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"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

Not referring to you @Ycohen but thanks for the clarification ;)
The verbal, AWA, TOEFL means mostly for international students as a way for school to filter those who can converse well in English since they will be looking for internship after a short semester in the USA. That filter obviously does not apply to American born applicants.

Some programs also use interviews to judge applicants English ability
 
Andy Nguyen said:
Not referring to you @Ycohen but thanks for the clarification ;)
The verbal, AWA, TOEFL means mostly for international students as a way for school to filter those who can converse well in English since they will be looking for internship after a short semester in the USA. That filter obviously does not apply to American born applicants.
Click to expand...

Do all applicants look for internship right after a short semester? I thought we finish the program and then look for a full-time job, no? Thanks so much for all the help Andy.
 
A handful of one-year program does not have time for students to do internship (Columbia MFE is one of them but they now have an option for 3rd semester).
Traditionally, students started in the fall, and begin looking for internship during the winter break. This will last a few month into the Spring semester. If they secure an internship for the summer, they study the last semester in the next Fall, graduate in Dec and then start working full-time.

If your program is off this cycle, it just means the students and the program have to do more work. UCB MFE and UCLA MFE are two of the programs that start in Jan and graduate in Dec.
 
Hi,

With reference to my previous post, my GPA at IIT was 7.6 and deptt. was Materials and Metallurgical Engineering.
 
1. Berkeley http://mfe.berkeley.edu/community/students/classprofile.html
2. Georgia Tech
3. USC
4. University of Toronto
5. UCLA
6. Boston Univeristy

Age: 27
School: University of Houston - Main Campus
Degree: BBA Finance, Cum Laude | Grad: May 2008
Specialization: Global Energy Management – Professional Track
Finance GPA: 3.62 Overall GPA: 3.22

Degree: BS Math | Grad: May 2011
Specialization: Financial Mathematics

Below are my grades for all my math, finance, computer science, and econ grades...

Financial Math with Appls A
Investment Management A
International Financial Management A
Probability A
Stochastic Processes A
Energy Risk Management A
Macro Econ A-
Calc for Bus/Life Science A-
Prin of financial Management A
Business Stats A-
Corporate Finance A-
Intro to Comp Sci I A-
Options and Futures B+
Energy Trading B+
Diff Eq. B+
Energy Value chain B
Intermediate Macro B
Cal 2 B 4 3 12 Cal 3 B
Intro to Fixed Income Math B
Intermediate Analysis B-
Calculus C
Micro Econ C
Intermediate Micro C
Linear Algebra C
Abstract Algebra C
Adv Multivariable Calculus C-
Sum of grade hours: 86
Sum of grade points: 269.72
GPA for above classes: 3.136279 |

Knowledge: SQL, VB, VBA, Access, Matlab, Excel, Bloomberg, Reuters, Visio, Word, C++, .NET

Volunteer: American Heart Association, December 2010 - Present

Post grad experience:
Summer Financial Analyst, XYZ Capital Partners, LLC ($500M under management) Summer 2008
Trading Assistant/Analyst, Dimensional Fund Advisors ($150B under management) Sept 2008-July 2010
I moved back to Houston after my mom had a stroke and currently finishing a math degree in two semesters. I have been eying Berkeley's program along with others, but am going to apply to this college as my "long-shot" over NYU and Chicago.


 
Akhil Mahajan said:
Hi Guys ,
Can anyone please review my profile and tell me my chances to make in to top 10 universities for MFE in US

I have done my B.Tech in Information technology from a reputed engg. college in India (VIT Vellore) with a CGPA of 9.1/10 .
So far I've taken...
Math & Stat:
- Calculus and Analysis
- Linear algerbra and Diff Equation
- Complex Variables and Partial Diff Equations
- Probability , Statistics and Reliability
-Discrete Mathematical Structures

Programming:
- C, C++,Java,Tcl

Working with Bank of America Merill Lynch as Software Engineer for two years (equity research Technologies , fidessa development)

