Auto Rejects from T5 school

[LinearAlgebraLover]

Hi all,
I am currently at a top 5 MFE program, and I have been applying to internships for summer 2025. However, I have been auto rejected from about half without even an OA. Is this also common for people from target schools, or could there be something wrong with my resume/credentials?
Edit: this came from a place of frustration as I just received an auto rejection from a firm at midnight on a Friday. Does anyone who has been through the process have advice on how to keep spirits up when dealing with lots of rejection?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Hi all,
I am currently at a top 5 MFE program, and I have been applying to internships for summer 2025. However, I have been auto rejected from about half without even an OA. Is this also common for people from target schools, or could there be something wrong with my resume/credentials?
Edit: this came from a place of frustration as I just received an auto rejection from a firm at midnight on a Friday. Does anyone who has been through the process have advice on how to keep spirits up when dealing with lots of rejection?

Thanks for sharing. This must be pretty frustrating. I'm sure thousands of people are going through the same experience. I heard people applying to 500+ applications with no result.
Couple of quick checks:
Did you get your resume checked by your career services people?
Did you customize your resume, CV for each position?
Are these internships on the firm's website or through your program's network? If they are public positions, chance is that there are thousands of resume per spot.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Hi all,
I am currently at a top 5 MFE program, and I have been applying to internships for summer 2025. However, I have been auto rejected from about half without even an OA. Is this also common for people from target schools, or could there be something wrong with my resume/credentials?
Edit: this came from a place of frustration as I just received an auto rejection from a firm at midnight on a Friday. Does anyone who has been through the process have advice on how to keep spirits up when dealing with lots of rejection?

Any update? I'm curious to hear what you can share from experience and from your cohort that you can see.

 

[QuantCoach]

The short answer is top 5 MFE programs are not target schools, I help with recruiting for a prop trading firm (think IMC, JS, Cit Sec) and most of the candidates I interviewed are HYPSM/IIT/Peking undergrads or HYPSM phds.

 

[fatcatking]

The short answer is top 5 MFE programs are not target schools, I help with recruiting for a prop trading firm (think IMC, JS, Cit Sec) and most of the candidates I interviewed are HYPSM/IIT/Peking undergrads or HYPSM phds.

So you mean, even with a top 5 MFE, to land a good role, you require a top undergrad?
Or is it just that undergrads are recruited from these schools? I went to a top IIT but almost none of the US firms came to my college.

 

[LinearAlgebraLover]

Any update? I'm curious to hear what you can share from experience and from your cohort that you can see.

Still no luck. My program seems to be really struggling to get internships - I only know of one person who has an internship for next summer secured, and only a handful of people have even gotten interviews past OAs. Definitely still in a tough job market. Personally, I have no work experience (straight out of undergraduate from a relatively no name school) but a pure math and financial math research experience with a fair bit of leadership positions. I've received nothing more than an OA, and an overwhelming majority of Auto Rejects. All we can do is keep applying though - just need one to go well!