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Any chance in top State's MFE?

temptemp

Joined
5/6/13
Messages
2
Points
11
Hi all,

I am writing wondering if i have a chance of being accepted to State's top Master of Finance/Master of Financial Engineering programs in schools such as Columbia, MIT, Cornell, etc.

Here are some stats about myself:
-Just finished third year University of Toronto's Engineering Science Financial Engineering with majority of marks ranging from 75 to 90, and one mark in the 60. As a result, Third year GPA got pulled down to a 3.4.

-Extensive job experience as a software optimization/developer at Microsoft, risk analyst at SunLife, equity trader at TD.

-Working on an intense industry related Undergrad Thesis. Along with good relationship with serveral professors.

-GRE scores: Quantitative: 170/170, Verbal: 165/170, Writing: 5/6.

I had to work during third year by doing some apple app programming work to put myself through rent and food. As a result, GPA took some hit.
Nevertheless, I am really worried that my GPA is just too low to be compared with other applicant's perfect 4.0 GPA, along with the 60 that i got in third year.

What do you guys think? Any advice is great.
 
You have a shot, sure. I was once in a similar position once and it worked out for me. Then again, English appears to be your second language by a significant margin, which could be your most major setback.

The value of your essay/statement of purpose/whatever it is called just increased tremendously as admissions committees will likely be looking into it for explanations. This will be difficult to pull off if your communication abilities are poor.

My advice is focus on selling your strengths instead of justifying your weaknesses.

...and get American/Canadian native English speaking friends to scrutinize every bit of your essay.
 
Hi Lyosha,

Thank you so much for your advice.
I will definitely work hard on my statement of purpose.
I do agree with you that my communication/essay writing will need a lot of help.
 
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