"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

Connor, Thanks for the suggestions. Right now I am really not sure what I want to do, which is one reason that I would like to do a MSF, to get exposure to different fields. Also, I feel that if I get the degree I will have more options available that if I don’t, as equity research seems the only option to get started and I am not clear on how I could ever branch out of that sans a degree. I wish I could get a masters while researching, but I am afraid my professor will already be very unhappy with me taking a business class…
 
Get good at some technical skills like programming. Be very good at it and you will have doors opened to you.
PhD+MS are useless if you have nothing to offer your employer on day one.

The world doesn't need more degree holders who has no usable skill and no career direction. You need to get in, see what you like, what you are good at and plan the next move.
 
Hi guys,
I am new to this site, and looking for advice or any feedback on switching from software career to quant job. With no prior finance exp.
I have masters in Comp Sc. from India's best engineering school (IIT), (omitting GPA and such, I'm sure thats no relevant), and about 4 years work exp in one of the biggest software giant cos based in CA.
The thing is I was recently contacted by some job consultant for a quant developer position in a NY-based firm. The package sounds exciting, and the profile they described seems somewhat less related to my areas than they claim it is (machine learning, extensive algorithms and coding, large scale data mining applications). I am good at discrete maths, graphs, probability and statistics, but out of touch for long with numerical maths and calculus.

So I am looking for any advice or articles/blogs that gives a picture about how important ppl with CS background are in the quant world.
 
@trader joe : actually cfa l1 is a little expensive for me to give right now...its double the cost of frm l1.......ive also checked prm......do u recommend it ??...the pros being i can give prm whenever i want (before my univ apps, so it'll appear on my cv) while frm results are in december end.....when ill be done applying to most places.....wouldnt a "pass" look better than an "appeared" on my cv?

also.....any suggestions on taking the subject gre for maths??....(my undergrad maths grades arent that gr8)

Regards,
Aditya.
 
@adityagandi
I'm pretty sure admission officers of various MFE programs are reading Quantnet so you probably kill any chance you may have with your use (or abuse) of the language such as gr8, cud, u.

This is a serious business with serious amount of money involved so you may want to be taken seriously.
 
adityagandhi said:
@trader joe : actually cfa l1 is a little expensive for me to give right now...its double the cost of frm l1.......ive also checked prm......do u recommend it ??...the pros being i can give prm whenever i want (before my univ apps, so it'll appear on my cv) while frm results are in december end.....when ill be done applying to most places.....wouldnt a "pass" look better than an "appeared" on my cv?

also.....any suggestions on taking the subject gre for maths??....(my undergrad maths grades arent that gr8)

Regards,
Aditya.
Click to expand...

Well, FRM and PRM will probably not help you in getting admission, but if you want to write these exams out of your own interest, it is fine.
GRE Math Subject Test is too tough for you and contains a lot of material which is not required for MFE. You will have to spend a lot of time in preparation and even then you will probably not go over 70 percentile which is too low.
If you are able to get admission in UC-Berkeley or CMU, then it is worthwhile to go into debt because they will make sure that you get a good job.
What many of these IIT people do is they go to schools like UNC-Charlotte, Purdue, Georgia State, which give them Teaching Assistantships. so they can get the MFE degree for free. Then they do PhD in Finance. Once you have Finance PhD from a good school, then you can either go to Wall Street and develop Quant Strategies or else you can go and teach in a university. There are lot of faculty positions available and the pay is quite good. I think they pay about $200K for 9 months + $40K for summer support. Plus NYU also gave one of my classmates a nice 2-bedroom apartment in Manhattan almost rent-free.
 
@traderjoe ......a little help if possible

hi..
ive posted my profile earlier....but im hoping for more responses this time round......

GRE : 1440 q-780 ( sort of messed it up for no reason)
Toefl: 113
Undergraduate degree : Electronics engineering.. overal percentage 59.6
from D.J.Sanghvi College of Engineering, University of Mumbai

Work Ex : 1) 16 months part time Teaching assistantship ..held the position of an Adjunct Faculty Associate at an institute affiliated to university of mumbai to teach Object oriented programming(basically C and C++) and Business Statistics(maths basically)
2) 2 month internship at a financial technology firm...basically got exposure to trading applications and softwares for technical analysis .

3) 2 month internship at a brokerage firm as a research analyst trainee...basically into equity analysis....daily MTM estimations etc..
.
4) 1 month internship at a commodity exchange....this was more of market operations and surveillance ..had an integrated role with the trading and testing division..


Programming languages : Java , C , c++ , Matlab , VBA.

