MIT Sloan Students Speak: MFin Class of 2013

Advice for Incoming MFin Students

It’s hard to believe but graduation is exactly one month away.  And before we leave, a few words of advice for those of you about to embark on this wonderful adventure known as MIT Sloan MFin.  Here are some pearls of wisdom from me and six of my classmates in answer to the question:  What advice would you give incoming MFin students?

--In retrospect, I wish I had learned Matlab before the summer. Follow the news (i.e. The Economist and WSJ).  Building up your resume is useful. Otherwise, I’d say go out and travel.  The MFin program is such a sprint to the finish once you arrive that you should be well rested.  Times goes by very fast at MIT Sloan. 

--Take the time to learn what opportunities there are (e.g. conferences) and go to as many of them as you can.  Keep a balanced work-life.  Reflect on what interests you personally.  Ask questions. Use the summer as a safe space to find out what your interests are and what you  don’t know but need to develop.   The faculty are there to guide you but not to hold your hand. Know that they are always dedicated to your success.

--It’s very easy to stay within the MIT Sloan Bubble and only take finance classes, but that is not advisable.  In my opinion, you should go out and make associations with the rest of MIT whether that be by making friends with non-Sloan students who live in your dorm, joining other associations such as MIT-wide clubs, or going to lectures. (e.g. my dorm had a curator from the Museum of Fine Arts come and give a fascinating talk).

--As a non-quantitative econ major with a Chinese minor, I want to stress that having a stronger quantitative background would have made life much easier at MIT.  Analytics of Finance is a very challenging, very rigorous course.  Take the suggested preparation seriously.

--Get involved in life on campus. MIT offers countless opportunities outside of finance classes. Join clubs, try a new sport, take a course on main-campus, go to guest speeches, check out the campus start-up scene, etc. Also, don’t feel shy to reach out to MIT alumni – use MIT’s strong alumni network for career advice. The time on campus will fly by quickly –use your time to the fullest.

--I would advise incoming MFin candidates to be creative with the resources they utilize, more so on the job front than for coursework. However you choose to organize your information, make sure you start early and keep a record of the skills you learn, people you meet, databases you have access to, and companies you hear about. Never underestimate the zen and the ultimate payoff of organizational efficiency.

--It really helps to know how to work with big datasets before you get here, say in MATLAB, R, Python, etc.  Problem sets, the research practicum, and the proseminar all required manipulating large datasets, and you will get a lot more out of the program if you have some exposure to this before you arrive. 

 

More on Academic Terms, Action Learning

It's been exciting and nostalgic to follow the conversation in the MFin Class of 2014 facebook group thus far, so I'll try to address some questions that have come up recently. Just to get a very rough sense of what the academic calendar feels like:

MFins begin with two mandatory courses (no course bidding required) during the summer term, followed by a short breather. In September, the remaining programs (MBAs, MSMS, etc.) join us at MIT Sloan for the beginning of Fall Semester. MFins have a choice of full-term courses that span both H1 and H2, or half-term courses that take place in either the first or second half of the term. In between the half-term courses is a brief one week break called the Sloan Innovation Period (SIP, for short), during which we were eligible to enroll in Sloan-wide courses, lectures, seminars, workshops, and/or non-credit activities. Some of my classmates also used this time for recreational travel. This year, MFins were also required to participate in a three-day Ethics Seminar. The calendar year ends as both full-term and H2 half-term courses wrap up in December, followed by an extended winter holiday.

January began with the Independent Activities Period (IAP), during which some of us chose to participate in the Finance Research Practicum (more on this later); some took on non-MIT affiliated internships in their home countries, others extended their winter travels. Like the Fall and Spring SIP weeks, the school also offers a selection of low- or no-credit courses if you're up for the challenge.

Spring Semester kicked off in early February, and the MFins were back on track with full credit loads again. Recall that MFins can take a maximum of 66 units per full term, of which no more than 54 units may be registered at MIT Sloan (any course labeled 15.xxx). Non-Sloan courses taken for credit can include classes on the MIT main campus, or cross-registration at Harvard oand any of the another collaborating local universities. Spring term is similarly interrupted by the Spring SIP, during which all the SIP selections are offered.

I highly recommend reading through some of the recent FAQs as you'll find more detailed descriptions of the schedule.


On that note, I've also received a few questions about my experience during the Finance Research Practicum. I'm hesitant to overshare--the IAP experience can vary so much from individual to individual, so I encourage you all to ask a variety of current students about how they spent their time in January. 

