The MCFAM Advantage

World Renowned Mathematics Faculty The University of Minnesota’s School of Mathematics is rated 4th in the world for influential mathematics research and 6th in Applied Mathematics.

Balanced Coursework, Mix of Faculty and Instustry Instructors MCFAM balances academic courses and practitioner modules/ workshops into well rounded undergraduate and graduate programs. Course instructors include academic faculty as well as actuaries, quants, risk managers and traders from many of the major local insurance firms, hedge funds, asset managers, trading enterprises, health care and other actuarial consulting firms.

IMA Public Lecture

Strong Network of Distinguished Lecturers Students, faculty and local industry benefit from MCFAM’s Distinguished Lecture Series. We invite internationally prestigious academics, quants and actuaries to visit campus and interact with our students, faculty and the local math finance sector. Our distinguished lecturers speak and collaborate on a variety of MCFAM's initiatives. Another weekly venue for a variety of Financial Mathematics lecturers is the Friday afternoon MFM Seminar.

Collaborative Academic and Industry Relationship

MCFAM works with prestigious and experienced advisors in the fields of Financial and Actuarial Mathematics. Our advisors help develop projects between MCFAM, its students and industry. They also contribute to the implementation of real-world teaching applications such as the MFM course A Practitioners Course in Math Finance, and the Actuarial Mathematics In Practice Course consisting of three 5-week modules covering a variety of actuarial mathematics case problems.
Our Advisory Boards are also instrumental in helping us launch innovative career development activities like the new Actuarial Mentoring Program launched in Fall 2012.

Great Employment Opportunities MCFAM programs are located in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota and benefit from a strong, diverse financial sector:

Minnesota's unemployment rate trends at least 2 percentage points lower than the national average.
Minneapolis/St. Paul hosts the headquarters of some of the largest financial and actuarial mathematics employers in the country:
- Insurance/Consulting: The Travelers Companies, Ameriprise, Securian, United Health Group, Allianz USA, Thrivent Financial, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Major offices of top consulting firms: Deloitte, Aon, Mercer, Towers Watson, Milliman, Grant Thornton, KPMG, Gross Consulting
- Hedge Funds/Asset Managers: Minneapolis has one of the largest concentrations of hedge funds and asset managers in the US including: White Box Advisors, Pine River Capital Management , Riversource Investments, FAF Advisors, Voyageur Asset Management, Galliard Capital Management,, the Clifton Group, and Advantus Capital Management among many others.
- Large Financial Institutions: Minneapolis Federal Reserve, State of Minnesota Retirement Fund, US Bancorp, Wells Fargo-Major Regional Hub, University of Minnesota Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
- Large Commodities/Trading: Cargill., CHS, Land O Lakes, General Mills, Citigroup Derivatives Markets Inc.-CDMI
- 5^th Largest Concentration of Fortune 500 Companies in the US: United Health Group, Target, Best Buy, Supervalu, CHS, 3M, US Bancorp, Medtronic, General Mills, Land O Lakes, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, CH Robinson Worldwide, Mosaic, Hormel Foods, Thrivent Financial, Ecolab, St. Jude Medical, Nash Finch

Excellent Career Development Support and Placement MCFAM has specialized career development services including many career events and workshops outlining key steps to landing high value internships and permanent job placements.

MCFAM’s MFM program is in its 6^th year and enjoys a high rate of placements. The 2011 MFM graduating class has a placement rate of at least 95%, with alumni in banking, risk management, investment banking, commodities trading, market making, quantitative analysis, enterprise risk management, insurance investment hedging, and data analytics. Both US and international alumni have been placed in Minnesota, Washington D.C., New York, California, Connecticut, Arizona, Toronto, Washington State, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Seoul.

Many of MCFAM's US and international actuarial graduates get placed in the insurance and actuarial consulting firms in the Twin Cities and throughout North America, China and Seoul. At least half of the 2012 Actuarial graduating class has already received offers or internships leading to full time jobs. The remaining half of the 2012 class graduates in December 2012.