I am currently pursuing training at Infosys technologies....as i want to hone my programming skills a bit more and learn SQL and database management which is something i havent learnt yet....( ** this is direct response to something TRADERJOE posted sometime back ** )

Besides this background I have pursued
1.certificate program in quantitative finance and risk management.
2.certificate in advanced financial modelling in VBA and excel.
3. 6 certifications from NSE ...the NCFM modules basically...

these certifications have been pursued purely out of interest and I dont know how much they account for in my application overall....

The only thing i wish to know is if i stand a chance in any of the following colleges....::::
NYU , COLUMBIA , CMU , BERKELEY , Princeton , CORNELL , MICHIGAN , BARUCH, STANFORD.
these are pretty ambitious colleges but i would like to know , with my profile , do i stand a chance in any ??

I am appearing for FRM-1 this november....again...im pursuing out of interest cause I like the syllabus involved.

What are my chances for good universities..and moreover..top ones?
 
I've been reading the board for a while without posting. Hopefully your collective wisdom will be able to give me a pretty good idea of my prospects. However, I will first point out one unique characteristic about myself: I am only 19 years old entering my senior year of undergrad this fall.

School: Top tier liberal arts
GPA: 3.7
Majors: Math, Economics
GRE: Quantitative 800, Verbal 540

Two time winner of state American Mathematical Competition, the prerequisite to the AIME and USAMO.

Math/Stats/Economics courses:
Calculus I,II,III
Linear Algebra
Introduction to Differential Equations
Elementary Real Analysis
Complex Analysis
Probability Theory
Statistical Modeling
Advanced Statistical Modeling
Econometrics
Intermediate Microeconomics
Intermediate Macroeconomics
Game Theory
Chinese Economic Development
Japanese Economic Development
International Economics
Principles of Accounting
Managerial/Cost Accounting

Two summer research projects:
-Lessons for China following the sub-prime mortgage crisis (presented in Xi'an, China)
-Greece and flaws of the Maastricht Criteria

Weaknesses:
-No programming experience, though this could be rectified with a spring course
-Really no relevant work or internship experience

Does the later point really hurt my profile? Is this point mitigated by my unusual age?

Thanks in advance for any advice or information.
 
@Tristo

Very nice profile.

I don't think your age hurts you that much from an MFE admission perspective but I think it will when getting a job. MFE graduates are usually older than you and will have some work experience and/or internships. But I am no expert so hopefully a more authoritative individual can shed some light on this.

Ever consider a PhD?
 
maldini said:
hi..
ive posted my profile earlier....but im hoping for more responses this time round......

GRE : 1440 q-780 ( sort of messed it up for no reason)
Toefl: 113
Undergraduate degree : Electronics engineering.. overal percentage 59.6
from D.J.Sanghvi College of Engineering, University of Mumbai

Work Ex : 1) 16 months part time Teaching assistantship ..held the position of an Adjunct Faculty Associate at an institute affiliated to university of mumbai to teach Object oriented programming(basically C and C++) and Business Statistics(maths basically)
2) 2 month internship at a financial technology firm...basically got exposure to trading applications and softwares for technical analysis .

3) 2 month internship at a brokerage firm as a research analyst trainee...basically into equity analysis....daily MTM estimations etc..
.
4) 1 month internship at a commodity exchange....this was more of market operations and surveillance ..had an integrated role with the trading and testing division..


Programming languages : Java , C , c++ , Matlab , VBA.

I am currently pursuing training at Infosys technologies....as i want to hone my programming skills a bit more and learn SQL and database management which is something i havent learnt yet....( ** this is direct response to something TRADERJOE posted sometime back ** )

Besides this background I have pursued
1.certificate program in quantitative finance and risk management.
2.certificate in advanced financial modelling in VBA and excel.
3. 6 certifications from NSE ...the NCFM modules basically...

these certifications have been pursued purely out of interest and I dont know how much they account for in my application overall....

The only thing i wish to know is if i stand a chance in any of the following colleges....::::
NYU , COLUMBIA , CMU , BERKELEY , Princeton , CORNELL , MICHIGAN , BARUCH, STANFORD.
these are pretty ambitious colleges but i would like to know , with my profile , do i stand a chance in any ??

I am appearing for FRM-1 this november....again...im pursuing out of interest cause I like the syllabus involved.

What are my chances for good universities..and moreover..top ones?
Click to expand...

You need to retake the GRE every month until your GRE Quant score reaches 800.
 
780/790 is a tricky number. Many people got admitted with that score. But a great deal of people got 800Q these days that it's not worth the risk.
At some point, it just makes better sense to retake the test to get 800 so that you eliminate one possible weak point in your application.
 
