Justin Dominiczak (MSMFT’15)
MS in Mathematical Finance* West Caldwell, New Jersey“The MSMF program offers a great mix of mathematics, finance, and computer science, in addition to being located in Boston, which provides a vast amount of opportunities for an internship or full-time job after graduation.”
*Renamed the MS in Mathematical Finance & Financial Technology in 2020.
“I worked as a pension actuarial analyst for a couple of years before deciding to transition my career into the quantitative finance field,” says Justin Dominiczak. “I joined the quantitative and mathematical parts of my work, but wanted to move from the pension to the finance industry. I selected BU’s MSMF program because of the quality of academics and the location.”
So has Questrom turned out as he expected? Yes. And it all started the very first week.
“One of my favorite experiences so far was at orientation,” he says. “Several industry professionals came to speak about different areas of quantitative finance and how to help us prepare for the program. Overall it was a great way to start the year.”
Great projects soon followed—not just theoretical, text-book scenarios, but assignments grounded in the real world. “My favorite project so far was the last homework assignment for our Fundamentals in Finance course,” Dominiczak says. “We examined daily stock returns for Amazon, Google, and eBay as comparable data in order to analyze how the recent Alibaba IPO was priced and the stock movements of initial day of trading. It was the first time using real-world data to analyze financial theory.”
All this experience is pointing Dominiczak toward his ultimate goal of working in a quantitative research role at a hedge fund or asset management firm. “The MSMF degree provides a solid background in the mathematical theory necessary for such a position,” he says, “as well as applications of theory and principals in different areas of finance. Having a chance to obtain a summer internship in a relevant field will help me be more valuable after graduation, too.”