Entering class of 2008

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http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/4051/fanzoutf1.jpgFan Zou graduated with a Bachelor of Economics in Finance from Sun Yat-sen University, China where she received First-class Scholarship for Excellent Student (top 5%). She also received a scholarship from the Board of Directors at Lingnan University. Prior to her graduation, Fan spent one semester at HEC, University of Montreal, Canada as an exchange student. Fan spent time at Shenzhen Capital Group, one of China’s biggest venture capital firms, where she worked in the Asset Management Department and participated in both secondary market transactions and stock subscription process. She got introduced into Corporate Banking during her internship at Citibank where she worked in the Commercial Relationship Banking department. Fan plans to work in the area of asset management after her graduation from Baruch MFE program. In her free time, she enjoys playing classical guitar, badminton and traveling with friends and family.
I decide to join Baruch MFE because:
Looking back, Baruch MFE has gained great reputation in the past few years, and it has made the best use of its advantages and never stopped improving itself! One can hardly find such a well-designed and promising program elsewhere! And I want to join this program to learn practical knowledge and gain invaluable experience. I'm ready to embrace the challenges, and I'm looking forward to the great harvest!

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http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8568/carlschmidtqk0.jpgCarl Schmidt received a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a minor in Mathematics from Bucknell University. From freshman to junior year, Carl competed on varsity NCAA Division I Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track teams for which he was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. He then spent a year after college playing professional poker. He considers himself to be a very knowledgeable student of both the mathematical, game theory side of poker as well as the human aspect of it. For the past two years, Carl has been teaching conceptual and calculus based physics at Wooster School, Connecticut. He joins the Baruch MFE program with the goal of gaining a trading support role after graduation, and then move to an algorithmic trading position. In his free time, Carl enjoys traveling with his wife, competitive running, poker, and chess.
I chose Baruch's MFE program because of its grounding in rigorous mathematics and computation, and because I felt welcomed by its strong community before I had even submitted my application.

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John Jurcevic received his Ph.D and Master's degrees in Astrophysics from Indiana University where he is the recipient of College of Arts and Science Fellowship, Teaching Award, J. & F. Swain Fellowship. Prior to his graduate study, John graduated First-class Honours from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia with a Bachelor degree in Physics. Prior to joining Baruch, he had been an assistant professor of physics at Susquehanna University, an assistant professor of physics at Altertson College, and a post-doctoral research scientist at the Astronomy Department of University of Texas. He has also published more than a dozen papers on astrophysics. His interest in finance includes algorithmic trading, alternatives investment, and prop trading. In his spare time, he enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy novels. Cricket and rugby league are his favourite sports.

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http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6074/rogertrimbleee8.jpgAs a West Point graduate, Roger Trimble received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the famed United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He spent the next five years as a cavalry officer for a reconnaissance and surveillance squadron in the U.S. Army. After life in the Army, Roger works as a project manager for a semiconductor process equipment manufacturer based out of Long Island, NY. He is interested in working in a portfolio management role for a hedge fund, or similar investment house. In his free time, Roger likes to garden, home brew beer, and wrestle with his toddler.
I chose Baruch College because I am very impressed with the small class size and level of individual attention afforded each student. Also, I could not turn down the commitment of employment assistance in return for studying hard and successfully completing the program.

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http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/9168/jupiterbautistavz2.jpgJupiter F. Bautista graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of the Philippines where he received a full-tuition scholarship. For the past seven years, he has worked at Goldman Sachs as a Project Manager / Technical Lead managing a team that provides primary global support of several Java/Linux-based metric reporting applications used as risk analysis tools providing information on business trends such as trade volumes and settlements. Jupiter enrolls in the Baruch MFE program to incorporate advanced mathematical modeling concepts into his team's global metric applications, which process large volumes of collected data, to provide sophisticated ways of performing business trend and risk analysis for management reporting and decision support. He enjoys playing tennis, visiting museums and botanical gardens, walking around the city, working out, taking salsa classes and hopes to very good at it someday.I chose Baruch College with my strong conviction that "quality" and "inexpensive" do not have to be mutually exclusive words to describe education. The proximity of my permanent residence in Union Square and accessibility from my work location at Goldman Sachs to the Vertical Campus and the Newman Library would make my learning more efficient and effective by making it easier to manage my time between work and school. The Quant Network extends education beyond the four walls of the classroom providing a diverse environment where students and professionals could benefit from each other's rich and unique background. And did I mention that the Program Director was very nice?

