questions you may have.. He's a former ibanker and is in charge of MA industry placements. https://econ.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=13771&subpage=profile Cheers. Hello Cerealist, Thank you for your comment. It has definitely been helpful. I have been accepted to Duke and now have to make the decision between NYU and Duke (I declined Brandeis' offer). I have reached out to John Caccavale for his insights but never got a response. I also emailed the MA program assistant regarding industry placements but she was no more helpful than their website. My current dilemma is that I much prefer what the program at Duke has to offer and the fact that its degree is STEM qualified is a huge benefit for me as an international student, at the same time NYU's better brand name recognition and access to the financial hub of the world does provide some unique opportunities I would imagine, though MA students have no access to Stern's OCR... Without much knowledge on recruiting efforts and industry placement from Duke though, it is hard to compare and decide. The deadline is approaching very soon yet I have been constantly going back and forth between the two choices... They say options are better than none, but sometimes I do wish I was rejected by one of them haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btr Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 ndjango, I am in almost exact situation as you. Got admitted to Brandeis MAIEF, Duke MA Economics and Tufts MSc Economics, all with significant financial aid. I have decided to go to Duke. I hope this is right decision, given the strong name, flexibility, ground for PhD and of course STEM (i am international too). However, at this time I am still not decided if I could pursue PhD or go to industry. Placement info of Duke's website looks not much promising, as Brandeis or NYU however i do hope for Cerealist's info on Duke's recent efforts to improve indsutry placement. BTW, I have not got any response from John Caccavale as well. Anyway, wish you good luck and in case if you choose Duke, see you in this fall :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerealist Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 ndjango, you might have already made your decision by now (my response is a bit late). You have a tough choice in front of you, but I think it only means that you can't go wrong either way. Did you end up getting a response from Caccavale? Same goes for you btr, did he respond? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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