To reiterate my previous post, the Finance Research Practicum (FRP) is one of three "courses" that fulfills the Action Learning requirement; the others being the two flavors of proseminars offered during fall term. I use the term "course" loosely because the FRP is a unique creature that looks like an extended SIP week, counts as a full-term course for credit, yet feels and functions like an off-cycle internship. In comparison, the proseminars were arguably indistinguishable from ordinary fall-term courses: we bid for them at the same time as the rest of our full-term courses and attend scheduled class time with the professor on campus. Although the proseminar projects were company-sponsored, my team met and tackled the assignment on campus (with some guidance/input from the sponsor) alongside the rest of our coursework.

The FRP, on the other hand, felt less like a class assignment and more like a consulting project. FRP project assignments weren't gained through a bidding process, but through an optional survey of preferences and prior training handed to us in late fall. My team of four kicked off IAP by meeting with our hedge fund sponsor at their offices in downtown Boston to review the project description and toss around some ideas. Our sponsors kept in close communication with us throughout the project, and though we chose to work off-site, my team returned to our sponsors' office at the end of each week for a brief presentation and recap. My assignment was particularly open-ended and involved building a comprehensive crisis index from scratch. My team met nearly everyday to brainstorm, debate ideas, and analyze data, and having collective backgrounds in physics, economics, chemistry, and mathematics, we had something new to learn from each other (and, well, disagree on) every day. It wasn't easy, but it was also an opportunity to experience problem-solving in a real-world context: learning how to work effectively as a team to transform our sludge of knowledge and ideas into a cohesive, functional tool for our sponsors. 

Here are just a few glimpses of the presentation that accompanied our research paper:

I'll end there, with a few more snapshots of MFin life:

Buffett Trek and more!

It has been a while since I last posted. I have been busy travelling, enjoying Boston and its surrounding areas(still can't believe there are only two months left here!), and reading cases!

It is this time of the year, when we have to make important decisions that could potentially change our lives towards different directions. I was in a similar situation last year, debating my options over and over again: should I come to Sloan, Oxford, or just accept the job offer and work in the industry? I chose Sloan because of its international reputation, world-class professors(Andrew Lo, Bob Merton, Stewart Myers, Eric Rosenfeld, to name just a few), the action learning programs (Proseminar, Finance Research Practicum, and many practical class projects), and most importantly, the opportunity to learn from the best of the very best! Here I am, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience over the past 9 months and made many BFFs. Coming to Sloan is probably the best decision I have ever made and I am really glad that I am here. 

One of the highlights of the program was the privilege to meet Warren Buffet during the spring break.  Every year a small group of Sloanies travel to Omaha to have a Q&A session with him, followed by lunch at one of his favorite restaurants (his treat!). He is very funny, witty and sharp even though he is already 82! I will dedicate this post to sharing some of the lessons I have learned from him. 

Lesson 1: Desirable qualities are optional. 

He asked us to think about 1 person to "buy" from the class and one person to "short". He asked us to think about the qualities that person has to merit the decision. He then commented that all these qualities we are buying and shorting are optional, meaning that we can acquire them should we desire, or/and we can get rid of them with a determined mind! My friends and I did this exercise, and we were not able to find any person to short from the class: everyone is so smart, sharp and capable! We listed some qualities that we would like to buy: positivity, intelligence, communication abilities, drive to succeed, etc. 

Lesson 2: Have a hero and learn from him/her. 

Warren Buffett said "if you tell me who your hero is, I will tell you how far you can go in life!". It was hard for me to pinpoint a hero, because there are so many absolutely outstanding people that I want to learn from. Perhaps it is time to think about who my hero will be! 

Lesson 3: Don't look back! 

When asked what is the one thing that he should have done but didn't, Warren Buffett answered "Honestly I don't have any regrets - I don't look back in life". He then went on talking about being rejected by HBS, which was viewed as an opportunity that allowed him to meet his mentor Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School. "Bad things will turn out good so there is no point looking back!" He added that we also shouldn't look at the unknowns: "Extract from what you know! Everything is in the knowns!"

When asked what is the one good habit to add to our daily routine, he said "Reserve the best hours to sell to yourself (as opposed to selling products to someone else)". He commented that few people stand out nowadays, and most people just follow in the motion. So if we (new grads) want to succeed at work, we should develop initiatives, be passionate about the work we do, and try to give our superiors some ideas they haven't thought of. 

