University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Why Illinois?

The U.S News and World Report rates the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the sixth best program for Graduate studies, and the College of Business is ranked as the thirteenth best program for Undergraduate studies in the United States.

The University of Illinois was just ranked #1 for Public Universities in the Midwest for Best ROI

Over the years, thirteen members of the faculty and eleven members of the alumni at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have received the Nobel Prize in Sciences and Economics. Ten of the Pulitzer Prize winners are from the Faculty and Alumni of this University. More than eighty members of the current faculty are on the National Academy of Sciences, and about fifty members of the National Academy of Engineering are on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The University Library is one of the largest public university collections in the world, housing more than 10,500,000 volumes, over 6,000,000 manuscripts, periodicals, and other non-print materials, and more than 65,000 journals. In addition to the main library, there are more than 37 departmental libraries and divisions throughout campus, including the largest U.S. engineering library, state-of-the-art agricultural library, and the world-renowned Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, designed by the architect of New York City's Lincoln Center, alumnus Max Abramovitz, hosts more than 350 performances each year. The University also supports two major museums: the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion ranking second only to the Art Institute of Chicago among Illinois public art museums housing over 9,000 works of art in its permanent collection; and the Spurlock Museum, a museum of world history and culture, which holds in its collections approximately 46,000 artifacts from diverse cultures and varied historical time periods.

From the Director, Master’s in Financial Engineering [MSFE]

Greetings,

The MSFE Program at Illinois is one of the best FE programs in the country. It is ranked 5th best, by the TFE Times.

What distinguishes it is that it is designed to produce “Financial Engineers for the Real World”. That is a tall order, because the real world of Financial Engineering is conjoined with the most dynamic markets in the world – the financial markets.

Students need to know the basics, of course, but they also need to apply those basics in contexts that they may not have encountered before. At one extreme Data Analytics and Machine Learning are revolutionizing the way that we view financial markets and financial products or services. At the other end of the spectrum, Blockchain may radically change the way transactions are processed, recorded and analyzed.

The MSFE at Illinois is designed to instill basics and embrace change.

Students must engage in at least one corporate sponsored “Practicum” that lasts one semester – honing their skills of analysis – but also honing their communication and presentation skills.

At the same time, they can self-select a set of Elective courses to pursue their own interests directly. They may obtain an MSFE with a transcriptable concentration in Data Analytics or they may choose a set of Electives that concentrate on Low Latency execution.

I hope you will consider seriously joining the MSFE at Illinois.

I am sure you will find it both exciting and rewarding.

Morton N. Lane, Ph.D.
MS Financial Engineering, Director
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign