Quant Guide 2021: University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

 

 

Like many of its North American peers, the University of Waterloo’s Master of Quantitative Finance programme has been taught entirely remotely for much of this academic year, thanks to the impact of the coronavirus.

“The hope is to be 100% in-person for fall 2021, but, of course, it is not really possible to predict that far in advance,” says graduate programme administrator Helen Chen.

She adds that internships during the spring of this year were conducted wholly remotely, and that exams were either remote or take-home throughout the autumn, with some on-campus classes starting up again in the winter.

The programme is highly selective, with its current intake numbering 13. Waterloo’s master is also particularly strong when it comes to popularity among offer holders: it extended just 27 offers to 127 hopefuls this year, 20 of whom accepted. That gives the programme a competitive offer-holder acceptance rate of 74%, an improvement on last year’s figure of 57%.

With teaching staff also growing – 17 this year, versus last year’s 12 – that means a boosted student:staff supervision ratio of better than one to one.

Waterloo has a clear differentiator in one key area: that of tuition fees, a priority consideration for many students. The programmer charges C$18,732 (US$14,500) for domestic students and C$25,472 for internationals.

View this institution’s entry in the 2020 guide

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