Princeton MFin Interview Tips for Princeton MFin

Michsund · 1/17/21

abeloo said:
CMU is great from what i've heard so congrats. What was your GRE quant out of curiosity if you don't mind me askin?

167 quant and I believe 156 on the verbal, which they told me was low. They preferred 169-170 and 160’s, which sucked cause I could’ve taken it one more time but I was content with my score

tips · 1/17/21

I think that you still have a shot TBH, I got my interview invite like 4 days before my interview, so I'm fairly sure they're sending the invites on a rolling basis as they're ascertaining for each candidate whether to assign an interview or not. The email I got also said that they're doing interviews through late february -if you haven't heard anything by like Valentines day I would assume you aren't getting one

Also I don't know if it will help anyone in the future that looks back at this thread, but given that this is essentially the 2021 thread and since the folks who posted profiles in the 2020/2019 threads helped me out a ton, I figured I'd post mine for anyone looking back at this next year

Graduated from Top IVY Magna Cum laude with BA in Computer Science, Economics, won a top research prize (3.5 GPA.. but I had better than average grades in all my math courses)
Worked at Goldman Sachs/A prop trading firm for three years as a sell side data scientist and then a buy side quantitative researcher ( 1 yr Goldman + Internship, 2 year prop trading firm)
Built two profitable, AI-driven market making strategies at my current employer from the ground up, lots of c++/python/finance quantitative experience
Series 7/63 certified
Substantive rec letters from 2 professors that I did research with, and a managing director from Goldman that I worked with intimately (none from my current employer)
I worked in a volunteering organization during my undergraduate for 3 years and held leadership roles
Emphasized my athletics / writing passion
GRE Quant 169, Verbal 168, Writing 5.5

Main takeaway for anyone who had similar anxiety to me this application season, having a "low" GPA isn't a deal-breaker that will keep them from considering your application, if you have substantive experiences/great recs/a demonstrated passion for finance, you can still get an interview

Qui-Gon · 1/17/21

tips said:
I think that you still have a shot TBH, I got my interview invite like 4 days before my interview, so I'm fairly sure they're sending the invites on a rolling basis as they're ascertaining for each candidate whether to assign an interview or not. The email I got also said that they're doing interviews through late february -if you haven't heard anything by like Valentines day I would assume you aren't getting one

Also I don't know if it will help anyone in the future that looks back at this thread, but given that this is essentially the 2021 thread and since the folks who posted profiles in the 2020/2019 threads helped me out a ton, I figured I'd post mine for anyone looking back at this next year

Graduated from Top IVY Magna Cum laude with BA in Computer Science, Economics, won a top research prize (3.5 GPA.. but I had better than average grades in all my math courses)
Worked at Goldman Sachs/A prop trading firm for three years as a sell side data scientist and then a buy side quantitative researcher ( 1 yr Goldman + Internship, 2 year prop trading firm)
Built two profitable, AI-driven market making strategies at my current employer from the ground up, lots of c++/python/finance quantitative experience
Series 7/63 certified
Substantive rec letters from 2 professors that I did research with, and a managing director from Goldman that I worked with intimately (none from my current employer)
I worked in a volunteering organization during my undergraduate for 3 years and held leadership roles
Emphasized my athletics / writing passion
GRE Quant 169, Verbal 168, Writing 5.5

Main takeaway for anyone who had similar anxiety to me this application season, having a "low" GPA isn't a deal-breaker that will keep them from considering your application, if you have substantive experiences/great recs/a demonstrated passion for finance, you can still get an interview

When the rest of your profile looks the way yours does, of course a 3.5 isn’t going to be a deal breaker — especially given you’re coming from an Ivy. In general, I think a low GPA — with low grades in some important courses — absolutely can be a deal breaker. I don’t think GPA is left-fat tailed for top programs, and I think that’s because most with lower GPAs don’t have the other profile characteristics that you do.

Your background is stacked man. Good luck with all your apps.

