mp3bu

I agree that the CFA material is not hugely complicated. What makes it difficult is that you need soak up all that material to sit 1 exam. If that material had been covered in a 3rd year undergrad degree, it would be 12 exams. So much crap I learnt in college I just memorized the night before the exam and then just regurgitated the next on the exam, then I had forgotten it within a week. You could easily get away with not really understanding stuff and still do well.
My approach to CFA is completely different
1) I actually want to know most of the material. College (undergrad and grad) was just about getting a piece of paper for me so that I could get a good job. The reason I’m doing this CFA business is because it frustrates me hearing people at work talking about stuff I don’t understand.
2) I can’t memorize the of volume of formulas required to pass the exam. My approach with all the formulas is to actually try to understand them (i.e. why is that in numerator/denominator, etc.). This is an approach that I rarely had in college. Just memorize the 12 formulas, take exam, forget.
The above basically explains why I don’t have much relative respect for MSs than I do for CFA titles.

Valores

CFA or PhD?
It’s like comparing a steak with a roast chicken. You can eat them both but they’re very different animals.
Now I haven’t done a PhD, though my wife has one from spending nearly four years examining a fungus which grows on sheep shit, but I think it’s fair to say that a PhD requires more work than the CFA, although it’s spread out a lot more.
As we all know, the CFA is difficult not because of the material, but the sheer quantity of it. But it’s probably more difficult than an undergrad - how many people do you know who failed their undergrad? About zero I suspect. You’ve got to be a complete smackhead to fail an undergrad, but failing the CFA is pretty easy.

SFoyil

Definitely a pretty apples and oranges comparison. Still would like to hear from people who have done both. I still don’t really get how most PHD programs work. I know guys who finished their PHD in physics by the time they were 23 and I know other, also very smart people, who are 30 and still working on their PHDs in English. It’s not such a clean cut route near as far as I can tell.
I wonder, a lot of you that are calling CFA similar to 2+3 year of undergrad, if you are coming from math, finance and econ backgrounds to begin with. If I studied finance in undergrad then I would probably find the curriculum pretty easy too because because this would mean that I already have four years of studying this stuff, obviously like it because I’ve decided to major in it, and am probably naturally talented at it vs other subjects.
One of my majors was Russian. I figure if you finance majors had to become fluent in Russian suddenly over the course of 3 years while working full-time you would consider it damn difficult and probably impossible.
I went to, from what I am told, an elite liberal arts school (rhymes with Bratwurst) and I did not find it very challenging. If you wanted to work your ass off and learn a lot you could. But if you wanted to coast you could as well. Not the case with the CFA. I worked way harder then I ever worked in undergrad and failed level 3 band 5 last spring.

Dapper425

I can’t believe this is even being argued, as someone pointed out you can’t fail undergrad, you can’t fail a PhD, you CAN fail the CFA and odds are you will at least one level. CFA is much harder in this respect, there is always that element of luck involved, whereas with the PhD it’s just like a masters as long as you put in the time you will get it eventually. With the CFA no amount of time can ever 100% sure secure a pass.
What material is harder? PhD no doubt. Which one is harder to get through CFA and it’s not even debatable.

segalm

Some of the earlier commetns on Master’s vs. CFA in terms of prestige or notability; BS in Finance/Math/etc. with the CFA designation easily trumps a Master’s without the CFA, at least in the world of finance. I have a Master’s degree, and so do many people in this buisness. It’s almost becoming the new bachelors degree. A Master’s degree and the CFA charter is very desirable combination. That being said, there are many people in my firm who are successful asset managers and do not have a CFA charter nor the desire to get one. I think after you have a cetain amount of experience and a track record, that, in many cases, speaks for itself.

b_sea93

Few people fail a Ph.D. as in “get tossed out of the program.” Many many people give up before the end. Many a person with a non-professional masters’ degree is a Ph.D. dropout, if you scratch the surface.
Social science and humanities Ph.D. candidates tend to take longer than exact sciences and mathematics Ph.D.s. I personally think this is because logical arguments made with natural language (in social sciences) and heuristic interpretations (in the humanities) are a lot harder to evaluate convincingly, whereas the mathematical and experimental stuff either works or it doesn’t or if it only partially works, it is clear where those borders end. As a result, it is a lot harder to build a strong case for a thesis in a qualitative subject, and it requires a lot more analysis of evidence and contrary hypotheses, which takes a lot more time.
None of this means that the quantitative stuff: math, physics, etc. is easy, but it is easier to show whether your contribution to the field is a) correct, and b) original.
When I taught, I was surprised to find that teaching the qualitative parts of topics was much much harder to do than teach the quantitative parts. As a learner, quantitative stuff is sometimes more intimidating, because if you are incorrect or wrong, it is more apparent. But as an instructor, figuring out how to get across effective qualitative analysis is much harder to do, because it’s harder to explain why “this way is right, this way isn’t” (or, more likely, “this way is better; this way is worse”).

tango_gs

i have done both an MA and CFA. MA is by far more prestiges and harder (if you want to do well). no question about it. the MA experience was intellectual, the CFA was just a tradesman’s license.
i will be the first to say this, CFA is a requirement. Masters is a privilege. PHD is for the gifted or downright nerds.

Iginla2011

Frankarabia, did u do ur ms in a ultra elite school? Maybe that explains for the toughness?

bcp901

top 3 in Canada which isn’t “elite” compared to your MITs, Harvards, etc……however, grad work is grad work (advanced macro, econometrics and micro should not be terrible different, however i did hear U of Chicago is a step ahead of everybody) ….

Windjammer

They’re also different career paths. PhDs generally lead to academia, government jobs, or quant funds. If you want to wind up in one of those fields, more power to you.