FE Program Moves up the Rankings, Passes USC
For the fifth year in a row, the Drucker School’s Master’s in Financial Engineering (FE) has climbed in the annual rankings of the TFE Times and moved ahead of USC.
In the TFE Times 2019 report, which was recently released, Drucker’s program moved up two spots to No. 12 from last year. Just behind the Drucker program is USC at No. 13, and just ahead is Cornell University at No. 11.
“We were really thrilled by the news,” said Assistant Professor of Finance Michael Imerman, who co-directs the FE program with Associate Professor of Mathematics Henry Schellhorn. “I think our program’s continuing success reflects the fact that we are highly selective and small, and that enables us to develop initiatives that cater to student needs and market demands in ways that larger programs can’t do.”
Imerman, who joined the Drucker faculty last summer from Lehigh University and holds the finance position formerly occupied by the late Jim Mills, said examples of the program’s efforts to respond to student needs include restructuring the program’s curriculum around financial risk management and developing a financial technology, or FinTech, concentration.
Another key strength, he added, is the expansion of the program’s network “beyond Southern California to include Wall Street and the Bay Area.”
The TFE Times (formerly known as The Financial Engineer) is a media outlet that tracks more than 40 financial engineering programs across the country.
Drucker’s FE program has made significant gains in its rankings over the past five years. In 2015, the program held the No. 29 slot and the next year leaped a whopping 11 spots to No. 18. Since then, the program has moved steadily up the rankings by two spots each year.
Drucker’s FE program, which also recently landed on the 2019 QuantNet Ranking of Best Financial Engineering Programs, closely integrates management with mathematics and offers a flexible interdisciplinary curriculum.