Pre-Program Boot Camp

In order to help incoming MS students reach their maximum potential, the FRE department provides a comprehensive three-part pre-program boot camp series every summer. The boot camp consists of two online course sections in June and July, and a third two-week intensive section in person in August. Each of the three parts of these boot camp experiences has a mandatory exam.

The boot camp is thoughtfully divided into three parts to ensure you absorb the information in a structured and logical sequence. This 3-part series covers essential topics in capital markets and financial mathematics, including probability distributions, random walks, Markov chains, stochastic processes, martingales, Brownian motion, Ito's formula, and conditional and joint densities with calculus. It also incorporates Python, data science, and machine learning for financial engineering.

The boot camp’s purpose is to prepare incoming students for the interview process that will begin soon after the start of the Fall semester. The top financial firms recruit beginning in September for quantitative internships beginning in June of the following year. The boot camp evaluates students on a pass/fail basis, but the perspective gained is invaluable for gaining an overall understanding of firms' expectations of job candidates coming from an engineering school. The types of questions asked by interviewers are broad, ranging from mathematical brain teasers to technical programming questions involving machine learning and artificial intelligence. The internship interview involves taking written exams with questions on stochastic calculus, Black-Scholes theory, or Python coding. There’s a vast amount to learn, and few—if any—have mastered it all. However, attending the boot camp is an effective way to gain a solid understanding of the key topics shaping today’s financial services industry.