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http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/830/cristianmateign2.jpgCristian Matei graduated from University of Bucharest, Romania with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, minor in Mathematics. He has worked at Banc of America where he worked on developing and enhancing risk and PnL management systems for equity derivatives and program trading. Prior to BoA, he spent time at Credit Suisse working on improving the indication of interest system used in NY, London and Hong Kong. Cristian also worked at Ameritrade where he architected, developed and implemented two distributed systems for account aggregation and portfolio reports and alerts. Cristian would like to work on developing new financial products and/or improving existing pricing and risk management models for derivatives, structured or synthetic products. After the MFE program, he would continue his career in a position as a desk quant or as part of a quant/product development group. Cristian enjoys outdoor activities and travel; skiing, swimming and barbequing are his hobbies. Visiting other parts of the world and understanding other cultures are exciting experiences for him. After trading in his own account he become extremely attracted by the financial markets, and the innovation and creativity that these capital market attracted over the years, Cristian constantly reads financial newspapers and subscribes to financial web sites looking for relationships between events and market movements. Derivatives and engineering new products or cash flows using fixed income, equities and derivatives products are what he enjoys doing for a living.
I chose Baruch College first and foremost for the famous and distinguished faculty members. Being a name-brand school with a nationally-recognized curriculum were also very important criteria in my decision. Flexibility of the classes, variety of the programs and large diversity of the students were also determinant factors in choosing Baruch. I have also been attracted by the affordable tuition offered by Baruch College.

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Jeffrey DeSoto holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. He has been working for IPreo, a financial services software company, for the past 2 years. At IPreo, Jeffrey supports and develops municipal bond trading systems used by various major investment banks to make primary issuances. He is interested in algorithmic trading as well as modeling various financial instruments. Jeffrey plans to work for a buy side firm after graduation from the Baruch MFE program. He loves traveling; he spent a year after college working and traveling through Australia, New Zealand and Alaska. Jeffrey also enjoys Crew. He rowed Crew as an undergrad and then coached after graduation.

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Bin Li holds a Bachelor of Finance from University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), China where he was honored as Excellent College Student and received several Academic Scholarships. As Vice President of Economic Union at UIBE, Bin participated in discussion about economic theories and policies in the real world. He co-authored a book of financial economics with his mentor, finishing two chapters focused on asset pricing and liquidity premium. Bin interned as an analyst at Zhongxin Securities Co. Ltd, where he built volatility estimate model and making analysis based on the model. He also interned at Bank of China as an analyst. After graduation from Baruch MFE Program, Bin plans to join an investment bank or hedge fund as a quantitative analyst. He enjoys reading, hiking, table tennis and swimming in his free time.
I choose Baruch College because this MFE Program provides intensive training in practical application, which would help me tremendously achieve my study objectives and career goal. Meantime I was impressed by its clear statistics about admissions and careers on the website of Baruch MFE Program, so I believe director of this program pays more attention to students. And surfing on this forum, I enjoy stimulating circumstance among Baruch MFE students here, which encourages me to become one of them.

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Aditya Chitral graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from Nirma University where he was nominated for the best student award. He interned as research analyst at Anagram, a stock broking firm where he developed portfolio management software. Prior to Anagram, Aditya also interned at Tata Consultancy Services where he worked on code generators. He is interested in risk management and keen to learn about other areas of finance relevant to Indian market. After completing the Baruch MFE program, he plans to work as a risk analyst in investment firm. His dream is to set up an investment firm in India. Aditya spends most of his free time playing tennis and cricket. A devoted follower of Formula I racing. he is an ardent fan of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher.

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Eugene Krel graduated summa cum laude from Baruch College with a Bachelor of Art in Mathematics/Philosophy/NYC Studies. He was an actuarial intern with the New York State Insurance Department where he reviewed life insurance and variable annuity account modifications for current products and new products as well as agent compensation on various life products. A Macaulay Honors College Scholar, Eugene is also member of Golden Key International Honors Society and Dean’s List recipient. His goal is to work in a risk management position in an investment bank or hedge fund after graduation from the Baruch Financial Engineering program. When free, he loves cycling, reading science fiction, traveling to new places and spending time with friends and family.
I decided to join Baruch because the MFE program here provides a mix of mathematics, financial applications and an overall programming approach that is unique to this school. This atmosphere, coupled with a closely knit community of students and faculty, is ideal for me to sharpen my current quantitative abilities as well as learn a multitude of new ideas.

