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"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

Yes I looked at some of the mentioned schools and thank you. I will of course apply to all schools but will obviously put in some additional time and effort in communicating with admissions officers from NYU, Columbia, CMU and Baruch. I guess then my next opportunity for applications will be for F'09 program. Also I am currently 26, which (assuming I enroll for fall '09) will make me 27 years old. Does my age present any problem w/ respect to gaining employment at IB or HF?
 
hedgie said:
I guess then my next opportunity for applications will be for F'09 program. Also I am currently 26, which (assuming I enroll for fall '09) will make me 27 years old. Does my age present any problem w/ respect to gaining employment at IB or HF?
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No. As people have said before on this forum, 27 is average or on the young side. Take a look at the Baruch entering class: there are more than a few PhD's, Master's, people with many years of work experience. It's almost not possible for you to get the qualifications to succeed before mid 20's, early 30's.

BTW, you really seem to have put in the hours in building your skills. Kudos!
 
hedgie said:
I really appreciate all the replies thus far; I also posted this same post in Global Derivatives and the replies came very slooooowly!
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I would actually be skeptical of the advice you get on GD. There is so much noise on there that it's impossible to filter through.
As for the list of the program you mention, make sure you read through this thread
DISCUSSION on second-rate (and worse) MFE programs

It contains info that is very hard to come by. And last but not least, hit the Apply button. You can't sit here and play the scenario game. If you can't get into a certain program, you can always apply again the next year with the knowledge why you didn't get in that program in the first place. (Some programs, if you contact the directors, would actually tell you how to improve your profile)
 
Thanks Andy,

Appreciate the response. Of course I plan on applying for Fall '09 but would like to get an idea of what some of the other students think about my profile- ie I believe my profile is somewhat unique in that it indeeds presents a rare dillemma - ie most candidates have good gpa and avg-good standarized test scores or avg gpa and good std. test scores. I have poor gpa and exceptional std test scores - so my dillemma is: will my intellect and hard work (it's not so easy to score +97% in gmat, gre, gre maths , p-actuary exam, etc...) compensate for a weak gpa earned over 4 yrs ago?
 
less than good

Baruch's standards have been going up, as have other places.
 
alain said:
we should but the sticky should start by saying "WE DON'T KNOW THE ODDS OR CHANCES, NOR WE EVALUATE PROFILES".
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We should also put a disclaimer that if you can't pass for a common English-speaking citizen, that you probably don't have high enough chances to justify going in the hole for higher education to be a quant.
 
Hi Hedgie,

I really appreciate the hard work you have put in getting the scores and certifications.
But I need to ask a few questions.You say that you have improved your maths background.As far as I know Economics is less quantitative than maths/engineering.So for applying to Financial Engineering schools and doing the quant stuff afterwards you need to have very good programming skills.You have not mentioned about any programming related courses.As a quant a great part of work done is coding.So in my humble opinion I would suggest you to go for some progamming based courses before entering any program.

Thanks
 
Greetings.

I am new to the posting and wanted to give say hi to the current members. I am working on the "sell side" to HF clients while I work toward a MSFE.

Looking forward to the hearing from you all.

btw, any opinions on Wilmott's CQF?

Cheers.
 
Question about admission chances

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could advice me about chances of making it into different MFE, OR programs:
Im an undergrad in Mathematics and Actuarial Science at Florida State University, and I completed all my requirements for graduation. However, Im still in school because of fear of lack of requirements to get into a good MFE program, so any help from you guys will be greatly appreciated.
My current GPA is 3.7
Coursework: Calculus I,II,III , Differential equations, PDE I, Abstract algebra I, II
Intro to analysis, Financial Mathematics, Investments, Actuarial Models I, II. Linear Regression
Time series, Math Stats I, Topology, OO C++, Linear Algebra I, II. and usual economics, business requirements
for actuarial science
I haven't done any internships.

Im wondering if I should graduate now and try to get experience until accepted to a program, or to stay in school and take some numerical analysis and programming courses. What increases my chances? to which programs?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, Thanks Ari.
 
There are plenty of MFE programs out there that will take you in AS IS. The trick is to identify those. I'm in no position to publicly say which programs are easy to get in but I've been around these MFE admission scene long enough to know that there are hosts of such programs that literally take anyone that pays.
On the other end of the extreme are programs like Baruch, NYU, etc that are getting more selective by the year.
Keep in mind that not every program is created equal. Each program is unique and each applicant needs to research diligently to find out their match.
Take a look at the student profiles on the website of the programs, this would give you a good idea of how you compared to those.
 
