UCLA’s Anderson School of Management: Master of Financial Engineering

About the Program

UCLA Anderson’s Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) program equips graduates with the education and practical skills for careers in risk management, money management, derivative pricing, private equity, hedge funds, data analytics and technical operational areas of corporate finance.

The MFE program is highly selective, with more than 760 applicants vying for the 80 seats in the Class of 2017. There’s a good reason for the demand: a three-to-one student to faculty ratio, a 100% job placement rate within six months of graduation, and average starting salaries of $100,000. The roster of companies employing UCLA’s MFE grads is impressive, too, ranging from American Express and Blackrock to Goldman Sachs, Google and Wilshire Associates.

But make no mistake. This is a rigorous, quantitatively focused curriculum for training finance professionals. The coursework is directly related to modern finance theory and practice.

Program Format and Schedule

The UCLA Anderson MFE curriculum is solidly based on the business school paradigm of merging theory and principle with up-to-the-minute business practice. The MFE is completed in 52 units of coursework, a required summer internship and a hands on Applied Finance Project(AFP). The AFP gives MFE candidates the opportunity to apply knowledge acquired through their coursework to solve a practical, real-world financial engineering problem. By partnering with a corporate client, students develop and showcase their knowledge of quantitative finance, hone their communication skills and delve more deeply into an area of interest beyond the classroom.

Classes start in November.