Is it too late for me to pursue MFE? Advice needed.

[Lil_Alligator]

I have been viewing QuantNet for a while now, and the idea of applying for a master in financial engineering started to haunt me like crazy this past few days.

Some basic background of me:
- Nationality: Chinese international
- School: Currently a junior at a top 50 (previously top 30) university in the U.S.
- Major: Double majoring in Finance and Statistics
- GPA: 3.5

I have no lab experience nor any research experience, except that I will do a senior honor statistics thesis on probabilistic record linkage and make it somehow finance related. I have never took any computer science classes in the past three years and will only begin to learn C++ next semester, which is the first semester of my senior year.

Some of the math / stats classes I took before are: Calc I, Calc II, Linear Algebra, Discrete math, Probability, Applied generalized linear models, stats computing, Intro to statistical learnings (which studies models like random forest, lasso regression, KNN, etc).

I spent the last three years pursuing a career in investment banking and I succeeded as a non-target school international student, and I will be interning at a bulge bracket bank soon this summer (which is part of the reason why my GPA is so low I guess). I should be happy but over the past year being able to re-focusing on academic, I started to realized maybe banking isn't the path for me - I like the ever changing market and that although I frankly can't appreciate highly-theoretical math, I enjoy building all sorts of model to solve problems, and the idea of building statistical models to making money excites me. (I also have never been good at Math my whole life and have gotten a B- in Calc 1 but somehow is really good at stats).

After this summer I will become a senior and as such will have little time to pick up all the CS / math classes seen in a competitive applicant's transcript, not mentioning I would have to spend time preparing for GRE if determined to apply for MFE.

My question is:
1) Is it too late for me to prepare and apply.
2) If I do apply, what schools will likely give me an offer/
3) Compare to staying in investment banking, what are the risk & reward comparison if I forgone everything I'v worked hard for and pursue MFE? Can I still make enough money as financial engineer / quant (since I come from a really humble family and that frankly money is the only reason I went for banking in the first place)?

Thank you all so very much. Would appreciate any comments / advices!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You are never too late to do something if it's the right decision.
Switching from IB to quant finance requires proper preparation. You may need to take extra courses at school or online to meet the requirements at the top programs. Worse case, you may spend an extra semester or two. Do not rush. If you are underprepared, you will not get into any top programs. You may not get into any program at all.
I suggest taking the C++ on QuantNet that is certified by Baruch MFE program. It is way more rigorous than any college level C++ you would take. This allows you to take other courses at school.
The fact that you can get IB internship is great. Schools like candidates who can pass interviews and get internship at competitive employers.
You may want to make sure MFE is the path you want to go. We don't want you to end up in the same situation 3 years later when you realize it's not for you. This is the risk you will face. Competition for quant finance is very tough. Maybe more than in IB?

This industry is merit based so your performance determines your compensation. Look at the QuantNet ranking where we publish compensation levels for most programs. We also have employment rates and other important factors so you can research which programs fit your criteria.