compare top finance programs?

lukapurple

Hi,

It's true that Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, NYU all have top-ranked finance programs, but could any insider compare them, in terms of academic side, curriculum,faculty, alumni network, job placement, and whatever?

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-9-26 1:06:33编辑过]

chipmunk

WHARTON

The strength of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in finance starts with its large, diverse finance faculty -- which boasts 50 members, second only to the school's 60-person management department. Among them are stock market guru Jeremy Siegel, who begins each class session with a rundown of the day's market activity, and Anthony M. Santomero, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.  

The sheer size of the department enables each professor to dig as deeply into a subject as he or she sees fit. That way, students can choose from a panoply of courses that cover just about anything that's happening in contemporary finance.

The professors' philosophies cover a diverse range, too. The faculty includes efficient-market doctrinaires, behavioral specialists, and institutionalists, who analyze the institutional aspects of the markets they study (for example, researching how particular legal systems affect corporate bankruptcy). Wharton encourages professors to bring their individual outlooks and teaching styles to the class, even in the core curriculum. "Our students are allowed to choose from among different people who teach the same class," says finance professor Andrew Metrick. "You can decide which professor's style suits you best."

Wharton requires that every MBA student take two finance courses. One, "Financial Analysis," provides an introduction to corporate finance and investments (an advanced version of the course is available for those with strong finance backgrounds). The other, "Macroeconomic Analysis and Public Policy," forces students to think more broadly about the interplay between managers' financial decisions and the economy.

Finance, unsurprisingly, is Wharton's most popular major, and students frequently combine it with other disciplines such as marketing or strategic management, depending on their career goals. Within finance, Wharton MBAs can further specialize in four areas: corporate finance, investment management, banking and financial institutions, and international finance.

To complete a major, Wharton MBAs must take five classes in finance. The school offers more than 20 electives. Those often take a very fine-grained approach -- for instance, "Speculative Markets," which focuses on the study of options and futures contracts, or "Urban Real Estate Economics." Most Wharton finance majors take a smattering of such courses, partly as a way to explore potential career options.

chipmunk

COLUMBIA

Columbia University's finance department holds the compelling advantage of its New York City location. The school has had close ties to Wall Street for many years, with faculty members routinely consulting for financial-services firms and even running training sessions for investment banks' new hires. That relationship goes both ways, says Finance Chairman Suresh Sundaresan: "We have industry experts come in [to teach] topics where they have a comparative advantage relative to the faculty."  

Being just a subway ride away from investment-bank offices in Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street also facilitates hands-on project work. In the spring of 2003, one of Sundaresan's students with prior experience in banking figured that sharpening his work skills would serve him better than taking another finance class. So, after speaking with former colleagues at Lehman Brothers, he spent the semester modeling credit derivatives based on the firm's proprietary data. At the end of the semester, he wrote a paper about it, and Sundaresan gave him a grade.

MBAs at Columbia must take eight courses to complete a concentration in finance and economics. The sequence begins with three classes required of all Columbia MBA students: a broad course called "The Global Economic Environment," a case-heavy class in "Managerial Economics," and "Corporate Finance." Students wishing to major in finance alone have to take "Capital Markets and Investments," plus four other electives from an array of more than 40 (not all are offered every semester).

With about 50 full-time faculty members in the finance and economics department -- not counting adjuncts and lecturers -- Columbia stands nearly unmatched for its breadth of coursework. For instance, Merrill Lynch executives co-teach a course on initial public offerings. Plus, the economics component of a finance degree -- unusual for a B-school -- shows up in courses such as "Contemporary Japanese Economy," and "Media Economics." "Our menu is one of the broadest you can imagine," says Sundaresan.

Most recently, Columbia has been trying to integrate ethics into the finance curriculum. It's a multidisciplinary effort that started as far back as soon-to-retire Dean Meyer Feldberg's arrival 14 years ago, but it has taken on a new urgency given the spate of corporate scandals that surfaced over the past three years.

For example, the lending arm of Citigroup made loan commitments to Enron, while Citigroup's investment-banking unit sold credit-linked notes that removed Citi's exposure to Enron. "There's supposed to be a firewall. What type of information was disclosed when these credit-linked notes were sold to the investing public?" asks Sundaresan. An examination of "something like that actively brings ethics into the curriculum."

chipmunk

CHICAGO

The best place to start a discussion of standout schools for finance probably is in Hyde Park, Ill., at the University of Chicago. Though its historical association has been with an efficient-markets philosophy, Chicago is at the leading edge in both efficient-markets research and behavioral finance. Whatever a professor's philosophical leaning, Chicago welcomes everyone who can do top-notch research.  

Indeed, the staff includes Eugene Fama -- who actually coined the phrase "efficient markets" -- as well as Richard Thaler, a widely followed expert in behavioral finance. "Chicago is defined mostly by having a lot of cutting-edge researchers," says Wharton finance professor Andrew Metrick. "Their courses do reflect that." Adds Chicago finance professor Steven Kaplan: "Anything that's state of the art in terms of finance, students are learning here."

About 90% of MBA students at Chicago declare a major (which the school calls a "concentration") in finance or analytic finance, which has a slightly more quantitative focus. In most cases, Chicago MBAs declare two concentrations by graduation -- sometimes more -- often one in finance and another in marketing management or international business.

Two courses -- "Investments" and "Corporation Finance" -- form the base of the finance concentration, after which majors must take two more finance classes from a variety of electives, ranging from "Topics in Asset Pricing" to a research course with professor Fama. The analytic finance concentration requires six classes.

Chicago's teaching model calls for a solid grounding in theory before students are exposed to case study work. Thus, the "Investments" and "Corporation Finance" classes are delivered mainly via lecture, though students may read some cases in a few sessions. After they get past the introductory classes, MBAs can expect a mix of teaching methods, though just a few courses are completely case-based: Those include "Financial Engineering: Cases in Financial Risk Management" and "Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity."

The faculty's academic firepower augments Chicago's reputation as a quantitatively focused place with a rigorous curriculum. Though the stereotype is probably overwrought, finance professor Kaplan agrees that the teachers demand much of MBAs. "When our students come back, particularly from their summer jobs, they're almost uniform in saying they're better prepared than people from other schools," Kaplan says. "That comes down to fact that we work them harder."

Most finance majors at Chicago take jobs in the investment-banking field after graduation (Merrill Lynch was Chicago's No. 1 hirer in 2002). Typically, the second-favorite destination for finance majors is consulting, and the third is asset management.

chipmunk

New York University's Stern School has nearly as big a faculty as its uptown neighbor Columbia. Good thing, too: most NYU MBA students -- about 75% -- want finance jobs after graduation. "We really believe in a diversity of approaches," says finance professor and former department chair Martin Gruber. The size of the faculty -- and plus their range of viewpoints -- allows for a depth and breadth in course offerings that's fitting for a school a short subway ride away from Wall Street. "We're very careful not to hire too many people from the same school," says Gruber.

chipmunk

There is one article comparing finance faculty in top schools. You can take a look.

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=14&ID=16007

lukapurple

WOW! So informative! Tons of thanks!


So are you also applying for finance programs?  

According to the alumni Q&A session by Chicago GSB yesterday, it's not realistic for Chinese mainlanders to enter Wall Street through b-school, not even the top programs.

mbacn02

This is the case these two years. and hope things willl change when economy picks up.

chipmunk

If school explicitly say that, that means the situation is really bad now. The alternative way is to find a easier job in corporate after MBA first. Once economy picks up, then you can switch.

lukapurple

Another way out is to work for premier I-banks in greater-China regions.  The GSB alumni did say that's possible.

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-9-27 23:15:45编辑过]