Acceptance Rates for MFE programs

[Andy Nguyen]

Fordham’s MSQF reports 650-700 applications this year for 35-40 selected applicants who are then required to clear the required prerequisite Mathematics for Quantitative Finance course in summer. How would an applicant rank it based on selectivity of 5.38% to 5.71% using above reported data?

Where do you see these numbers reported?

 

[QFinit]

This data was reported in the admission materials communication sent by the program coordinator along with the admission letter sent to admitted applicants, copy of which was also sent to the director of admissions and enrollment.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Is it 650 or 700? That's a wide range coming from the coordinator. I have seen the number being 600 from another source.
Did they mention how many student they admitted to get 35-40 incoming students?

 

[QFinit]

Is it 650 or 700? That's a wide range coming from the coordinator. I have seen the number being 600 from another source.
Did they mention how many student they admitted to get 35-40 incoming students?

Their letter noted "more than 650 applicants" for a planned class size of "35-40 students". That was early in the admission process when they had just begun interviewing shortlisted applicants while others were still in pipeline. As I understand, all (or most of those) selected had to qualify in on-site in-person interviews with multiple senior faculty members after first passing the screening interview by the program coordinator.

 

[QFinit]

UCB MFE 2011 incoming class
This link
404 applicants
88 admitted (22% admission rate)
68 enrolled (8 females, 60 males)

UC Berkeley’s intake statistics are likely not comparable with others given that their program director plays active role in pre-qualifying and advising many potential applicants informally to apply now, apply after additional work, or thinking twice. Their current year’s results seem to be something worth emulating for every top program regardless of the intake statistics:

"Sixty-five students have been placed in the winter internship program, which runs from mid-October to mid-January...This year, of the 23 students with internships in New York, seven will be at Goldman Sachs; the rest will be at JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, The Global Emerging Market Group, and other firms. Nine interns are in Asia, including five at JP Morgan Asia, and another student is at Corpbanca in Chile. The interns are earning, on average, $7,839 per month."

Of course, they choose candidates with some of the strongest profiles in terms of experience and education including many PhDs with prior technical and quantitative experience. Hence, their placements over the recent few years may not seem as surprising if one controls for these factors in any such analysis.

On the other hand, here is another perspective on why top technical candidates selected by schools such as Princeton and CMU may not join any college program for now to pursue more interesting avenues:

Anti-college scholarship: San Francisco tech mogul pays bright minds not to go to college
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Tech-mogul-pays-bright-minds-apf-2401770798.html

 

[menovive]

See this for update. Cornell MEng (FE) number was added.
Columbia MAFN is not done with admission.
MSOR is not within the FE/MathFin scope we cover but they have 1093 applicants this year.

CUNY - MAFN ? Cud u pls enquire about the stat. 10x !!

 

[menovive]

CUNY MAFN - total strength 60 full time and 30 part time. Acceptance rates for 2011-2012 year was 1:13

 

[Lyosha]

There's no CUNY MAFN...

 

[menovive]

Ohhk. Columbia Univ, New york; MA in Mathematics of Finance

 

[NotConfused]

"UC Berkeley’s intake statistics are likely not comparable with others given that their program director plays active role in pre-qualifying and advising many potential applicants informally to apply now, apply after additional work, or thinking twice."

I can testify what QFinit wrote here. During my preparation, Linda, the Director of MFE at Haas Business School, asked me to take classes in Accounting, Finance and Economics. Then after a whole year of effort and proof of well-done in those areas, I was asked to take CFA I and then pre-program classes in Statistics, Programming and Calculus, comprehensive and financial application focused. And all the effort doesn't guarantee you anything. You must show not only your interest and dedication but your talent as well by doing VERY WELL in those preparations.

I am not aware of any other school who ask prospective applicants to do this much work without promising anything. I can imagine many applicants are simply overwhelmed by the requirement and decide not to apply. FYI, I have strong academic & professional background with nearly perfect test scores, a Master's degree in Stats and a Master's degree in Computer Science. I have worked for Fortune 10 company and a top 5 bank and now a financial start-up... And I am looking forward to my Haas experience.
My point is the acceptance rate at Berkeley is in no way to be compared with the ones from other schools. One is orange, the other is apple.

I chose MFE@Berkeley for two reasons:
1. Placement. No matter how great the school's reputation is, if I can't land on a decent job commensurate to my expectation and the money paid for school, PRESTIGE is only for the fool.
2. Finance focus. Different programs have different focus. While many other schools highly focus on
quantitative skills, Berkeley tends to create well-round financial professionals with strong financial intuition/market sense
Remember the truly gifted ones don't have to go to school. The ones semi-gifted need the schools to bring them to the door. Hence most of us here are in this category and there isn't much differentiation. What happens post-school is more meaningful... Peace

 

[bansalmohit]

Andy Nguyen Hi Andy, Can you post the acceptance numbers for CMU 2011 as they are not on the thread? Did i type the alert in right way?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The Princeton MFin program just notified me that they receive 813 applications this year, their all-time high and a 12% increase from last year (previously all-time high).
If this is indicative of things to come this year, we will have another record-breaking year in term of MFE application numbers.

Princeton MFin will release the admission results in March. Best of luck to all applicants there.

 

[Swayum]

The Princeton MFin program just notified me that they receive 813 applications this year, their all-time high and a 12% increase from last year (previously all-time high).
If this is indicative of things to come this year, we will have another record-breaking year in term of MFE application numbers.

Princeton MFin will release the admission results in March. Best of luck to all applicants there.

Depressing! Any idea on if they'll possibly increase their intake this year (I know the faculty was getting worried about numbers hitting 20+ previously, but I was hoping they got over it...)? Also, when will we start to hear about interviews + what percentage of applicants do they interview generally?

 

[Li Cai]

Depressing! Any idea on if they'll possibly increase their intake this year (I know the faculty was getting worried about numbers hitting 20+ previously, but I was hoping they got over it...)? Also, when will we start to hear about interviews + what percentage of applicants do they interview generally?

From the tracker you will find that they interviewed 100/800 people.

 

[bansalmohit]

The Princeton MFin program just notified me that they receive 813 applications this year, their all-time high and a 12% increase from last year (previously all-time high).
If this is indicative of things to come this year, we will have another record-breaking year in term of MFE application numbers.

Princeton MFin will release the admission results in March. Best of luck to all applicants there.

I personally think it is Quantnet ranking effect.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Ha. It's no coincidental that we released the ranking in Sept, around the time where applicants start to apply.
We will see if it's the case across the board from the top 10 programs or so. Still too early to tell.

 

[penny ante]

NYU MSFM 2011 incoming class (FT only)
1050 applicants
74 admitted
37 enrolled

Around 25 enrolled in part-time study.

hi Andy,
I think you mentioned that NYU had about 100 enrolled in their PT before.
Have they changed their class size?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Nope, you probably misread "PT applicants" as "PT students". Remember they have non-degree and certificate students as well.

 

[penny ante]

You can't apply for both FT and PT program for Fall 2010. If you don't get admitted into the FT program, you will have to reapply for FT in Fall 2011 or PT in Spring 2011.

---------- Post added at 07:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 PM ----------

I just located the source where it states there are 90 to 100 part-time students in the NYU Math Finance program.
There you have your answer.

Well.., it seems apparent to me that you clearly stated "part-time students" for the number.
I am not sure what you mean by "PT applicants", but under the NYU's terminology, they differentiate the word, "part-time", from non-degree and certificate.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You are right but that's not my source. They may put everyone not FT under that group. You have to contact them to find out.
Or you can just email the dept and ask directly for latest number.