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Joshua Barr graduated cum laude from the University of Arizona as a double major in physics and mathematics. He currently works for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) as a scientific programmer. Prior to this, he spent time in a similar role at the Steward Observatory. Co-author of three papers related to the development of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), Joshua also conducted a senior thesis studying quantum transport through diatomic molecules. Through the Baruch Financial Engineering program, he is seeking a challenging role in the financial industry in which he can make use of his quantitative and analytical skills. In his spare time Joshua enjoys trading options and traveling.
I was accepted to other programs (e.g. NYU, Polytechnic) but chose Baruch because of its transparent placement record and the personal attention of its director.

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http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/729/marksumh5.jpgLi (Mark) Su graduated from Peking University, China with a Master degree in Economics. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. A recipient of the IBM Scholarship, Mark interned as a computer support specialist at Bank of China where he provided IT operations support to the bank's Wuhan branch. Currently, he is an assistant portfolio manager at Beijing Wintegrity Investment where he works in equity analysis and portfolio risk management. There, he combines fundamental analysis skills and investment insight with quantitative modeling skills to develop market and industry timing strategies and perform scenario analysis and stress test to enhance portfolio risk control. Prior to this, Mark worked as a financial analyst at Harvest Fund Management in equity research department where his responsibilities included producing investment analysis reports based on company investigation and development of models to forecast targeted listed companies’ financial performance. His first job was assistant to Company Secretary at China Southern Airlines where he dealt with correspondence, conducted research and coordinated the production of company annual report. His goal after the Financial Engineering program is a risk management position in an investment bank. A good Chinese food cook, Mark enjoys traveling, reading historical novels and economic reviews.

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Manfung Chow holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Queens College of the City University of New York where he also second majored in Economics. Currently, he works at Markit Group Limited as a Credit Data Analyst supporting the credit derivative/syndicated loan pricing group. As Markit is the official administrator of several credit indices, Manfung's duties range from administering the roll of credit indices to providing aid in the generation of research reports. Prior to Markit, he worked at an actuarial analytics firm as a systems analyst. Joining the Baruch MFE in the Fall, Manfung hopes to be in a position such that he can learn new things, and gain new insights on a perpetual basis. Manfung enjoys going to the gym and playing basketball in his free time. As a SAT math tutor during weekends, he loves watching students progress through hardship and hopes to do the same in his future studies at Baruch.
I decided on joining Baruch over other options after reviewing the curriculum offered by the schools in the New York area. The Financial Engineering program at Baruch appears to be the most attractive after factoring what I felt were the most important factors - quality of program, reputation, location, and cost.

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http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/1843/bhargavsq2.jpgBhargav Reddy graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India where he received the Merit Scholarship for academic excellence. He was also the recipient of Pratibha Scholarship from State Government. Bhargav currently works as an analyst at Bank of America where he provides support for structured products trading desk and development teams. He started his professional career with Headstrong, a financial services company where he worked with Bank of America as a client in developing a credit risk management application. After the Baruch MFE program, Bhargav would like to work in a quantitative role in investment bank or hedge fund. He likes to spend free time playing outdoor games (cricket, volleyball, tennis and football). His other pastime activities include following Formula 1, listening to music, solving puzzles and watching movies.
I chose Baruch MFE for many reasons. If I have to mention one, it would definitely be "rigorous curriculum" which will provide me an opportunity to be well prepared for a successful career in finance industry after graduation. Besides small class size and dynamic director are a big plus.

