Alumni Perspectives

An evolving, lean curriculum

There is no fat in the Berkeley MFE program. Every course and hands-on learning experience is calibrated to expand your knowledge. The group assignments reflect the real world and are intended to make your learning fast and efficient. The condensed one-year format meant I was out in the workforce that much faster.

The content of the curriculum is impeccable, and it is always changing to keep up with and anticipate trends. Incorporating blockchain and cryptocurrencies is just one example.

I was fortunate that BNP recognized how much I had grown as a result of the MFE, and wanted me to return. Being on the sell side was my choice. Along with two senior traders, I manage the funding book, the ETF book, and the Canada and Latam books. We offer delta-one derivatives markets to institutional clients and hedge funds and hedge our positions in the inter-dealer-broker market.

Taught by pioneering scholars, finance legends, and thought leaders

In addition to having professors who are finance legends, we were fortunate to have an impressive selection of speakers come to campus. Where else would you be able to meet and ask questions of leaders from both Facebook and Sequoia Capital?

Professor Erik Reiner is not only a distinguished academic, who wrote pioneering papers on binary options pricing in the 1990s, he also was a managing director at UBS in New York, eventually occupying a role where he led directly with the board of directors. His class was the toughest, by far, and also one of the most interesting, as he always gave real-life, industry examples as he taught.

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