MIT Sloan students speak: M.Fin. class of 2011

MFin AdMIT Day

Admission office and MFin program office are working together to arrange “MFin AdMIT Day” when applicants admitted to next year’s MFin class visit campus to meet with current students, faculty and staff. This year it is scheduled for this Thursday, Mar 3.

The agenda for the day includes a faculty talk, CDO presentation, a student panel, and a reception. All current MFin students have been invited to attend the reception (6:00-7:00 pm).

I will be the panelist with other four current MFin students during the Student Panel (5:00-6:00 pm). We will talk about our lives as MFin students, including academics, career/professional path, co-curricular activities, housing, life in Boston/Cambridge and so on. 

So mark your calendar and join us on “AdMIT Day”! You will experience Sloan and MFin program in a “three-dimensional” way, which is way better than just reading our blogposts!

I look forward to seeing you guys on Thursday!

Amber

Research Opportunities

First of all, congratulations to all of you who have already been admitted to the 2012 MFin program! Welcome to join Sloan community! Some of you asked questions regarding research opportunities at Sloan, so I will talk a little bit about it here.

Sloan actually has a project called “The MIT Sloan Sponsored Thesis Project”, a 12-unit curriculum in which external sponsors propose topics and provide resources for Master’s students seeking to write theses (by the way, the Master’s theses are optional for MFin students).  The research typically takes place over the course of one semester, and may be conducted at MIT or on site at the sponsor’s offices.  There are no restrictions on the kinds of topics that may be proposed for a sponsored thesis, other than they must have sufficient intellectual content to justify a Master’s thesis, and an MIT Sloan faculty member must agree to serve as the faculty advisor and approve the thesis upon completion.  Sponsors are expected to provide support in the form of research funds, data, and periodic access to personnel with expertise in the thesis topic.

Recently I have received the information of a project titled "Risk Measurement and Asset Allocation" with Pension Reserves Investment Management ("PRIM"). The faculty advisors would be Andrew Lo and/or Mark Kritzman. Students are required to evaluate new approaches to risk measurement that extend beyond variance and end-of-horizon probability of loss, thus to develop a rationalization for PRIM’s current asset allocation.

Besides “The MIT Sloan Sponsored Thesis Project”, an MFin student can also get research opportunities through the course of Proseminar of Financial Engineering, which has been introduced in my previous blogpost- About courses, and IAP Finance practicum (for more information, check Karn’s blogposts-Practicum Experience and the Spring Semester and IAP & MIT+150 Economics and Finance Symposium). Plus you can always be proactive, approach to professors and pitch your research ideas. But just keep in your mind that professors’ time are precious and you should be prepared for an “elevator pitch”, which is, by the way, also important for your career development. 

As always, should you have any questions, feel free to contact me at amberfxi@mit.edu. Have a wonderful weekend!

Amber

Course Overview

Congratulations to all the students admitted to the program for the class of 2012. I am very excited to meet everyone during AdMIT day on March 3rd. A popular question I often get is Robert Merton teaching at MIT Sloan. Mr. Merton is in fact teaching two courses called “Retirement Finance, Lifecycle Investing and Asset Management” and “Functional and Strategic Finance”. I am currently taking Retirement Finance and so far it has been quite remarkable. The course is organized around applying finance science and financial engineering in three related financial activities: retirement finance, lifecycle investing and asset management. Throughout the semester, I hope to develop the necessary tools of derivative pricing and risk measurement, portfolio analysis and risk accounting, and performance measurement to analyze and implement concepts and new product ideas. The course is split into five major topics including Foundations of Asset Management and Lifecycle Investing, Fact and Fantasy about Investing, Measuring Investment Performance and Risks, Retirement Finance: Design of Plans and Development of Tools and Products, and Other Institutional Asset Management Issues. Will update my progress throughout the semester and in the meantime hope everyone has a pleasant weekend!

James

Practicum Experience and the Spring Semester

Hi All,

First of all, Happy New Year! IAP 2011 has come to a close and the Spring semester started in style with the Economics and Finance symposium. During IAP, I worked with a VC firm in the Boston-area to identify investment opportunities in the Northeastern United States, Toronto and Montreal. The experience was very rewarding from both an educational and professional point of view. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to network with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Ontario and Quebec - which for me was very valuable. 

The Spring semester will be a busy one, I will be enrolled in coursework taught by Profs. Merton, Lo, Myers and Schoar. Broadly, my coursework will be a mix of corporate finance and financial engineering (Prof. Lo's class). I am also enrolled in a course addressing the policy and economics of Global Climate Change. One of the wonderful aspects of the MFin program is that it allows you the flexibility to explore your interests outside of finance through coursework offered outside of Course 15. 

For prospective students, the MFin program has its very own GetFit Challenge Team this year. The 12-week fitness challenge is open to the whole MIT community and is aimed at encouraging participants to exercise regularly. For more information visit: getfit.mit.edu. 

As always, feel free to drop me a line at ksaroya@mit.edu if you have questions about the MFin program, or anything more general. 

Cheers,

 

Karn