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http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/4023/pateldq1.jpgPrashant Patel holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stonybrook University, State University of New York. He is a partner in Astoria Capital Management where he is in charge of customer accounts, compliance and designing high performance software to meet customer trading needs. In his previous roles, Prashant designed automated execution systems for high frequency relative arbitrage strategies targeted at Cross Border Arbitrage, Statistical Arbitrage, Risk Arbitrage, Spread Trading, ETF Basket Arbitrage. He also designed and developed algorithmic trading servers and algos as well as order management system enhancements, regulatory, clearing and commission capture systems. Prior to his role in Astoria Capital Management, Prashant worked as a consultant at Transaction Auditing Group where he designed an automated options arbitrage system reading in raw OPRA feed and SIAC feeds. He also worked as consultant at Reuters where he design ed flexible, easy to use front ends for Currency and Repo Dealing systems. Prashant worked as rapid application programmer at Instinet where he supported traders with excel spreadsheets and visual basic programs directly for the trading desk. A Series 7 Registered Representative, he is looking to join a proprietary trading desk or hedge fund trading statistical models after the Baruch Financial Engineering program. His dream is to setup his own multi-strategy hedge fund trading computation based strategies across multiple markets (both geographically and across asset classes) with a particular emphasis on emerging markets such as India. In his free time, Prashant likes reading science fiction, traveling and spending time with family and friends.
Baruch is not known as an ivy league school, however it does have a good reputation on Wall Street. That reputation is getting better and better according to rankings I am reading and from what alumni says. Baruch also has a very open faculty (I am saying this based upon my discussions and meetings with Professor Stefanica) and a small group of students and a growing list of active alumni which will leads to a very symbiotic relationship between the three. I want to be part of such a tight and well educated group. No other MFE program has made itself as transparent and active as Baruch's and the man I see constantly (with the help of others) behind all the initiatives is Professor Stefanica. I take my hat off to Professor Dan Stefanica.

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http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/576/benschomlimu2.jpgShlomi Ben Shoshan graduated from the Israel Institute of Technology, Technion with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with focus on signal processing and communication. For the past two years, Shlomi has worked at Rafael Advanced defense systems, formerly known as Israel's armament development authority. There he has worked on development of remotely controlled and autonomic weapon systems that are being used by land forces around the world. Prior to his undergraduate studies, Shlomi has been an infantry officer at Israel Defense Force, commanded 50 soldiers and been involved in active combat operations. After the Financial Engineering program, he likes to work as a quant, and to use the knowledge acquired to develop algorithmic trading methods. A big fan of all sport especially soccer, Shlomi is also a technical scuba diver. He has traveled extensively in Latin America prior to his undergrad study.
I decided to join Baruch because of the curriculum combination between computational and rigorous approach to financial mathematics. The strong curriculum, small classes, perfect placement rate and the personal attention given at Baruch's MFE made Baruch my choice. I believe that Baruch will help me maximize my potential and it's a perfect place to begin a successful career.

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Mathew Mathew holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Finance and Entrepreneurship concentration from Washington University in St. Louis. He interned at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where he saw what life was like on a trading floor. This internship sparked his interest in options and derivative pricing. Prior to CBOE, Mathew interned at Smith Barney where he assisted the sales manager and many of the financial consultants on a daily basis. He also volunteered for the Linus Foundation, a relatively new non-profit organization where he helped set up social charity events and then coordinated with local charities about the use of the money. His ideal position after the MFE program is to work as a trader at a hedge fund that specializes in derivatives. Mathew spends much of free time browsing the internet and reading news and sports articles. He enjoys watching and playing most sports, especially basketball since he is a big Chicago Bulls fan. Mathew loves to travel the world whenever possible.
I chose Baruch because of its low cost and good reputation in New York City.

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http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2381/sontaewoogq5.jpgTaewoo Son graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea where he received several merit-based scholarships. He went to to earn the Graduate Diploma in Banking and Financial Services at BU Global, Boston University. Taewoo interned at Boston Analytics, Boston, MA, where he populated the knowledge database of the various segments of the U.S. financial market. He also joined in the financial analyst training program at Korean Securities Training Institute, Seoul. He plans to work as a quantitative analyst to apply financial theories to sales and trading strategies and hopefully develop a new simulation-based financial derivatives product. Taewoo enjoys listening to music and traveling around the world. In his free time, he likes to watch and play sports, especially baseball and golf.
Baruch College has arguably one of the strongest financial engineering programs in the U.S. Baruch’s diverse curriculum will sharpen my technical skills, notably my understanding of the concepts of mathematical finance and methods of modeling, and equip me to utilize and apply complex financial research and analytical tools. Additionally, Baruch attracts an exceptional quality of students, faculty and alumni who will push me to break through my current limitations and expand my horizons beyond my perceived boundaries. I am excited at the prospect of being a frequent user and participant of Quantnet.org which is not only a great source of gathering information but an open forum to communicate and exchange ideas with fellow students. Finally, the location of Baruch’s campus in New York City is hugely appealing, with ready access to Wall Street amidst the undisputed financial capital of the world.

