How to set myself up for admission into a MFE program?

[Anna Ye]

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[Pavlos Sakoglou]

I'm a first year Engineering Science student at the University of Toronto and I am interested in majoring in Engineering Math, Statistics, and Finance. I hope to pursue a Master's of Financial Engineering once I graduate, and I'm wondering how to make the most of my first summer. Research opportunities seem limited in this industry, so would you recommend applying for internships instead? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi @Anna Ye ,
I just graduated from my first degree (Business Administration) and I am looking for a MFE too.
After my research on the MFE programs I concluded that your degree valuates a lot as a first degree, due to the fact that you have a lot of mathematics, statistics and so on. My advise will be to take as many math and statistics courses as possible, and if by any chance you have elective courses such as finance and economics, choose them too. If you don't have finance or economics at all, don't be disappointed, you can always create a profile in Coursera.org and get certificates in many financial courses online. All you need to do when the time comes, is to prove that you have some certified knowledge in Finance and basic economics. That's really not hard.

Concerning you choice for the summer, I would definately recommend you to do an internship. In this point of your life, real-life experiences in a work environment are way more valuable than another research. Don't get me wrong, research is good, but you have all the time in the world to research while you are studying I was working as a freelance entrepreneur for 3 years and I learned so many things that school doesn't teach you, experiences and knowledge that matures you and makes you wiser.

One more advise: prepare, focus and plan your following years according to your choice and every academic decision you do, make sure it serves that purpose that doesn't mean you shouldn't expand your knowledge more to other fields and widen your mind, but the core of your education should be oriented likewise.

That's my opinion of course, keep it in mind when you make your choice I hope I helped.

 

[Anna Ye]

Hi @Anna Ye ,
I just graduated from my first degree (Business Administration) and I am looking for a MFE too.
After my research on the MFE programs I concluded that your degree valuates a lot as a first degree, due to the fact that you have a lot of mathematics, statistics and so on. My advise will be to take as many math and statistics courses as possible, and if by any chance you have elective courses such as finance and economics, choose them too. If you don't have finance or economics at all, don't be disappointed, you can always create a profile in Coursera.org and get certificates in many financial courses online. All you need to do when the time comes, is to prove that you have some certified knowledge in Finance and basic economics. That's really not hard.

Concerning you choice for the summer, I would definately recommend you to do an internship. In this point of your life, real-life experiences in a work environment are way more valuable than another research. Don't get me wrong, research is good, but you have all the time in the world to research while you are studying I was working as a freelance entrepreneur for 3 years and I learned so many things that school doesn't teach you, experiences and knowledge that matures you and makes you wiser.

One more advise: prepare, focus and plan your following years according to your choice and every academic decision you do, make sure it serves that purpose that doesn't mean you shouldn't expand your knowledge more to other fields and widen your mind, but the core of your education should be oriented likewise.

That's my opinion of course, keep it in mind when you make your choice I hope I helped.

Hi Pavlos,

Thank you for taking the time to compose such a detailed reply! I really appreciate your feedback and what you said about shooting for an internship over research makes sense. Good luck with your MFE applications!

All the best,
Anna

 

[Kann]

If you do good at an internship it could very well lead to a job offer in the last end.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If you do good at an internship it could very well lead to a job offer in the last end.

That's the best scenario. Work a few years and it will open doors to many top graduate programs should you choose to do so.

 

[Kann]

That's the best scenario. Work a few years and it will open doors to many top graduate programs should you choose to do so.

For sure, but if it shouldn't lead to a job, the experience is still gold worth, when you're applying for your first job in the finance industry. - But there is for sure also alot of other candidates who have the same experience.

But isn't it better to have some concrete experience that you can write on your CV, than just self-study, which you can't prove before you land the interview.

 

[bigbadwolf]

If you do good at an internship it could very well lead to a job offer in the last end.

That is the fervent hope of every intern, and for which they're willing to put in inhuman hours and swallow countless humiliations.