Is the Tandon MFE worth it?

[anirudhsc]

Hello everyone! I received an admit only from NYU Tandon for the 2024 fall cycle, and I’ve paid the deposit, got my visa etc.

I have almost two years work experience in QIS at a big bank, and a GRE score of 333, and I graduated early from a top engineering school in India. I’m currently not working.

I’m having second thoughts about attending Tandon. My goal is to get a buy side trading offer. Should I drop out and apply again for next fall to better programs or go ahead with the Tandon MFE? Or is the best option to forego masters entirely and prepare for buy-side firm interviews? Will my ~2 months of not having a job affect admits/employment?

Thanks in advance!

 

[arohan]

It only makes sense to forego your admit and re-apply next year if you think you have made significant improvement to your applications and candidature between your previous and current application. If you think that is the case, sure go ahead and re-apply. If not, and your applications are going to be largely the same, I doubt the results would change much. Maybe there’s a case here that each program this year had a lot more applicants than previous years, prolly due to the poor job market, but that’s speculative at best and I don’t think the job market’s really improved since the last admission cycle to reasonably assume that this cycle would be less competitive.

As for NYU MFE placing into buy-side FO roles, the best people to check this with would be program alumni and the program’s career office. Talk to alumni and try to gauge how many are working in roles and companies you’d want to work in. Since you are an admitted student, maybe directly get in touch with the Careers Office and ask them to connect you with alumni who’d working in roles you’d be targeting. Try to gauge how many of your target companies and roles roll out interviews and OAs to NYU MFE candidates.