NYU Tandon's MS in Financial Engineering is a 33-credit quant finance master's taught on campus in Brooklyn by the Department of Finance and Risk Engineering, and full-time students finish in four semesters, or three if they take a heavier course load. Fall is the only start, so for Fall 2027 you apply by December 1, 2026 for priority consideration or by February 15, 2027 for general consideration, and the GRE is optional.
I'm Fiona Taft, founder and CEO of QuantMinds, former Executive Director of UC Berkeley's MFE program and former Associate Director at Stanford University. Program details come from NYU Tandon's official pages, checked October 2026. For the advice that applies to every program, start with my guide on how to choose a quant master's program.
NYU Tandon MSFE at a glance
| Item | NYU Tandon MSFE |
|---|---|
| Degree | Master of Science in Financial Engineering |
| School and department | NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Department of Finance and Risk Engineering |
| Length | 33 credits. Four semesters full-time, three for some students, longer part-time |
| Location | On campus in Brooklyn, New York |
| Start term | Fall only. The program doesn't take spring applicants |
| Fall 2027 deadlines | December 1, 2026 for priority consideration, February 15, 2027 for general consideration |
| Tests | GRE optional. An English test for many international applicants |
| Application fee | $90 |
What Tandon asks for
You need a four-year bachelor's degree or its international equivalent and at least a 3.0 GPA, Tandon's minimum for every graduate program. Three-year degrees don't qualify, though a Bologna-system bachelor's in engineering or a related field with 180 or more ECTS credits can be considered.
Start with the math. The department expects proven proficiency in linear algebra, probability theory, advanced multivariable calculus, applied statistics and computer programming, and says you have to demonstrate it to be considered at all. If a course is missing or your grade was weak, take a for-credit course for a letter grade before you apply and explain it in your statement. Here's the math you actually need to break into quant finance if you want to check yourself.
What you submit
The program page lists these.
- The online application and the $90 fee, which you can ask to have waived by email if it's a financial hardship
- Transcripts from every school where you earned college credit. Unofficial copies work for review, and you'll need official ones before your first semester if you're admitted
- A resume
- A statement of purpose and a one-minute video
- Two letters of recommendation
- An English proficiency score, where it applies
Tandon's admissions requirements page asks you to answer two written prompts, both required, and says it may request more video essays or other materials. Plan on the two letters the program page asks for, from professors, employers or supervisors, not friends or relatives.
Tests
Every Tandon graduate program is GRE optional, and scores go officially through ETS to institution code 2668. For English, the minimums are a TOEFL of 90 on the 0 to 120 scale or 4.5 on the 1 to 6 scale, IELTS 7.0, Duolingo 125, PTE Academic 65, or a Cambridge C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency result, and your score has to be under two years old when you apply. You're exempt if you earned a bachelor's after four years at a US institution.
What's distinctive
Curriculum
Your 33 credits break into five 3-credit core courses, 13.5 credits of electives, a 1.5-credit lab and a 3-credit capstone. The fixed core is Introduction to Derivative Securities, Quantitative Methods in Finance and Valuation for Financial Engineering, and you add two of Financial Economics, Financial Risk Management and Machine Learning in Financial Engineering. The program's structure also includes the boot camp, a capstone assessment and a Bloomberg certification, each at zero credits.
Focus areas are optional. The course listings group electives into focus areas including Quant Techniques, Asset Management, Financial Data Science and Machine Learning, Financial Risk Models and Computational Analytics, and Fintech Innovation and Digital Finance. The department's page for prospective students says it offers more than 50 of its own courses each semester, average course enrollment is around 15, and no course has more than 30 students.
Boot camps
Your Tandon work starts before the first semester. The pre-program boot camp runs in three parts, online in June and July and then two intensive weeks in person in August, and each part has a mandatory exam, graded pass or fail. It covers probability, stochastic processes, Brownian motion and Ito's formula, plus Python, data science and machine learning. The department says its purpose is interview preparation, because firms start recruiting in September for internships that begin the following June. A 10-day January Boot Camp gives you a second pass at the math, and Q-CODE drills live coding interviews for rising second-years.