Andy Zhang · 1/17/21

tips said:
I think that you still have a shot TBH, I got my interview invite like 4 days before my interview, so I'm fairly sure they're sending the invites on a rolling basis as they're ascertaining for each candidate whether to assign an interview or not. The email I got also said that they're doing interviews through late february -if you haven't heard anything by like Valentines day I would assume you aren't getting one

Also I don't know if it will help anyone in the future that looks back at this thread, but given that this is essentially the 2021 thread and since the folks who posted profiles in the 2020/2019 threads helped me out a ton, I figured I'd post mine for anyone looking back at this next year

Graduated from Top IVY Magna Cum laude with BA in Computer Science, Economics, won a top research prize (3.5 GPA.. but I had better than average grades in all my math courses)
Worked at Goldman Sachs/A prop trading firm for three years as a sell side data scientist and then a buy side quantitative researcher ( 1 yr Goldman + Internship, 2 year prop trading firm)
Built two profitable, AI-driven market making strategies at my current employer from the ground up, lots of c++/python/finance quantitative experience
Series 7/63 certified
Substantive rec letters from 2 professors that I did research with, and a managing director from Goldman that I worked with intimately (none from my current employer)
I worked in a volunteering organization during my undergraduate for 3 years and held leadership roles
Emphasized my athletics / writing passion
GRE Quant 169, Verbal 168, Writing 5.5

Main takeaway for anyone who had similar anxiety to me this application season, having a "low" GPA isn't a deal-breaker that will keep them from considering your application, if you have substantive experiences/great recs/a demonstrated passion for finance, you can still get an interview

Holy shit, your profile is so f***ing amazing! If you don't get into at least one of the top 5 MFE programs, I'm gonna assume the negativity of 2020 is still upon us. Honestly, and maybe I'm out of line for saying this (Idgaf), but any of the top 5 MFE programs would be lucky to have you. I've seen plenty of the resumes from Princeton MFin...I don't think yours is worse than the average Princeton MFin admit (assuming your interview went well). Did you also apply to Columbia? Asking because I am a MSOR alum and I had an opportunity to interact with some of the MSFE students there (some work at Citadel/Two Sigma). Feel free to DM me if you have any questions about Columbia and I'll try my best to give you answers

tips · 1/17/21

Thanks for the kind words guys; I applied for the financial economics program at Columbia (I'm guessing you were referring to Financial Engineering though, not financial economics), I really liked that they offered the opportunity to take PhD level courses / feed into PhD programs (if I feel like it) and that it was in the business school. I'll take you up on that, really would like to know what their experience in that program was like / what the post-grad ops were like for them.

I recognized pretty late in college that I really enjoy research so I applied mostly to places where I think I'll have a good option to continue in the industry afterwards if I choose, or get a PhD (Stanford ICME, Princeton MFIN, Columbia MSFE). Tried hard to hammer into my apps that I already know I can be a quant (given my job as a quant :^)) and that I think graduate school is a really good way to enhance my skillset so I can eventually become a leader.

Definitely understand that my profile is pretty good (don't want to come across as falsely humble / a braggart), I just have a lot of hang-ups regarding the GPA which admittedly is probably fair given that Columbia's MSFE, or MIT MFin's posted average GPAs are like 3.8s

SSNauticaFin · 1/18/21

Hey Everyone!
Recently received an invite from Princeton for the first round interview. Any tips/suggestions or particular questions that I should focus on more? RT im prepping on the lines of a general interview and going over my CV/SOP.

SSNauticaFin · 1/18/21

Hey Everyone!

Recently received an invite from Princeton for the first round interview. Can someone shed some light on what kind of questions one can expect? Thank you!

yxxy · 1/18/21

SSNauticaFin said:
Hey Everyone!

Recently received an invite from Princeton for the first round interview. Can someone shed some light on what kind of questions one can expect? Thank you!

Congratulations for getting the interview! Would you mind sharing a bit about your background?

SSNauticaFin · 1/18/21

yxxy said:
Congratulations for getting the interview! Would you mind sharing a bit about your background?