>> Two time winner of state American Mathematical Competition, the prerequisite to the AIME and USAMO.

That ain't the prereq. It's ASIME, maybe they have changed the name now. But you don't need to win the state to get invited to the AIME.

>> 780/790

True a lot of people get 800, but it highly depends on your own profile and situation, as well as the school itself -- what sort of people they are looking for. You have to research in depth about the various programs if you want to figure out ..
 
abcdefh said:
>> Two time winner of state American Mathematical Competition, the prerequisite to the AIME and USAMO.

That ain't the prereq. It's ASIME, maybe they have changed the name now. But you don't need to win the state to get invited to the AIME.
Click to expand...

Winning state isn't a prereq, yet scoring sufficiently high on the AMC is required to get invited to the AIME.

@Connor
Yes, I have considered a PhD program. I've been looking a bit at the mathematical finance program at CMU and the finance programs at UCB and Stanford. I'm still open to a lot of options at this point.
 
looking at ur profile, waste of $ to do mfe.

math phd is better, but more toward industry route. academia route doesn't sound good for you, besides, it'll be much tougher to be a professor@topschools, competing with those IMO background ppl.
 
Is an 800 absolutely necessary? Since everyone knows that the quantitative section on the GRE is irrelevant for the MFE, do the admission committees even care. I can see that they will if it is really low, but 790 can be simply be because of a bit of carelessness.


Andy Nguyen said:
780/790 is a tricky number. Many people got admitted with that score. But a great deal of people got 800Q these days that it's not worth the risk.
At some point, it just makes better sense to retake the test to get 800 so that you eliminate one possible weak point in your application.
Click to expand...
 
latency said:
Is an 800 absolutely necessary? Since everyone knows that the quantitative section on the GRE is irrelevant for the MFE, do the admission committees even care. I can see that they will if it is really low, but 790 can be simply be because of a bit of carelessness.
Click to expand...

If you want to be successful as a quant you should be perfectly capable of solving some basic geometry and algebra II problems. The depth of knowledge required to answer them is very small, and 28-29 of the 30 are bound to be [almost] completely straight forward.

If you are perfectly capable of doing it, you should then be perfectly capable of demonstrating it. When I applied to grad schools, I did not view getting a perfect score on the quant section of the GRE as an accomplishment, but rather as a prerequisite, but I suppose that is also partly me. What is not a matter of personal taste, however, is that if you do not get an 800, you are at a substantial disadvantage to everyone else that did.

As proof of this, I cite that the 25th percentile quant GRE scores of Baruch's latest incoming MFE class is 800, with an average of 796. Take from this what you will.

Also, to contrast what has been previously said - do not take the GRE more than two or three times. Like all other standardized tests, the more you take it, the better you do. And colleges get all your scores, not just the last ones. And when they see 12 scores on that list instead of two, you can imagine this probably looks very bad.
 
Hi guys, after MFE....does CFA L1 or L2 help....or you have to have passed all 3 levels to make a difference to your employment prospects?

Also, i know it may seem like a kiddish question, but any idea regarding the percentage of students who secure jobs or internships after their course....lets say you consider a tier 2 college like michigan or rutgers? Around 50%?? I am asking cause i dont want to be stuck in situation without a job after my degree...(I am an Indian, my employer will need to sponsor my H1-B)....
 
adityagandhi said:
Hi guys, after MFE....does CFA L1 or L2 help....or you have to have passed all 3 levels to make a difference to your employment prospects?

Also, i know it may seem like a kiddish question, but any idea regarding the percentage of students who secure jobs or internships after their course....lets say you consider a tier 2 college like michigan or rutgers? Around 50%?? I am asking cause i dont want to be stuck in situation without a job after my degree...(I am an Indian, my employer will need to sponsor my H1-B)....
Click to expand...

Having any level of CFA will help you for certain jobs, such as an analyst position. It really just depends if your employer wants/values the CFA for the position you are applying for. I would assume that having higher levels of the CFA completed would be a positive thing, but not necessarily a huge deal.

I have no stats but I would assume that more than 50% of MFE graduates from tier 2 programs have jobs after their course. What kinds of jobs is another question.

From my understanding, generally the sponsorship for work visas is down in the US and elsewhere currently because of the economic downturn. I expect this to change once things get better. But if you are good enough (have an edge over others) then you will be able to get a job in any market.
 

Similar threads

M
MFE program profile evaluation
Replies
5
Views
1K
MikeLawrence
MikeLawrence
Back
Top Bottom