It's That Time

[hellper]

Hey everyone, first of all, best of luck to everyone applying for fall 26 programs! Its been a few months since I initially posted and wanted to see if I have a realistic chance and if any of you have pointers for me. Let's get started!

Background:

- Non-taget school (~100 top US) triple major in Applied Math, Computer Science, and Economics​

- 3.96/4 GPA​

- Published first author paper in resource economics​

- Continued economics research with econ prof​

- Machine learning research, developed open source software packages in R working with math prof​

- Began small fund specializing in quantitative tax-lien auction strategies (done in R and Python) working with comp sci prof. In the process of raising ~$500k for the fund.​

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Coursework:

- Around 150 CH total completed so far, graduating with around 200​

- MATH: Calc III, Probability, Diff Eq, Lin Alg, Financial Math Derivatives, much more before graduation​

- COMP: Pretty much everything you can imagine except explicit machine learning courses​

- Programming Languages: Python (plus SciKit, Pandas, NumPy, etc.), R, C, Java, Stata​

- ECON: Same thing, emphasis on resource economics but taken econometrics and other quantitative courses​

- UChicago Quantitative Portfolio Mgmt and Algo Trading (Summer 25)​

Other:

- No GRE​

- Letters of rec coming from profs I worked with (should I try and get one from somewhere else as well?)​

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Targeting:

- TARGET: UChi MSFM​

- NYU Tandon MFE​

- Princeton MFin​

- MIT MFin​

- Berkeley MFE​

- + Other safeties​

I'm aware that I have a severe lack of industry experience so I'm hoping to apply to schools that emphasize academic experience as opposed to industry. Are these schools a good choice for this? Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone

 

[Andy Nguyen]

First of all, US or international student? If US, you have a better shot than you realize. If not, let's prioritize things you can do. You can add Baruch to the list while you have Princeton there. They both have similar acceptance rate.
Take the QuantNet C++ course to get you to the front pack as far as programming is concerned. Almost all the top applicants have taken our C++ or Python course. If you have the time and dedication for this, it's something I would highly recommend.
Participate in some of the numerous quant trading contests, competition to get some experience with these types of filtering.
Do Leetcode or similar types, prep for interviews.
Customize your applications to each program. They are all similar but unique in who they are looking for.

 

[hellper]

I am US, I go to school in Chicago. That's really helpful, I think I'm more likely to take C++ as UChi course was entirely in Python.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice!!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Good idea. You will find plenty of members who took the C++ course and got in at those top programs here.

Tracker

quantnet.com