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http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/248/peterangster6.jpgPeter Jay Salzman holds a PhD in Physics from the University of California at Davis where he also graduated magna cum laude with a Master degree in Physics. A recipient of multiple DOE grants and departmental research assistantships, he spent two years on a tenure track teaching numerical physics at Mercer County Community College and a high school course on Linux and robotics. Peter published several papers and books; most recently The Art of Debugging With GDB, DDD, and Eclipse (No Starch Press, 2008). He also authored Solution manual for Physics, the Nature of Things (West Publishing, 1997) while a undergrad at San Francisco State University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and received the Award for Academic Excellence. Peter currently works in the IT Modeling Group for Fitch Ratings where he works closely with the quants and analysts on Residential Mortgage Backed Security (RMBS) products. In joining Baruch MFE program, he would like to learn new ways of applying mathematical methods of physics and engineering to finance. Peter likes to relax to video games, programming, puzzles, and riddles. His long list of favorite things are: sci-fi and fantasy books, collecting mathematical oddities, motorcycling, camping with biker buddies, history, politics, teaching, music, playing guitar, politics, Linux, coffee, and experiencing ethnic foods and cultures.
Baruch has a reputation for giving a good education, which to me, is of paramount importance. The cold hard fact is that since I seem to be in the working force now, I probably need a more direct path to education. That means a department that puts a bit more thought and cohesion into the program. I’ve heard that Baruch is a good place for that.

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http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/9532/vladimirimageok2.jpgVladimir Toshchevikov was a third year Master in Applied Mathematics and Physics student at the Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia when he transferred to Baruch College where he graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration degree, major in Finance and minor in Mathematics. After his internship at Grunwald Capital, a boutique hedge fund, he was offered a full time job as an analyst where he is currently doing research and overseeing performance of several proprietary quantitative trading strategies. He is also intensely involved with business development in a number of financial and technology startups in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Bucharest, Moscow, and Kiev. Upon completion of the Baruch MFE program, he plans to progress further with buy-side institutions, engaging in portfolio management, quantitative research, and algorithmic trading. Vladimir is fond of exploring applied psychology and philosophy. He also enjoys listening to music, reading books, and traveling.
The walls don’t make the program; the people do. A tight interlacement of faculty members, students, and alumni, on par with a well-weighted curriculum, creates a powerful network of quantitative finance professionals. If one happens to meet the program’s vigilant director, Professor Dan Stefanica, one will understand that with the zeal and passion that have been put in the program, Baruch MFE is unstoppable. Enrolling to the Baruch MFE program, I see myself obtaining both, the skills required to succeed in the industry, and friends of the kind that one could describe as "friends for life"

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http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7361/satyagnf3.jpgSatyanandam Gullapudi graduated with honors from JNTU College of Engineering, India where he received a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communications Engineering. With over ten years in software development, he currently works at Bloomberg as a Senior Software Engineer developing consolidated market data feed products B-Pipe and B-Pod to provide fastest feed to clients at large hedge funds and investment banks. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he worked for Lucent Technologies and Infosys-Nortel in developing telecommunications software for Voice and Data Networks. He received Runner-up Rookie of the year award from Infosys Technologies and Project of the year award from Nortel Networks. Satyanandam would like to become a quantitative strategist developing and implementing financial models. He loves reading technical and financial material, spending time with family and friends.
Baruch’s MFE program is clearly designed around industry needs rather than being purely academic in nature. The program is flexible and the timings are very convenient for part-time students like me. The school’s ideal location in close proximity of the financial district, the diverse background of the students, faculty and the alumni and the low cost of the program are some of the many reasons that prompted me to choose Baruch.

