The Masters in Financial Engineering graduates earning $230k, average
In a year when financial services hiring hasn't been as enthusiastic as usual and when many interns don't seem to be getting return offers, it's refreshing to know that some students are as popular as ever. - Baruch Masters in Financial Engineering (MFE) graduates remain hotly pursued by both banks and hedge funds.
They're a small cohort, but Dan Stefanica, the Baruch MFE course director, says all 25 of his students who graduated this year have got jobs. Their employers include: AllianceBernstein, AXQ Capital, Citadel, GTS, JPMorgan, Millennium, Point72, RBC Capital Markets, Squarepoint Capital, TD Securities, and Virtu.
Baruch's MFE graduates are generously paid. Stefanica says total first year guaranteed compensation for this graduating class averages $228k, including salary, sign-on bonus and guaranteed first year bonus. The highest paid graduate received $300k; the lowest received $133k and the median received $195k.
Stefanica says this year's 24 Barch MFE interns didn't do badly either, with compensation averaging $13.1k a month. The highest paid Baruch MFE 2023 summer intern received $22k a month (likely at somewhere like Citadel or Jane Street); the lowest received $9k a month (which is what's also on offer to English lit students interning at DE Shaw).
Who are Baruch's MFEs? Speaking in 2022, Stefanica told us many are Chinese students, although there's also a smattering of Americans too.
Baruch's MFE course is very, very selective, with an acceptance rate of around 7%. Applicants are assessed based on academic performance, recommendations, their personal essay, work experience and their 'mathematical and C++ programming background.' 50% have studied either mathematics or engineering, with the remainder split between students of financial engineering, economics, finance and business, physics, computer science and statistics.
Baruch's financial engineers are paid more than most first year investment banking (M&A) analysts, whose pay has plummeted this year. Even Ducera, one of the highest paying M&A boutique firms, is 'only' offering its first years $220k.
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