It was a very pleasant trip to meet Warren Buffett, his furniture store, and his jewelry store! All of us had a great time in Omaha! 

What's a C-Function?

It’s hard to believe there are less than two months to go before completing the program!  Spring Break has provided the opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep and also think about meaningful experiences during my time here at Sloan.

One of the things I’ve really appreciated this year is C-Functions (the C stands for culture).  These informal events held every few weeks let students take a break from studying and relax with fellow classmates while enjoying food, music, and live entertainment from another culture.  This can include anything from fashion shows to choreographed dancing, skits, or costume contests.  Some of the countries represented have been Korea, Mexico, Brazil, China, and Israel.  You always know when the next C-Function is just around the corner because you’ll see students in class and all around Sloan wearing T-shirts to promote the next event, which you can buy at a table set up in the Sloan cafeteria.  These events are quite popular and always have a great turnout of students with the majority being from Sloan.  C-Functions also provide a great environment to mingle with fellow students from other programs such as MBA, LGO, MSMS, and SF.

I decided not to list all the classes I’m taking this semester because they’re the same as my twin brother (see his post below), with the exception of one class, International Corporate Finance.  This course focuses on identifying, measuring, and managing exchange rate risk faced by corporations, while also covering forex trading strategies and hedging.  It’s taught by Professor Mello, whose extensive industry experience adds a great deal of perspective to this subject.  H2 courses start tomorrow (see more about this in Eric's post below as well). 

 

SIP Week + Spring Break

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last had the chance to post. This can primarily be attributable to several reasons: 

1) My Spring semester course load is significantly lighter than Fall (I took 6 classes in Fall, plus Finance Research Practicum, which left me with a lot of room in Spring to pursue only classes i'm passionate about). Since this does not actually explain why I haven't been posting, it is worthwhile to mention that I have been spending all that additional free time travelling, catching up with old friends and exploring the wonderful city of Boston.

2) I have been receiving a lot of  emails lately from people have been accepted into the program or are in the midst of applying to make one of the admission deadlines. Hence, I have been placing a priority on answering as many of these emails as possible first.

3) Spring semester is pretty action-packed when it comes to student life: theres loads of things to do be it with fellow Sloanies, with MIT-based clubs, as well as all sorts of other ad-hoc activities that seem to pop up non-stop in the weekly newsletters everyone gets.

In any case, just to keep the ball rolling, and to also shed light on my most recent endeavors I present to you a series of photos from my trip to Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires over SIP Week + Spring Break (so for those not in the know: SIP Week and Spring Break are adjacent weeks in Spring semester, and it is possible to not sign up for any SIP Week activities -- effectively netting you 2 glorious weeks to do whatever you want, which in my case meant more travelling!):

Photo credits mostly go to Mark Lim, because I am a hopeless photographer

Sugar Loaf mountain seen from Flamengo Beach, Rio de Janeiro

The Cristo Redentor, Rio de Janeiro

View across Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janerio

Iguazu Falls, seen from the Brazillian side

Iguazu Falls, seen from the Argentinian side

The Devil's Throat Falls which is part of Iguazu Falls, seen from the Argentinian side

Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires

Plaza de Mayo from the opposite end, Buenos Aires

Argentinian Gaucho cowboys/girls in some sort of race, Buenos Aires

Argentinian Gaucho Cowboys playing what looks like horse-rugby, Buenos Aires

 

Spring Semester in the Eye of the Tornado

H1 and H2 classes = more flexibility and variety

If you haven’t been around Sloan too much, you may be confused by the phrases “H1” and “H2.”  Don’t worry, it’s simple: H1 refers to a period in the first half of the semester, and H2 refers to a period in the second half of the semester.  That’s right.  An H1 class only lasts the first half of the semester and an H2 class…you guessed it - lasts only the second half of the semester.  The thing that I really enjoy about H1 and H2 classes is it allows you to include more variety in your schedule.  I like these types of classes so much, I’m taking 4!  The MFin program here at Sloan allows for maximum flexibility in course selection.  For specific examples of this, see the other blog posts, and I will assure you from personal experience that this is true.  Since I come from more of a quantitative background, I am happy to be able to take a good number of courses to improve my background in other areas as well. 

My Classes

Since coursework is such a big component of the MFin program, I thought I would share my experience with you about the ones I’m currently taking.