Undergone Banking Certification (Capital Markets and Investment Banking)
Passed my CFA Level 1 certification.
My Gre Score is 790 Quant and 600 Verbal ... AWA 3.5
Can u please tell my chances to crack calls from these universities .....
Click to expand...
Guys Please review my profile
 
@Akhil Mahajan
I think your profile is very typical from Indian applicants: very strong in technical subjects, programming, math, etc. Your AWA will hurt a bit since people will expect that you can write English well so AWA of 4-5 is expected. Your degree is not from IIT so you will have an uphill battle there.
It will come down to your personal essay and letter of recommendation. Many IIT professors write almost identical recommendations. I read over thousands of them so try to see if you can get someone to write you unique letters.

Don't just target top programs. Spread it out a bit. Target programs in the east coast.
 
bakait said:
Hi All,

I am a passout from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Kanpur and am currently working with a finance startup firm in india as a Quantitative analyst. I am looking to apply for MFE this year. Following is a brief about my profile:

Work Experience:

  1. Current Firm: Working on valuation/pricing of various kinds of Interest rate/Currency, Overnight, Basis swaps. Worked on Hull White 1 Factor model to price Range Accrual and Callable swaps.
  1. Previously firm: around 3 years of software development Experience in IT firm.
Education:
  1. B-Tech from IIT Kanpur
  1. Appearing for CFA Level-3 in June'2011.
During my Undergrad, i had done 3 math courses covering Linear Algebra, PDE. In these courses, i got A,B, and C grades.
I have already appeared for GMAT 680 (50 Quant, 34 Verbal)

I am planning to apply Berkeley, NYU, CMU, columbia, Princeton.

I will have the recommendation from my company VP, and from one of the finance professor from a top B-School in USA.

Now i would to like to know your response on the following:
  1. I haven't done any course in particular on Stats and probability as such, but some of it was covered in CFA and rest of the part, i keep on reading as per work requirement. Do i really need to do any course in Stats?
  2. I don't have any big company brand name on my CV, does it really make big difference. I can assure that the quality of the work in my current firm is of very high level.
  3. What else do i need to do to improve my profile.
  4. What are the chances of my getting selected to the above mentioned schools.
Regards
Click to expand...

My GPA at IIT was 7.6 and department was Metallurgy.

Now somebody please review my profile..
 
Evaluation required!!

My GPA as computed by WES is 3.8/4.0
GRE 1400(800-Q, 600-V) TOEFL 104
My major was in Information Technology and I have studied subjects like C, C++, Java in detail and even have programming experience in Java and .NET platform
Our course included relevant subjects like
1.Simulation and Modeling
2.Financial Accounting and Management of Innovation of Technology
3.Applied Mathematics (3 semester)
4. Computational Mathematics (1 semester)

I have no full time work experience.

Could you please suggest me some good universities for Financial engineering based on my above profile.

Your help would be really appreciated. Thank You.
 
@Andy How good is ms in Finance at University of Maryland. I just got an admit today :) im still waiting to hear from Rutgers and Gtech for the mqf and QCF program repectively.
 
After looking through class profiles I'm under the impression that getting into any of these programs straight out of undergrad is generally unheard of (I have yet to see a profile with an age bracket of <23). Similarly, getting an entry level quant risk job without a master's seems equally abysmal. Am I missing something here?
  • UC Irvine business economics major (econometric concentration), statistics minor; GPA 3.3. Most if not all relevant quant req. coursework in financial mathematics completed. Graduation date June 2011.
  • GRE: 750 Quant, 600 Verbal
  • Work Exp: 1.5 years as a financial analyst intern with a leading semiconductor company (most recent), 3 months as a billing tech at an insurance company.
  • Matlab, SAS, and Excel VBA savvy
  • C++ beginner/intermediate
Target schools:
Columbia, UCLA, Claremont, Berkeley
 
@canti

Hello,
i graduated from irvine as well. it is definitely tough getting a job as a quant out of undergrad from irvine. i chose to go to claremont mfin, but will go to columbia next year.. feel free to message me if you want to talk
 
I think your profile is very typical from Indian applicants: very strong in technical subjects, programming, math, etc. Your AWA will hurt a bit since people will expect that you can write English well so AWA of 4-5 is expected. Your degree is not from IIT so you will have an uphill battle there.
It will come down to your personal essay and letter of recommendation. Many IIT professors write almost identical recommendations. I read over thousands of them so try to see if you can get someone to write you unique letters.


