Master's Degree Essay Requirement
Our program has no comprehensive exam or thesis requirements, but the Graduate School-New Brunswick requires candidates to complete a master's degree essay. In order to graduate, a candidate's essay must be approved by a committee of three (3) faculty members appointed by the Mathematical Finance Program Director. The master’s degree essay normally extends a course project report performed by the student during his or her program of study.
Essay Motivation
The market for job-seekers in the financial industry is competitive. A well-crafted essay, based on a carefully designed project, can be listed in the student's résumé and serves to distinguish the applicant. A good project integrates (a) mathematical finance theory, (b) computer programming with C++, Excel/VBA, MATLAB, Python or other approved programming languages, and (c) analysis and processing of empirical financial market data. Most industry careers involve extensive reports and presentation writing for both technical and non-technical audiences. A facility for rapid preparation of good reports or presentations is a requirement in most industry careers.
Essay Sources
The essay can originate from one of the following sources:
A final project assigned by the instructor of:
- Math 16:642:626 Fixed Income Securities and Derivative Modeling
- Math 16:642:625 Portfolio Theory and Applications
- Math 16:643:628 Special Topics In Math Finance- Machine Learning
The final project report will normally be accepted as a master's degree essay provided the final course grade is at least B; borderline cases will be reviewed and decided by the Mathematical Finance Program Director.
Guidelines on time for Review and Assessment
As per the professor of the course being pursued.