1. Retirement Finance, Lifecycle Investing and Asset Management

This class is taught by the great Nobel Laureate Robert Merton.  The course discusses how the tools of financial engineering can be applied to develop a better solution to the current retirement problem.  This class is absolutely fascinating, and has given me a completely new perspective on the shortcomings of the current retirement system, solutions for a new system, and how each stakeholder would gain from this new system.  

2. Entrepreneurial Finance (H1)

This course was jointly taught by MIT Professor Antoinette Schoar, and Carl Stjernfeldt, a General Partner at Castile Ventures.   Professor Antoinette Schoar was named one of the top 10 academics influencing the institutional investment industry by aiCIO, Asset International's magazine for chief investment officers.  The class deals with valuing start-up firms, negotiating term-sheets, and management issues in the VC business.  I found that the cases and discussions in this class drew on a wide breadth of different business and management issues, and I really gained a lot out of the course. 

3. Practice of Finance: Perspectives on Investment Management (H2)

I can’t comment at length about this course since H2 doesn’t start for 2 days.  Well, here’s what I’m expecting.  The course is taught by Professor Jeffrey Shames, and a different guest speaker from industry is brought in each week to share their insights about the investment management space.

4. Power and Negotiation

Taught by Professor Denise Lloyd, this class is very hands on.  We negotiate every single class, and deal with topics ranging from distributive negotiations to multiparty negotiations.  This is by far among the most useful classes I’ve ever taken, and the experience of preparing for and engaging in a negotiation each week will certainly serve me well along many walks of life. 

5. The Euro Area Crisis (H1)

This class is taught by Professor Athanasios Orphanides who served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus and was also a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.  His perspectives on the crisis come from direct experience working on the Euro Area framework.  The final project in the course is to develop a solution to the Euro Area crisis (not an easy task!)

6. Central Banks, Monetary Policy and Global Financial Markets (H2)

Also taught by Professor Orphanides, this is the second course in a two part series on macro issues.  Having also served as a Senior Advisor to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, he teaches from his own personal experience.  I’m looking forward to starting this course on Monday!

 

I am so excited by the things I am learning this semester, and am looking forward to starting H2 on Monday.

April 12th Deadline

Congratulations, Round 2 admits!

For both R1 and R2 admits, I hear that your decision is due April 12th, so allow me to make an informal sales pitch for the MIT MFin program. I'm coming up on the last few months of the degree and I couldn't have asked for a better/busier year. You will hear this over and over again, but the MFin program is where you should go for a flexible curriculum. To give you just a glimpse of the breadth of my coursework, my class schedule this year was/is as follows:

• SUMMER '12
  Core Requirements (2/3): Corporate Financial Accounting, Finance Theory
  
  
• SLOAN INNOVATION PERIOD '12
  Professional Development Seminar (1/1): MFin Ethics & Professionalism Session
  
  
• FALL '12
  Core Requirements (3/3): Analytics of Finance
  Restricted Electives (1/4): Options & Futures Markets
  General Electives: Foundations of Institutional Portfolio Management, Practice of Finance: Investment Management
  Action Learning (1/1): Proseminar in Capital Markets (formerly Financial Engineering)
  
  
• INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES PERIOD '13
  Action Learning (2/1): Finance Research Practicum
  
  
• SPRING '13
  Restricted Electives (4/4): Valuation, Financial Market Dynamics and Human Behavior, Business Analysis Using Financial Statements
  Cross-Registration: Behaviorial and Value Investing (at Harvard Business School)

I have taken advantage of cross-registration policies with HBS,  gone to "main campus" for non-Sloan courses, rubbed shoulders with MBAs in more management-oriented classes, and sat for both quant and non-quant MFin courses. Furthermore, in the (typical MIT) spirit of knowledge dissemination, I have also been able to request access to course materials for classes that might, for example, having a time conflict with my current schedule. While I won't be able to sit for exams nor report these courses on my transcript, I have pages of academic papers, lectures, and homework assignments that I can devour in my personal time. With all these resources at our fingertips, my biggest constraint is the time to take full advantage of every opportunity I'm offered here.

Not a bad problem to have, in the grand scheme of things.