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http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5306/mengzgn3.jpgMeng Zhao received both Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science from Harbin Institute of Technology, China where she was the recipient of An Chong-Gen Scholarship and Guang Hua Scholarship. She also holds a MBA for Science and Technology from Queen’s University, Canada. Meng worked as system analyst at MCR Trading where she directed the development of corporate software and systems. Prior to MCR, she worked as project manager and senior software engineer at UTStarcom where she designed and developed software for the 3rd Generation wireless network WCDMA. Meng also developed Ethernet switch software and security software for Lenovo Network and China Computing Network and Information Security Management Center, respectively. After the Baruch MFE program, she likes to pursue a career in structured finance or risk management Her favorite hobbies include swimming, traveling, and cooking traditional Chinese food
What impress me most about the program are the faculty’s capability and their reputation in the industry and academy. Salih Neftci, Sylvain Raynes, Dan Stefanica, Anita Mayo, Elena Kosygina, Susan Ma and etc. all have very strong industrial/academic background. The course structure of the program is another attraction to me. Held through the mathematics department, the required courses and electives are aimed to be mathematically oriented while maintaining a finance focus. This arrangement prepares students with solid theoretical knowledge tailored to the financial industry needs and makes them more competitive on the job market.

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http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/884/deutschpicep0.jpgKevin Deutsch graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Art in Mathematics from Yeshiva University where he received the Academic merit scholarship, completed the honors program, won multiple awards for excellence in math. A talented writer, Kevin co-authored a play that was performed at the university arts festival. After college, he taught and tutored high school math. Kevin recently finished the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at The New School where his thesis was a collection of short stories, some of which have been published in literary journals. During graduate school, he worked as a part-time proofreader for Kaplan educational materials, especially math and science textbooks, teacher guides, practice tests. Kevin's goal after the Financial Engineering program is to work as a quantitative analyst where he can use advanced mathematics skills. Film, reading, travel, crossword puzzles, watching/playing baseball are some of his hobbies.

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http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3121/dougreichqr5.jpgDoug Reich graduated with Honors from Harvey Mudd College where he received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. During college he attended the US Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, and held job as webmaster for a pilots association and as the student UNIX systems administrator at school. In his senior year project, Doug led a team of five that used operations research to develop a mathematical aircraft scheduling and ticket pricing model for an air charter company’s operations. He currently works as a quantitative analyst at Ithaca Partners, a hedge fund in Connecticut where he performs back-testing, optimization, and execution of trading strategies. Doug hopes the MFE program will further his knowledge as quantitative analyst and eventually prepare him for a portfolio managing role at a hedge fund. In his free time, Doug likes to snowboard, run and ride bike.
I chose to attend Baruch because I determined it is a superior program to some of the other New York City schools. It provides smaller classes and better access to professors, as well as a higher quality of instruction and excellent placement services for part time students. The goal of all of the programs is to place their graduates with jobs, but only Baruch has a director as devoted as Dan Stefanica to get you there.

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http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2194/haoheuh2.jpgHao He holds a PhD in Mathematics from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he was the recipient of the Math department's Chancellor’s Fellowship Award. He also graduated with first class honors from Western Illinois University where he received his Master in Mathematics and Academic Excellence Award. During his graduate studies, Hao focused on computational financial mathematics and published a paper under the Black-Scholes framework at Western Illinois University. He also worked on solving financial modeling problems numerically with stochastic processes on large-scale linear programming at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For his undergrad study, Hao graduated first class honor from Fuzhou University, China with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering. After his bachelor degree, he worked as a project manager for a construction company where he was responsible for organizing the construction project, preparing bid estimates, and creating the budget report. After the MFE program, Hao plans to apply analytical and quantitative skills to derivative trading or investment management. In free time, he usually reads novels, watches movies or plays with computers. Hao also enjoys traveling, playing soccer and table tennis.
According to my research of MFE programs in the U.S., Baruch has a very good reputation among them. I decide to join it is based on its excellent intern and placement record, relatively low cost and geographic location. I am very impressed by the reputation of its faculty and great placement service. Being a math PhD, I prefer to working in a mathematically oriented together with a financially focused program.

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Geoffrey (Ross) Hallock holds a J.D degree from Harvard Law School. He also graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor in Art in Mathematics from Dartmouth College. With more than eight years of experience as an attorney on corporate finance transactions, Ross joins the Baruch MFE program to add quantitative skills to his knowledge of legal aspects of complex financial transactions. Squash and tennis are his hobbies.