Capstone and internships
Every student completes a 3-credit capstone, and you choose the form. You can do two internships in two separate semesters at 1.5 credits each, a project with a faculty or industry mentor, a thesis, or special topics courses with a written report. No capstone can start until you've completed 18 credits. International students on an F-1 visa can intern after two full-time semesters, and most students intern the summer between their first and second years or during their second year.
Career support
Beyond NYU's Wasserman Center, MSFE students get an in-house FRE Career Placement Director, the FRE-Net job portal, recruiting presentations, resume workshops, mock interviews and a mentorship program that pairs students with alumni for technical mock interviews. The program page also points to more than 40 professors with extensive industry experience.
Cost and funding
Tandon charges tuition by the credit, and the rate depends on your program, the term you're admitted and how many credits you take. NYU's Bursar publishes the current rates, linked from Tandon's tuition and financial aid page. On top of tuition, NYU's 2026-27 cost of attendance estimate for a full-time graduate student in a traditional program lists $24,414 for housing, $6,910 for food and $5,100 for health insurance for fall and spring, plus books, transportation and personal expenses.
Every applicant to Tandon's full-time master's programs is automatically reviewed for merit scholarships. They cover fall and spring only and carry GPA conditions you have to meet every term.
Career outcomes
Tandon's employment statistics for the Class of 2025 cover 113 graduates who were seeking work. Of those, 67% were employed at graduation and 88% within 90 days, at an average base salary of $107,478. Of the jobs reported, 85% were in the United States and 15% outside it.
The department's list of graduate employers from 2016 to 2025 includes BlackRock, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Point72, Virtu Financial and WorldQuant. Job titles run from quantitative researcher and quantitative developer to risk analyst, trader and data scientist.
How I'd approach Tandon
First, make sure you're reading about the right program. NYU has more than one quant master's, and they're separate programs with separate applications, so check that every page you rely on is Tandon's.
It's a good program, NYU's alumni community is strong, and you'll be studying in New York. Read the outcomes against the role you want and the firms on your list. If you haven't settled on quant research, trading or development yet, our guide to working out which quant path fits you will help.
I'd take the GRE even though Tandon doesn't require it, and send the score if it's strong. A high quant score shows the committee exactly the skills it asks you to prove, and it helps most if your GPA is a little lower or there's a gap in your math.
Then pick your date. If your application is complete and strong by December 1, take the priority deadline. If it isn't, use the extra time and apply by February 15 with a better file.
And start your interview prep before you arrive, because September recruiting won't wait for you to settle in. Come with your resume ready and spend the summer on our guide to quant interview questions. Once you're in, enter trading competitions. They give you something concrete to put on your resume and talk about in interviews.
Frequently asked questions
Is NYU Tandon's MS in Financial Engineering STEM-designated?
Yes. Tandon says all its graduate programs are STEM programs under the government's CIP classification and qualify for the STEM OPT extension, and the NYU Bulletin lists this one under CIP code 27.0301. Check what that means for your own visa with NYU's Office of Global Services.
What GRE score do you need for the NYU Tandon MSFE?
Tandon doesn't publish a minimum, and the test is optional. Students who enrolled in Fall 2025 averaged 168.6 out of 170 on GRE quant, with an average GPA of 3.83.
Can you do the NYU Tandon MSFE part-time?
Yes. The program is offered full-time but can be completed part-time over more semesters. Only full-time admits are reviewed for merit scholarships, though.
Can you start in the spring or defer your place?
No to both. The MSFE admits for fall only, and Tandon doesn't accept deferral requests. If you can't start, you withdraw and apply again for a later fall.
Get a second opinion on your Tandon application
If you'd like another set of eyes on your Tandon application, from your math background to your test plan and deadline, request a free Discovery Session, a Zoom session with one of our coaches, and we'll work through it together.
Header photo by Ajay Suresh, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0, cropped and with the NYU Tandon logo added.
.jpg){kind=link}