Thank you!
Sure, I am from India. I graduated with a gold medal from IIT (top engineering institute in my country) with a GPA of 9.68/10 specializing in mathematics and computing (Dual Degree ie Bachelors + Masters ). During my undergraduate education, I pursued three international research internships, published 2 papers, and was awarded an international scholarship ( selection rate of 1%) to pursue my master's thesis in an IVY league university. I was also the secretary of the cultural council in my college and received a letter of appreciation from the Indian Prime Minister for organizing events to celebrate the cultural exuberance of the city where my institute was situated (Yeah, this was a bit wild :D). I was awarded the IIT Blue (highest student honor in IIT) for the same. Post-college, I have been working as a strategy analyst at JPMorgan in the risk management vertical (1.5 years), looking at securities and bond acquisitions. I am a CFA Level 2 candidate.
GRE : Q :170 ; V : 166 ; AWA : 5.0. Hope this helps!

Jondoiever · 1/18/21

SSNauticaFin said:
Hey Everyone!

Recently received an invite from Princeton for the first round interview. Can someone shed some light on what kind of questions one can expect? Thank you!

May I ask when you got your invite?

tips · 1/19/21

SSNauticaFin said:
Hey Everyone!

Recently received an invite from Princeton for the first round interview. Can someone shed some light on what kind of questions one can expect? Thank you!

Besides for saying the questions are strictly behavioral, can't really add much more (wouldn't really be fair to anyone whose already done their interview w/o further knowledge). Just to do the prep you would do for a first round interview that's primarily behavioral

SSNauticaFin · 1/20/21

tips said:
Besides for saying the questions are strictly behavioral, can't really add much more (wouldn't really be fair to anyone whose already done their interview w/o further knowledge). Just to do the prep you would do for a first round interview that's primarily behavioral

Thank you! I have been prepping on the same lines.

_xd · 1/20/21

Just received an interview invitation. It seems like they are still rolling out their top 100 list.

yxxy · 1/20/21

_xd said:
Just received an interview invitation. It seems like they are still rolling out their top 100 list.

Congratulations! Would you mind sharing a bit about your background?

another · 1/21/21

_xd said:
Just received an interview invitation. It seems like they are still rolling out their top 100 list.

Cong, when did you submit your application btw?

tips · 1/21/21

Don't believe when you submitted your app matters as far as when you get an interview (unless they've got a Last-In-First-Out policy) since I submitted my app the night before the deadline and already have interviewed

hugeyeti · 1/21/21

CMU is a good school; I had friend that graduated from the program. I don't get one thing though...if it's Covid all around..why do these quant schools insist on going to campus?? Can't they make it hybrid or online??

Michsund · 1/21/21

hugeyeti said:
CMU is a good school; I had friend that graduated from the program. I don't get one thing though...if it's Covid all around..why do these quant schools insist on going to campus?? Can't they make it hybrid or online??

Cmu is currently and has always been hybrid. We have always had ability to watch lectures from home and come to campus.

_xd · 1/21/21

another said:
Cong, when did you submit your application btw?

Thanks man. Half an hour before the deadline.

noether-skolem · 1/21/21

hugeyeti said:
CMU is a good school; I had friend that graduated from the program. I don't get one thing though...if it's Covid all around..why do these quant schools insist on going to campus?? Can't they make it hybrid or online??

Practically speaking most of the hybrid classes are only hybrid to allow international students to get into the country (we need to have at least 1 class in hybrid or in-person mode for the visa). At least from what I've seen, in a 50-60 person class only 5-10 would actually come to the class physically. Most of us try to avoid going to campus unless necessary (libraries, covid testing, and perhaps covid vaccination later on).

So far I've had taken a total of 6 core courses for my program: 2 in Fall A (1 hybrid, 1 online), 2 in Fall B (1 hybrid, 1 online), 2 in Spring (1 hybrid, 1 online). It almost feels like they're intentionally having that 1 hybrid core course every semester.