Do I have any hope?

[Chungwoon Kim]

.

 

[pingu]

No

 

[Dataminer]

Well if you don't get in, maybe you can take some courses in NY area as a non-degree student. Get good grades and reapply next year. Maybe get some rec from professors who teach at your target school.

 

[IntoDarkness]

u have a shot at usc, minnesota, rutgers and stony brook

 

[ygmwy]

Stony Brook takes literally everybody. As for Columbia MSOR, I doubt it. The problem is this: the admissions committee will scrutinize your transcript, and it will determine if you are smart enough to handle very tough grad level math courses in rapid succession (which is what a quant masters is). They will try and figure out the story behind your transcript, and they will find out that you did well in community college, but weren't up for the challenge from Virginia. If you are unable to do well in your grad level courses in Virginia, Columbia will figure that you will fail the courses here (and they are tough tough tough!) That makes you less marketable, and thus, a drag on their job placement ratings. I doubt Boston, NYU, USC, Rutgers, or Georgia Tech will take you either. Baruch is a toss up. I have seen them admit a gpa of 2.9. Don't know much about the other programs.

 

[C S]

I think you must know they will count the UVa GPA an order of magnitude more than your community college GPA. The 2.9 doesn't look good, but UVa has a good reputation so who knows. What's your cumulative UVa GPA for just your math courses? Rather than worry about test scores, I'd try to get the most famous math prof you've had at UVa write you a recommendation and maybe even shoot some emails to the directors of the programs that are in math departments.

You seem to have in the US for a while now. How come all your internships are back in Korea? Couldn't get one here? Because that's how it's going to look.

 

[GoIllini]

You need to get that GPA up. Though it is a good school, there is no excuse for a 2.9 out of UVA if you're taking a lot of finance courses.

You need to land a job at a bank. Perhaps in IT or operations.

You need to work your way into a quant role or a trading role. (It still happens- you have to scour the internal recruiting website and stay on good terms with the front office groups you support.)

You may be able to land at a prop shop straight out of school- who knows.

You need to take a few more math classes- getting As in them- and pick up some cool, marketable hobbies that would look really exotic to an ORFE professor. IE: Cave Diving, or better yet playing American Football.

Then you need to apply to Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, CMU, Berkeley, and NYU. You will get into one of those schools. IMHO that is your best way forward.

I don't disagree with the other folks saying that some of the state schools on your list are options, but I don't think you'll land anywhere materially better than you can land out of undergrad if you network well. If you're as smart as I think you are, I'd much rather have you save the MFE card for when it can make a huge difference- like sending you from being a sellside trader or maybe risk manager to a buyside quant researcher.

 

[systemtrader]

I think Steven's Institute and IIT and maybe even UIUC can be additional choices for you. You shouldn't apply to the top programs when you know your profile isn't the best. NYU accepts like 5% of applicants or something.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

NYU accepts like 5% of applicants or something.

More like 7-8%
https://www.quantnet.com/resources/nyu-mathematics-of-finance-program.2/