Advice needed. Greatly appreciate any help!

[crusaders]

I've grad from UK with a First class honors in accounting & finance and will like to pursue a deg in Financial engineering. I understand clearly that my deg isn't really a quantitative one and thus wonder whether admission schools will accept students like I.

I have actually sent numerous emails to diff schools in US, but, yet, wasn;t able to get a definite answer from these schools. In brief, I stated my qualification and asked whether it meets their school's MFE pre-requisite requirements; all of them just told me to apply and give it a shot. Do you guys think it is possible for someone who doesn;t posses a highly quantitative degree to get admitted to a MFE program?

On the other hand, i've started to brainstorm on my personal statement/admission essays and I must say that it is way tougher than doing my GMAT/GRE. To be honest (i know i'm gonna get fcked by sayng this), I don't really know what i want to do after I've grad from a MFE program. I'm interested in pursuing a role towards a quantitative risk analyst such as a CVA job, but I can;t justify in my essays why I want to do so. We all have a goal/passion of what we want to do in life, but the reality is that the market ultimately decide what our profession/specialisation will be. Thus, i want to pursue a quant risk role as i see growth opportunities in that area. Must i really come up with outstanding stories on why i want to pursue a MFE degree? for instance, i saw a few of my friends' essays and they all have some excellent,albeit BS, story - For example, 'since young.. my parents have been teaching me blah blah blah' OR 'since young i have been reading this and that book, and one of those bks have greatly changed my perception of the financial market...' To me, this stories are kinda BS ( right?), I mean we clearly choose to further our studies in MFE so that we can earn lots and lots of money...

Anw, back to my question, can anyone recommend me a book that provides insights into the MFE world? For example, a bk that describe the roles/prospects of an MFE grad, why study MFE, what MFE do, terms & methodologies used in the quants world.. and etc.

Thanks in adv!​

 

[Shadowfox]

Crusaders ...you can always start with your understanding(or lack of) of the subject. I would recommend you to aim for an year experience or may be 2 depending on job availability. You should not pursue something just because that field is lucrative to start with. The real deal to understand your strength and passion and naturally you will acquire the required knowledge in the field. You did the first part right. Now its time to check for past post along similar lines. talk to as many people coming from diverese background of finance and try to understand what they do broadly. Just to give you a simple perspective, I am building high frequency prop trading strategies for past 5 years....will see if you can dig up the terms i have mentioned and ask specific questions...

 

[MRoss]

Having been through 2 years of MFE students (I'm part time) I can tell you that at least half of the MFE students are not certain what they want to do upon graduation. This would be understood in a personal essay. Just write about what technical skills you have and how/why you wish to use them in your career. Writing that you have a fascination with time series analysis or that you enjoy numerical analysis is far better than stating blankly that you wish to pursue a career in risk management.

My personal opinion.

 

[Jay YK Kim]

I'm in one of those MSFE in US and one of my friends actually majored in Biology when she was in undergraduate. Your major seem a lot more related to FE than her major does. If you really want it, just shoot for it as many universities replied to you.

One last my personal opinion, you don't really have to know what you want to do after graduation. It's great and awesome if you have a specific goal, but just keep thinking about what you enjoy and what you are capable of, for now. Then you will find out eventually. It just takes time.