Don't just target top programs. Spread it out a bit. Target programs in the east coast.
Click to expand...
@Andy Nguyen
thanks a ton andy ... that will help a lot.
Also talking about essays and recommendations i still don't have any right now ... Is recommendations from College where you did your under graduation really necessary ? I can get recommendations from people in office like my delivery lead , my manager . Will that work out ?
Also can you suggest some stuff which can improve my profile so that it stands out a little different from what it is right now ...
What are the universities in East Coast that are in top 20 for their MFE programs ..??
Any Comments will be appreciated ...
 
Hi Andy and other members,

I'm planning to apply a master program in financial engineering for next year, currently thinking of Berkeley and Baruch. I will target not only top programs but I'd like to know my chance to get into top programs as well. I don't have anything impressive in my profile, I have stronger computer related scores but my undergraduates score in math are not very awesome, that makes me nervous about my chance of getting in to the program.

My undergraduate GPA is 3.27/4.00

Math courses
Calculus I C
Calculus II C
Discrete Mathematics I C
Discrete Mathematics II B
Statistics B
Linear Algebra C
Applied Probabilty B
Analysis of Numerical A

Programming courses
Introduction to Digital System B
Programming Concepts I A
Programming Concepts II A
Algorithm and Data Structure A
Intro to Computer Organization C
Database A
Theory of Languages and Auto B
Algorithm design and analysis A
System Analysis and Design B

Finance courses
Accounting Information System A

I graduated from University of Indonesia (on of the top 3 universities in Indonesia) 6 years ago, my major was Computer Science. Now I'm pursuing a master degree in International Trade from a Korean University (not one of the top universities), have finished all my classes and my thesis is still under review so my target is I'll graduate this summer.

Currently I'm working in one of Korean Banks in South Korea. I have been working in this bank for 4 years, started with a rotation program in corporate finance departments, 2 years in the branch, and 3 months in a Country Risk team (Credit Review department under Risk Management division). My job description now is country monitoring, focussing in Indonesia. Shortly, I realize my experience and my job don't really support me to be a quant.

Since now I'm working in the risk management division, I'll take the FRM exam this year. Also I'll start to the read books recommended in this forum and I plan to take the refresher courses online in Berkeley next January. (I'd like to take it in person but unfortunately they don't have such courses here in Korea. If anybody can recommend me other courses I could take this year online earlier than the Berkeley's, it would be awesome.). I haven't taken GRE or GMAT or TOEFL and plan to take them this year. I know this is a long long way to go but I would like to hear some opinions from you guys.

Thanks a lot!
 
ArdiniR said:
Hi Andy and other members,

I'm planning to apply a master program in financial engineering for next year, currently thinking of Berkeley and Baruch. I will target not only top programs but I'd like to know my chance to get into top programs as well. I don't have anything impressive in my profile, I have stronger computer related scores but my undergraduates score in math are not very awesome, that makes me nervous about my chance of getting in to the program.

My undergraduate GPA is 3.27/4.00

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

Not enough math. Where is your Analysis I, II? Advanced Calculus (Calculus III)? Partial-Differential Equations?
Your programming training is very basic. Anyway, you may be admitted, but will be hard to find something challenging.
 
Where is your Analysis I, II? Advanced Calculus (Calculus III)? Partial-Differential Equations?
Click to expand...
Well I didn't do those Math courses, they were not offered in my major. And yes, my programming training is pretty basic because my concentration was Management Information System. We didn't really get specific courses in programming languages but we got to use them as tools to finish our course projects. That's why if I get accepted in the master program i will take the pre-courses and/or some refresher courses in math and programming too.

More advice and comments anyone?
 
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