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http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3130/nainglynnfp9.jpgNaing Lynn graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with minors in Mathematics and Business Administration from the University of Bridgeport where he was a recipient of the University’s most prestigious and highest honor scholarship, Academic Excellence and Leadership Scholarship, which was awarded to a few covering full tuition, room and board. Currently, Naing works as a business analyst at JPMorgan Chase in their Equity Portfolio Trading business. Prior to joining JPMorgan, he worked as a technical analyst for UBS and prior to that at Thomson Corporation covering production support, business continuity planning, and technical infrastructure planning. In his over eight years career within the Investment Banking industry, Naing has covered and developed business knowledge in Fixed Income, Futures and Options, and Equity markets. He plans to pursue a quantitative analyst position in investment banking, working either as a market risk analyst or in fields such as security pricing and portfolio structuring. Naing spent most of his free time reading and traveling to some international destinations whenever possible.
I applied to Financial Engineering / Mathematics programs in Carnegie Mellon University and NYU as well. I was also offered an acceptance from Carnegie Mellon University and the decision from NYU is still pending.
All three institutions have very strong programs and their programs are all well respected among those in the field. I choose Baruch over the other two for a very simple, yet very important, reason - Baruch’s commitment to its students. From teaching commitments and office hours to career planning and job placement, Baruch gives attention to the needs of its part-time students the same way it caters to full-time students. Such programs are non-existent in both NYU and Carnegie Mellon for their part-time students. This commitment, along with alumni mentoring, had made my decision easy and obvious.

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http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3138/stefanzetawz5.jpgStefan Zota holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania. Stefan placed 1st place, 3rd place and 3rd place in consecutive Student Scientific Contests for his papers titled "Measuring capacity in high speed networks", "TCP Servers/Offloading TCP/IP", "Learning and Inference in Bayesian Networks" respectively. He works at Goldman Sachs, designing event management reporting solution. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Stefan worked for IBM eBusiness Laboratory as an application developer in JSP/Java Bean-IBM WebSphere. Upon completion of the Baruch MFE program, Stefan plans to develop structured finance pricing and risk models at a hedge fund or investment bank. Stefan enjoys playing European football, table tennis, volleyball, bridge, and chess.
I was accepted to other similar programs (e.g. CMU-Computational Finance), but I have chosen Baruch MFE program for the following reasons: focus on practical knowledge, excellent career services, rigorous mathematical curriculum, and small class size

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Nataliya Saldina graduated from Ivan Franko National University Of Lviv, Ukraine - Dept of Mathematics and Mechanics. In 2007 she has received the Candidate Of Science in Physics and Mathematics. For the past four years, she has been working as a researcher and Professor assistant at Department of Differential Equations. Nataliya have published 8 reports on International conferences and 10 papers in scientific journals. She plans to work in structured finance after graduation from the Baruch Financial Engineering program. Nataliya loves traveling, playing backgammon, reading.
Financial Engineering from Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College will allow me to pursue a career where I can be involved in creative problem-solving processes. I would like to have a position that would challenge me and help me to develop. I believe that the broad variety of courses at Baruch will give me the best possible tools and knowledge to be competitive and competent.

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http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2852/weidonghuanged2.jpgWeidong Huang holds a PhD in Physics from Tulane University, Louisiana where he received full scholarship and worked as a research assistant. He has two papers published in the Journal of Applied Physics. Weidong received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Tsinghua University, China. Upon graduation, he would like to work in the area of derivatives valuations, algorithmic trading, or risk management. Weidong likes to travel and exercise in the gym in his spare time. He enjoys reading articles in history, natural science and economics.
The MFE program in Baruch college is a very vibrant and rigorous graduate study program. It has the top class faculty members and state-of-the-art facility. Also, its close connection with the finance industry in New York City is very appealing. When sitting in a class with so many energetic and ambitious talented classmates from all around the world, that feeling is great.

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http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4944/kawaiju4.jpgKa Wai Lam holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University. He has been a part of product management group at Misys Plc., a global products and solutions provider for the banking, treasury and capital markets and healthcare industries where his responsibilities include design and development of risk management functions across Misys products. Aspired to be an entrepreneur of scientific computing products, Ka Wai joins the Baruch MFE program to further his understanding of financial products. Swimming, running and playing tennis are some of his favorite activities.
I choose Baruch because of the small class size, convenient location and growing alumnae network. It affords me a high quality program at an affordable cost.

