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Baruch MFE 2015 Baruch MFE Q&A

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5/12/13
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68
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128
Hello,

My name is Yize Wang. I'm a first year MFE student at Baruch. If you have any questions about the application or the program itself, I would love to answer them. My colleague, Chao Feng @Chao_Feng (MS AMM), Haotian Wu @Longsky (JPM QR), and Yun Peng @Yun Peng (GS Wealth Management Strats) will join me as well. I will join the STQA at Citigroup this summer.

Thank you so much!
 
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Hey guys, thanks for doing this Q&A.
1) Background;
2) Have you taken Pre-MFE program? Advice for those who cannot take this program;
3) Your interview experience with Adcom;
 
Background: NYU Master in Chemistry (PhD quit), undergrad: University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), major in Chemical Physics
I have attended Pre-MFE, since I don't have any finance, math, programming background and related experience.

I accept the summer internship offer from JP Morgan Quantitative Research Internship program.

I feel very lucky to attend to Baruch MFE program, or I cannot find such good internship. I learned all my related knowledge at Baruch within Pre-MFE and MFE program.

Thanks to Baruch and Dan

I would like to answer any questions, especially if you want to switch to quantitative finance from other field.
 
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UNC-CH, double major in Math&Stat. Passed all preliminary actuarial exams. Interned at a reinsurance company before.

I didn't take Pre-MFE. I believe that's the case for most candidates, either not in New York or the time conflicts with your schedule. I read Dan's Primer and 150 Interview Questions and it turned out to be very useful.

The first round interview was purely technical, from basic math/probability to quantitative finance. Usually the second round with Dan really depends on your BG. The questions could be anything from math. programming and your resume.
 
BG: Renmin University of China, double major in Math and Finance. Passed CFA Level 2 and FRM Level 2. Interned at HSBC before. Will intern in Morgan Stanley at AMM team this summer.

My first-round interview with Baruch MFE was conducted by Prof. Wang, topics are from my resume, calculus, and mathematical finance. My second-round interview with Prof. Dan Stefanica contained programming, math and finance questions.

I didn't take Pre-MFE because at that time I was taking master's courses at Hanqing Institute, also in Renmin University. I agree that Dan's Primer and 150 Interview Questions will be very helpful for those who cannot take Pre-MFE.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

4) Did you have prior programming experience? I see @damonloveavril and @Longsky did C++ certificate program. Is this program sufficient to ace programming related questions in the interview or do you have to go deeper?
5) What is the most challenging part of the program thus far?
 
Hi everyone. Could you go over
1) How many hours did you put in to study for the interview?
2) I'm not sure I'm doing my essay correctly. Do you have any tips for the essay?

Thank you!
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

4) Did you have prior programming experience? I see @damonloveavril and @Longsky did C++ certificate program. Is this program sufficient to ace programming related questions in the interview or do you have to go deeper?
5) What is the most challenging part of the program thus far?

4) There is no C++ course in my undergrad. That's why I took the online one. I don't think that any MFE program is sufficient to help you master the programming questions. You need to spend a lot of time on your own.

5) You would find it hard to allocate your time between schoolwork and interview when the recruiting season started around mid-Oct.
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

4) Did you have prior programming experience? I see @damonloveavril and @Longsky did C++ certificate program. Is this program sufficient to ace programming related questions in the interview or do you have to go deeper?
5) What is the most challenging part of the program thus far?

Hi zyz,

I didn't do much c++ before I came to Baruch but I learned c and data structure before. I also tried to learn c++ by myself in order to catch up on and prepare for the interview. Programming knowledge is definitely a requirement for Baruch MFE so I recommend you to take the online c++ certificate program. According to my colleagues' descriptions, if you learn it well and achieve a high score with distinction, you'll definitely go smoothly with the programming part for the interview with Baruch MFE.

I think the most challenging part is that time is limited but there are a lot of things I need to learn in order to perform well in a job interview.
 
Hi everyone. Could you go over
1) How many hours did you put in to study for the interview?
2) I'm not sure I'm doing my essay correctly. Do you have any tips for the essay?

Thank you!

1) Well, there is no standard for the amount of time you should study. The more, the better. Go over the Primer and 150 Interview Questions, Probability (by Sheldon Ross), Linear Algebra, etc. For quantitative finance, I strongly recommend ASM manual for Actuarial Exam MFE.

2) Present a story about why you want to study MFE, why Baruch and your desired career path.
 
Hi everyone. Could you go over
1) How many hours did you put in to study for the interview?
2) I'm not sure I'm doing my essay correctly. Do you have any tips for the essay?

Thank you!

Hi Christopher,

1. I think the time may vary a lot between different backgrounds. As for me, I spent around 10h to prepare for the Baruch MFE interview and several weeks to learn c++.

2. I don't think I could help much on this question since I'm not a native speaker and I didn't do my undergraduate study in the US. But the general idea should be why do you want to join this program and why are you qualified.
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciate it.

4) Did you have prior programming experience? I see @damonloveavril and @Longsky did C++ certificate program. Is this program sufficient to ace programming related questions in the interview or do you have to go deeper?
5) What is the most challenging part of the program thus far?


This program is sufficient, since it already go very thorough for most of the C++ questions. I suggest you know data structure and algos, if you want to know more about programming, which will be very helpful in the future

To find the internship and prepare for every interview is certainly the most challenging part. Professors in Baruch are very good at teaching, so I didn't feel many difficulties during the classes.
 
Hi everyone. Could you go over
1) How many hours did you put in to study for the interview?
2) I'm not sure I'm doing my essay correctly. Do you have any tips for the essay?

Thank you!


I personally prepared two days for the interview. I suggest you make a plan consider your own situation.

I agree with Daman. And you need to show you know math, programming very well, and have general understanding of quantitative finance.
 
Hi guys. Thanks for doing this Q&A.

I just wanted to know what made Baruch stand out for you when you were choosing which MFE to go to. I know there are several strong MFEs in the NY area (duh), but what was it that made Baruch your choice? Or was it not you choice, but a fall back?

Thanks again.
 
Hi guys. Thanks for doing this Q&A.

I just wanted to know what made Baruch stand out for you when you were choosing which MFE to go to. I know there are several strong MFEs in the NY area (duh), but what was it that made Baruch your choice? Or was it not you choice, but a fall back?

Thanks again.
Relatively small class size, strong placement record, and Jim and Andrew ;)

Also, plenty of resources that could help you nail the job interview.
 
Hi guys. I don't know if you're allowed to tell us this but what other schools did you get into? Also, what kind of quant internships/jobs do you and other students expect to or hope to get? (by which i mean stat arb, developer, etc.) thanks again!
 
Hi guys. I don't know if you're allowed to tell us this but what other schools did you get into? Also, what kind of quant internships/jobs do you and other students expect to or hope to get? (by which i mean stat arb, developer, etc.) thanks again!
I was also admitted to CMU, Cornell and Chicago.

Most people are looking for typical quant analyst and risk intern/job. Very few people for developer and trader.
 
Do you feel that the external teaching staff (practitioners) are just as passionate as the faculty staff? Are they regularly accessible outside of teaching hours?
 
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