Prep Before You Start

Preparation Checklist

It is recommended that students review and enhance their knowledge and skills as needed before the start of the MFE Program.

The MFE is an intensive and challenging program that picks up pace quite early on. We’d strongly recommend that students start investing some of their time, between now and Fall, towards preparing for the program.

The coursework is very hands-on and requires programming in multiple languages. Below, we’ve put together a list of some resources that we think might help students (especially those with limited programming background, or those that need math refreshers) develop working level familiarity with some of these tools (staple for any FE).

Resource Guide to Preparing for MFE

UCLA Anderson MFE Summer Python Workshop

Open

UCLA Anderson MFE offers a Python Workshop to prepare you for the Financial Engineering curriculum. These online sessions are being offered at no cost to all incoming UCLA Anderson MFE students.

Course Description: This workshop is specifically designed to review Programming in Python. It will cover general Python, Python for Data Science, and Machine Learning.

The class will consist of an introductory session and 7 lectures. Each lecture will be 3 hours and include a break. Assignments will be given, and the instructor will be available for support throughout the course.

Schedule:

Date	Day	Time
July 13, 2023 (Intro Session)	Thursday	8:30 am - 9:30 am PDT
July 26, 2023 (Lecture 1)	Wednesday	8 am - 11 am PDT
July 27, 2023 (Lecture 2)	Thursday	8 am - 11 am PDT
August 2, 2023 (Lecture 3)	Wednesday	8 am - 11 am PDT
August 3, 2023 (Lecture 4)	Thursday	8 am - 11 am PDT
August 9, 2023 (Lecture 5)	Wednesday	8 am - 11 am PDT
August 10, 2023 (Lecture 6)	Thursday	8 am - 11 am PDT
August 17, 2023 (Lecture 7)	Thursday	8 am - 11 am PDT

Students are encouraged to attend live online sessions, but will also be able to review lectures anytime during the week once they have been recorded.

Students will receive an email with additional information prior to the workshop.

UCLA Anderson MFE Summer Math Bootcamp

Open

UCLA Anderson MFE offers a Math Bootcamp to prepare you for the Financial Engineering curriculum. These online sessions are being offered at no cost to all incoming UCLA Anderson MFE students.

Course Description: This bootcamp is specifically designed to review math concepts used in the MFE program.

Schedule:

Date	Day	Time
*Exact dates coming soon	*Exact days coming soon	*Exact times coming soon

Students are encouraged to attend live online sessions, but will also be able to review lectures anytime during the week once they have been recorded.

Students will receive an email with additional information prior to the bootcamp.

Finance and Economics Prep

Open

The following finance and economic prep enhances a candidate's competitiveness for placement in internships and full-time positions.

Read "Options, Futures and Other Derivatives" by John Hull
Read "Heard on the Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews" by Timothy Falcon
Read "Corporate Finance" by Ivo Welch
Read "A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews" by Xinfeng Zhou
Read "My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance" by Emanuel Derman
Read "How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of Wall Street's Elite" by Barry Schachter
Prepare for and pass the CFA Level I exam by June before starting the MFE Program. Students will not have time to prepare for the CFA exam during the MFE Program.
Pass a course in Macroeconomics.

C++ Programming for Financial Engineering

Open

Prior to the start of the MFE Program, it is recommended that all incoming MFE students complete C++ Programming for Financial Engineering offered by QuantNet. Important to note, the MFE program focuses on programming in Python and R. However, C++ is still very important for your job search as it continues to be a language required by many firms in financial services. For example, Morgan Stanley's test for summer internship that will take place in early October is in C++. Therefore, we would encourage you to register for the QuantNet C++ prep course if you are not proficient in C++.

Course Description: The Online Course is designed for people interested in pursuing graduate studies in financial engineering and covers essential C++ topics with applications to finance. With an emphasis on financial applications for quantitative finance, the course is also useful to professionals interested in learning one of the main programming languages used in the quantitative financial industry. The following topics will be covered:

Basic C/C++ Language and Syntax
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in C++
Inheritance and Polymorphism
Generic Programming in C++ and Standard Template Library (STL)
An Introduction to Boost C++ Libraries
Applications in Computational Finance

This 16-week course consists of 10 levels where students build their cohesive knowledge upon previously mastered material. Access to each level is granted upon successful completion of the previous level's homework and quiz. Each student is assigned a personal Teaching Assistant who will provide timely personalized feedback on homework as well as input on coding improvement. Upon successful completion of the course, students who pass the final exam and obtain a 70% or higher average will be issued a Certificate of Completion. A Certificate of Completion with Distinction will be awarded to students with 90% or higher average.

Prerequisites & Technical Requirements: No programming experience is required in order to follow this course. The course has been structured in such a way that you learn C++ from the ground up. You can freely download the Visual Studio Express compiler from the Microsoft site.

Other Programming Prep

Open

Suggested Programming Prep:

In an effort to help you prepare for our program we have teamed up with DataCamp to provide you with a subscription to state of the art programming prep at no cost. You will be able to register your account once you have activated your UCLA Anderson email address.

Recommended DataCamp Courses: Select from the courses below to prepare yourself as needed.

Skill Tracks: https://www.datacamp.com/tracks/skill
- R
  - R Programming: R Programming (datacamp.com)
  - Importing & Cleaning Data: Importing & Cleaning Data with R (datacamp.com)
  - Data Visualization: Data Visualization with R (datacamp.com)
  - Tidyverse Fundamentals: Tidyverse Fundamentals with R (datacamp.com)
- Python
  - Python Fundamentals: Python Fundamentals (datacamp.com)
  - Python Programming: Python Programming (datacamp.com)
- SQL
  - SQL for Business Analysts: SQL for Business Analysts (datacamp.com)
  - SQL for Database Administrators: SQL for Database Administrators (datacamp.com)
- Tableau (Good for visualizations and plots)
  - Tableau Fundamentals: Tableau Fundamentals (datacamp.com)

Career Tracks: https://www.datacamp.com/tracks/career
- R
  - R Programmer: R Programmer (datacamp.com)
- Python
  - Python Programmer: Python Programmer (datacamp.com)

Courses (shorter: approx. 4-hour courses): https://www.datacamp.com/courses
- R
  - Introduction to R: Introduction to R Online Course | DataCamp
  - Intermediate R: Intermediate R | DataCamp
  - Introduction to Tidyverse: Introduction to the Tidyverse | DataCamp
  - Introduction to Data Visualization with ggplot2: Introduction to Data Visualization with ggplot2 | DataCamp
- Python
  - Introduction to Python: Introduction to Python | DataCamp
  - Intermediate Python: Intermediate Python | DataCamp
  - Data Manipulation with pandas: Data Manipulation with pandas | DataCamp
- SQL
  - Introduction to SQL: Introduction to SQL | DataCamp
  - Joining Data in SQL: Joining Data in SQL | DataCamp

R Programming Workshop: A required R workshop is scheduled following orientation and prior to the start of classes. The workshop series will cover important programming skills that will be used in the first quarter and throughout the MFE Program.

View Here for free courses offered by the UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education.