Other Information Information About this Department List of Faculty Degree Requirements Apply Online Visit the Department's Website Course List

The program in Mathematics of Finance is offered by the Department of Mathematics in conjunction with the Department of Statistics. The program concentrates on the advanced quantitative methods required for modern finance and draws on the diverse strengths of Columbia in stochastic processes, numerical methods and applications to finance. The program consists of ten courses, of which seven are required and three are electives. The seven required courses are MATH W4071 Mathematics of Finance, STAT G6503 Time-Series Modeling, STAT W6501 Stochastic Processes, STAT W4315 Linear Regression Models, MATH G6071 Numerical Methods in Finance, STAT G6505 Stochastic Methods in Finance, MATH G8210 Practitioners' Seminar. Electives are chosen by students from the set of approved courses according to student's interests but all electives must be approved by the director of the program. The set of approved electives includes courses from Mathematics, Statistics, and other programs and departments such as Computer Science, Business School, School of International and Public Relations, Economics, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. More information on electives is given on the program web page. Course plans of every student must be approved by the director of the program and all subsequent changes made by the student must be also approved by the director of the program. Students must fulfill requirements while registered either full-time (one year) or part-time (two to four years). In very rare situations full-time students can be extended as full-time students beyond one year but that is considered an exception and should be explicitly approved by the director of program. All required courses are available in the evenings. Part-time students can structure a program so that they take all required and elective courses in the evening two days a week.  Required courses include a practitioners' seminar in which distinguished practitioners from the industry discuss their research, give mini-courses and suggest open problems. Students must maintain an average of B (GPA: 3.0) or better to remain in good academic standing. Those who do not maintain a satisfactory average may be asked to discontinue their studies. All courses must be taken for a letter grade. Courses taken for R and Pass/Fail do not count toward the degree. Student records are reviewed each term to determine whether candidates are making satisfactory progress. Students are advised to plan their program of study carefully and pay attention to the specific ratio between courses and Residence Units. Therefore, all students, especially those studying part-time, should consult regularly with the program director to ensure that the ten course and two Residence Unit requirements of the program are satisfied. The specific M.A. degree requirements are completion of 10 courses and 2 resident units, and an average of B (GPA 3.0).