Andy, thanks for taking the time to reply.
Of course im aiming for the best programs. I wouldn't mind spending some extra time preparing to get there. But my concern is whats the best way to spend it.
I thought I may take some numerical analysis, c++, unix and other scientific programming courses before graduating, to strengthen my programming skills.
As I mentioned, I took various pure math courses. Would you recommend replacing any of these courses with advanced calculus?
Also, do you think getting a job (for about a semester) in a related area after next semester would be of great help?
And if so, should I take any specific finance courses to increase chances of getting hired?

I appreciate any suggestions, Ariel.
 
Andy said:
One man's trash, another man's gold mine.
The OP would have to determine which is worthy of his investment.
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Andy,
I have a similiar question but with a little twist. I have gone from two years in one college to another one. I recieved a 3.8 gpa before transfering but the school I went to didn't take the grades, only the credits. I wound up with a 3.4 and mostly taking advanced classes in math and econometrics. The combined one should be around 3.5.
Since I don't have programming experience I was thinking about a CIS master. Baruch has a nice program, and in the mean time I am working as well in financial fields, towards different series and CFA designation. I've worked with computers my entire life so I think I should be able to ace any program in CS. I'm learning C++ myself now and it seems pretty easy... still need the credentials though.

Are the more recent GPA=s, say of a master, let's say CIS in this case or even an MBA taken more seriously then undergrad ?

I know that each case is different, mine has several twists too, but in terms of order of review where do they place more emphasis ?

Thanks
 
Which of these MFE programs is a good fit for me?

My info:

Degree: BS
Major: Quantitative Finance
Minors: Math, Economics
University: James Madison University

GPA: 3.3
Junior, Senior year GPAs were 4.0 (So 4x president's list)
^ ^ ^ Decided to turn everything around after making 2.2 and 1.9 in my sophomore year semesters.

GRE:
Quantitative: 800

Work experience:
- 1 summer job at a fortune 500 technology company as an 'engineer'
- 1 summer internship at a boutique investment bank

Which of these programs do you think I'd be admitted to?

Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Baruch College, Boston University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Toronto

If I applied to all of them, do you think I'd get into at least a few?

Thanks!
 
If I applied to all of them, do you think I'd get into at least a few?
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Yes, but which do you really want to go to? Why bother with the rest? This isn't college, where one degree is about as good as the next, so long as you get one.

See some of the other posts in my signature.
 
doug reich said:
Yes, but which do you really want to go to? Why bother with the rest? This isn't college, where one degree is about as good as the next, so long as you get one.

See some of the other posts in my signature.
Click to expand...


I really want to go out of the states to Oxford or the University of Amsterdam.

However, I doubt that I'd get in to Oxford with my GPA and a degree from the Uni of Amsterdam isn't worth as much as a degree from these schools.

If I could go to any of the programs in the original post, it'd be Princeton, UCB Haas, Stanford, or Toronto (in that order).
 
Can you please evaluate my profile ?

Hello Folks,
I am seeking to apply in Quant. Finance programs next year. I am targeting top 15 universities all over the world. Some of them are HAAS-berkeley, CMU, NYU, Columbia and Univ. of Chicago. Here are my profile details :

Undergraduate degree Institution : Indian Institute of Technology
Undergraduate GPA : 7/10
Work Experience : 4+ (Will be 5 by July next year)
Work Type : Programming ( Java )
Work Domain : Finance
Work location experience : US (2+ years) , UK (1 year), India (1 year)

Entrepreneurial Experience : Founder and CEO of Internet company in US

GMAT : Quant ( 95% ) , AWA (5.5/6), Verbal (15%)
GRE : Quant (770/800) , Verbal (440/800), AWA - yet to receive

Publication : IBM published my article last article on integration of TIBCO and WebSphere
Extra Curricular Activities : Holder of various key positions at IIT. Was a Core group member.

I would appreciate if experienced people can evaluate my profile and give me guidance on improving my profile.

Thanks in advance.
 
I am sure that people would say you "We do not evaluate profiles".

Just one suggestion while I had a quick look at your profile.

Get 800 on Quant GRE.
 
yeah, 800 en GRE. your only obstacle may be the GPA, as your profile besides that is pretty nice
 
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