Aside from course flexibility, the MFin program is also built into the MIT Sloan Business School. Given that MFin or MFE programs are still relatively new, I wanted to be sure that my program had an established resource base, adequate career services, and existing employer relationships starting from Day 1, so having the infrastructure of an already established business school was a huge selling point for me. The networking opportunity, if you take advantage of it, is also phenomenal. The MIT Sloan portfolio of programs includes an alphabet soup of MBA, LGO, EMBA, MSMS, SF, MFin, SDM, and PhD students, many of whom have worked at--or are heading to--the firms that I was eyeing. Having their mentorship (or their recommendation) was an invaluable asset that further validated my decision to join the program.

Because I promised to always include photos in my posts, here are some unrelated glimpses into MIT MFin life:

Spring semester

Hi Everyone, 

Apologize for the much delayed blog. Time really flies when you are trying to juggle between classes, psets, recruiting and networking.

A little more update for the happenings last few months. Over the winter break, I took a class called Finance Research Practicum which pairs teams of students with sponsors to work on real-world consulting projects. This is very hand-on experience for me, as I work on a project with a major asset management firm to research the investment management firm’s fixed income strategies given the zero interest rate policy environment. This study involved visits to the sponsor’s office to speak with key management and portfolio management, following interviews of the investment management firms involved to understand the landscape and the attitude towards fixed income.

Aside from this class (which proceed to the spring semester), I am also taking 4 other classes, listed below:

1. Fixed Income taught by Deborah Lucas. This class addresses the advanced topics in fixed income and derivatives securities. The class is also very hand-on as Professor Lucas always relate the class to the current fixed income environment.
2. Entrepreneurial Finance taught by professor Antoinette Schoar. Professor Schoar recently was named one of the top 10 academics influencing the institutional investment industry by aiCIO, Asset International's magazine for chief investment officers. This class is only for the first half semester and consists of practical cases and lectures that build the foundation knowledge and skills in valuing VC deals.
3. Retirement Finance, Lifecycle Investing and Asset Management taught by professor Robert Merton. This is also very interesting class that applies financial engineering to the investing landscape. Professor Merton teaches his class with readings from premier research papers and news articles to enable the students apply the tools of modern finance to real-world situations.
4. SSIM: Financial Market Dynamics and Human Behavior taught by professor Andrew Lo. Professor Lo teaches his own research on human behavior and relate these to helping students to understand the dynamics of financial markets. The class has a 3 hour session every week. But let me tell you - this is probably the fastest 3 hours you will experience. His lectures are always very engaging, and his class always has overflowing capacity.

Looks like an interesting semester ahead. I look forward to all the learning along the way. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Welcome Back Events

Congratulations R1 Admits!

A quick update on what's been going on at Sloan. As a class senator, and as an MFin representative on the OneSloan Committee, I teamed up with Alec Williams, a fellow senator & OneSloan member in the MSMS program, to put together a series of welcome back events for the greater Sloan student body. It wouldn't have been possible without tremendous help from Nicole Mortillaro and the rest of the team at the Student Life Office. Some photos:

Advertisements went up around the Sloan campus a week beforehand.

8-10AM: Free coffee and tea for the early birds, and a free commemorative mug for the first 300 Sloan students or faculty members that arrived.

11:30AM-1PM: Our over capacity lunch talk featured Andrew Lo, who generously offered to give a lecture on systematic risk and regulatory reform. Chris Zhang, another MFin senator, helped coordinate this.


6:30PM: Finished off trivia night, with teams organized across programs. The nacho bar was a huge hit, I hear..

Where do I stay?

Let me start of by saying that it is truly a pleasure to live in Cambridge. Most things are a walk away (well... depends on whether you are a city walker or not) or a train ride away. So, as a first step, I would think about living in Cambridge. If you are single (when you matriculate), then I would look no further than on-campus dorms at Albany Street - Ashdown/Sidney Pacific/Warehouse. Most of my classmates live in one of these dorms and they would attest to a great living experience, albeit an expensive one. For the cost-conscious, Tang Hall is a good alternative but it is a bit farther from the other dorms and socializing would be a greater challenge. If you decide to stay off-campus, it would be a good idea to look up craigslist or off-campus vacancies through MIT Housing.

Logistics:

1. Watch out for a bidding request email from MIT Housing in March/April. Since MFin is a one-year program, we get preference for on-campus assignments in Fall.

2. Summer Housing: MIT Housing allows you to search for summer sub-lets. A number of my classmates found housing through the housing portal. The website also details steps on connecting with a potential sub-letter and confirming an allotment prior to arrival.

Full disclosure: I stayed at Ashdown in the summer and moved off-campus for family reasons.

Ref: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/construction/completed/ashdown.html