MFE after BBA in Finance?

[mzubov]

Hey everyone,
I am senior in a small private school, double majoring in Finance and International Business. I'm from Russia and I came to US on a tennis scholarship. I realize that I would have a better chance of staying in US (getting a work permit) if I get a STEM degree. So recently, I started thinking of a career in Financial Engineering. I have a decent math background back from high school: SAT of 700 and I already took some college math classes (Calculus, Finite Math, Statistics, Business Calc). I've always wanted to do something with math but I was not serious about quantitative finance until today. I know it's too late for me to catch up with math and computer programming classes, so my question is whether I should give up on this before even starting or if there is still a way for me to get accepted at some MFE program within next 2 years.
I'm already set to do MBA at my school (being a grad assistant tennis coach), so I could either go for MBA in Business or just try to take as many MFE pre-reqs on undergrad level. Or I would look at some different schools. Any advices you could give to me? Is there a list of programs with MFE degrees? If I don't go for MFE, what would be some other ways to leverage my math background?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark

 

[AndrewChang]

Hey everyone,
I am senior in a small private school, double majoring in Finance and International Business. I'm from Russia and I came to US on a tennis scholarship. I realize that I would have a better chance of staying in US (getting a work permit) if I get a STEM degree. So recently, I started thinking of a career in Financial Engineering. I have a decent math background back from high school: SAT of 700 and I already took some college math classes (Calculus, Finite Math, Statistics, Business Calc). I've always wanted to do something with math but I was not serious about quantitative finance until today. I know it's too late for me to catch up with math and computer programming classes, so my question is whether I should give up on this before even starting or if there is still a way for me to get accepted at some MFE program within next 2 years.
I'm already set to do MBA at my school (being a grad assistant tennis coach), so I could either go for MBA in Business or just try to take as many MFE pre-reqs on undergrad level. Or I would look at some different schools. Any advices you could give to me? Is there a list of programs with MFE degrees? If I don't go for MFE, what would be some other ways to leverage my math background?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark

This is not meant to be derogatory in anyway, I would say most MFE majors got a score close to 800 if not 800 on their SAT math (at least 760).

 

[Fer Carranza]

This is not meant to be derogatory in anyway, I would say most MFE majors got a score close to 800 if not 800 on their SAT math (at least 760).

I would like to disagree. Different factors can affect that and they are not 100% indicative of how you'll do in the future if you apply yourself to studying and really putting in the hours and the effort. Although one might never be a math whiz one can do well if he/she works hard and does all that's needed (for example, getting tutoring, working on many problems, etc.)

 

[AndrewChang]

I would like to disagree. Different factors can affect that and they are not 100% indicative of how you'll do in the future if you apply yourself to studying and really putting in the hours and the effort. Although one might never be a math whiz one can do well if he/she works hard and does all that's needed (for example, getting tutoring, working on many problems, etc.)

I am sure if you had statistics on MFE students to post their SAT math score, I would say 95% got at least 780 and the 4.99999% got at least 750.

 

[mzubov]

I am sure if you had statistics on MFE students to post their SAT math score, I would say 95% got at least 780 and the 4.99999% got at least 750.

Thanks for the response but that's not something surprising for me. The thing is that I said I was coming to school on a full tennis scholarship, so SAT score did not really matter for me as long as I met eligibility requirements. I'm sure if I actually studied for the test, I would have done better. But that's not the point of the thread.
Unfortunately since I'm an international student, I can't take a loan and I can't afford paying 40-50 K for school for a few years (I could do it for one year program though). I have a full scholarship for one more year at my school since I red-shirted one of the years. So I'm trying to find the best way to take all the pre-reqs for MFE program and save as much money as possible IF (only IF) MFE actually worth trying. If it's not worth trying, what would be some career path where I could use both my math and finance knowledge? I was also thinking about going for actuarial science or going for IB.

 

[Yike Lu]

The SAT score thing is irrelevant at this point, GRE will be what matters. There are any number of reasons that SAT score was on the low side (language difficulties, lack of prep, etc) that should be overcome during college and reflected in the GRE score.

QuantNet has a list as well as a ranking of programs. A quick search will yield what you're looking for.

For reference, when I took the GRE, 800 (perfect score) was only 93rd percentile for the quant section. I don't know how the current scale works, but a 790 is cause for concern.

 

[Yike Lu]

Also, it's always best to get an internship / job in finance straight out of college than go straight to MFE. That should be your #1 option. Your "MFE pre-reqs" will help with that.

Experience helps many things, including employability, financial situation, focus should you actually decide to do the MFE later, but that my become unnecessary.

Actuary and IBD are not recommended career paths if you want to leverage your math skills, but may be the lesser evil.

 

[Shankar Ghimire]

Dear Yike Lu, Could you elaborate more on what are the recommended career paths to leverage one's math skill to pursue MFE in future?

 

[Fer Carranza]

Mark, I'm doing applications now so I can't say that I'm doing an MFE yet but I'll let you know what I've been doing to get accepted. Like you, I majored in Fin and Int. Business and played sports for school.
Starting in January I outlined the courses I needed at the minimum and have been taking those in order to be a good candidate, I've been getting good grades (all A's). Regarding the SAT, I got a 530 Q and 540 V back in high school and later scored in the 94% on the GMAT (taking GRE in 3 weeks) so I don't think it has much correlation to what you'll do in the future. So far I've been doing Calc 1, 2 and 3, Intro to Differential Equations and a first course in C++, taking Linear Algebra, more C++ and Calculus based Probability between now and the beginning of MFE, should I get accepted.

 

[Yike Lu]

Everybody should keep in mind that MFE is a practical degree oriented towards getting a job in the field. You should be trying to go for those same jobs straight out of undergrad.

IBD is generally not right because it's focused on company valuation. Focus is on IPO/equity offering, M&A advisory etc. Actuary is not right because it's off the beaten track, although the skill set seems to be closer.