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Rachit Lahoti graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India with a Bachelor of Technology in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering where he was awarded Institute Merit Scholarship for three consecutive years. After graduation he started his professional career as a Software Engineer at Geometric Software Solutions Limited, leading PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) service provider to the global mechanical design, manufacturing and industrial markets. Rachit later joined Merrill Lynch, Technology Services (India) as an associate consultant in their Global Private Client Division where he worked on the development of Derivative Pricing Application that integrates with QuantLib, an open source library for modeling, trading and risk management, for the valuation of equity derivatives. He was also the member of PCOE (Private Client Order Entry) team, responsible for the development of Order Booking & Order Management system. After completion of the Baruch MFE program, he would like to join a leading financial firm where he can work in the field of Structured Finance. Rachit is a sports enthusiast of cricket, tennis, football, trekking. He also loves music, stock market and keeping himself updated with current affairs.

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Chuan-Yuan Huang holds an MBA from Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College and a Bachelor of Mathematics from Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. He is working on his CFA L2 exam in addition to joining the Baruch MFE program full-time. Yuan plans to work in the field of risk management or credit evaluation after the program. He enjoys playing softball, watching movies and eating out with friends.
Baruch MFE is the only program I applied for. My interest in Baruch MFE was encouraged further through conversations with several successful alumni two years ago. I knew that Baruch MFE offers excellent facilities, rigorous quantitative training, and better career service for its students. After I completed my MBA degree, I decide to make all my efforts to join this family, and I know Baruch MFE is definitely the best choice for my future career.

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Daniel Vaskovski holds a BBA in Finance and a BA in Applied Psychology (minor in Economics) from Pace University, NY where he graduated magna cum laude and received the Pace Presidential Scholarship for his excellent high school achievement. While in school, Daniel started trading/investing in equities, options, and currencies on his own account, mostly as a way to gain experience and learn market behavior. His ideal job would be to work as a portfolio manager, looking for innovative ways to beat the averages, with Jim Rogers as his inspirational example. After the MFE program, Daniel would like to work at a small hedge fund and hopefully assist in dealing with portfolio management, arbitrage, high yielding strategies, or risk management. Daniel loves weightlifting, basketball, poker, books on finance/economics/psychology, following markets and world politics, and watching a lot of documentaries. He also spends time helping out his parents' work.
I was impressed with the program after attending the info session and in class visit. I felt and still feel that Baruch offers the best mathematical finance education in the state of NY. I’m very impressed by the faculty, especially Mr. Stefanica, who is constantly trying to improve our skill set and environment to make this the number one program in the world.

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Mose Iba graduated with a bachelor degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Sabanci University, Turkey where he was a honors student. He interned at IBM Turkey, ABN Amro bank in their corporate banking division. Mose also worked at Finansbank A.S, Turkey in marketing and sales of treasury products and market interpretation. He spent time with a leading bank in Turkey advising their new core banking system. After the Baruch MFE program, Mose would like to work in commodities trading. He likes traveling; he backpacked in Europe and now planning to backpack in South America. Mose also loves sport and usually plays soccer and goes to gym but also open to almost all types of extreme sports.
First of all, I decided to join Baruch because it is located in NY, center of financial world. Second, I knew a few people of the faculty who are highly respected in Turkey. Third, I know 2 graduates of Baruch and their careers are great now.

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http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3113/shuwenzhaowh7.jpgShuwen Zhao holds a Master degree in Microelectronics (with honor) from Beijing Institute of Technology, China where she received the Excellent Graduate Award and has a publication on real-time image fusion algorithm on FPGA platform. Shuwen interned in the corporate finance department in Bank of China where she researched and compiled statistics in local real estate market. She also holds a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering (with honor) from the same institution where she was the recipient of the Excellent Undergraduate Award, the IBM Undergraduate Scholarship and the People’s Scholarship. After the Baruch MFE program, Shuwen plans to work in quantitative pricing and risk managing. She loves hiking, painting, playing saxophone, reading in economics and geography.
I decide to join Baruch because of the close interaction between students and faculty, and the well-built platform for students to connect with each other and the alumni as well. It is easy to see the dedication of faculty members to keeping this program vigorous and rigorous.