"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

[scarface]

Hi Everyone,

I am a programmer currently work in wall street and trying to change my career to quant trading. I have been following every single thread in this topic and wanted to ask few questions regarding my profile. Please review.

Education
Major: Computer Science (From top 10 engineering school in U.S.)
Minor: Business Management
GPA: 3.5/4.0
GMAT: 710 (Q 49 V37 AWA 5.0)

Relevant Math & CS Course
Calculus I (AP credit from high school)
Calculus II (C-Retook 2 times)
Calculus III (B)
Linear Algebra (A)
Discrete Mathematics (A)
Business Statistics (A)
Programming in Java (B)
Programming in C (C)
Data Structure (course based on C++) (A)
Operating System (course based on C++) (A)
Algorithms (A)

**I took courses highlighted in red in my 1st and 2ndyear of college, where all my academics are ruined by crazy party life I led. (I skipped midterm or final exams in order to attend a rave party in California. I basically didn’t go to classes and missed many homework assignments) However, I had all As except few Bs after my 2nd year.

Programming skills
Java, C++, C, perl, shell scripts, SQL, VBA, C#

Work Experience

A programmer in one of the bulge bracket investment banks

Worked on developing risk system(written in C) that uses various financial models(mainly equity derivative models) to generate theoretical pnl and greeks for given scenarios

Worked on developing margin system which computes portfolios’ margin requirement in-house margin methodology (requirements primarily based on trade strategy)

Target Schools
Baruch, CMU, Berkeley, MIT

I have few questions regarding my profile.

1. What are my chances on my target school?
2. What should I do to mitigate my low academic performance in my 1st & 2nd year of college? (I think the fact that I retook Calculus II several times would really hurt my profile)
3. I am thinking about applying next year, what should I do to improve my chances? If I take GRE math subject, would it help?

Thanks in Advance. God Bless!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

@scarface
You should do PT at one of the NYC programs. That way, you can keep the job while being able to see if you can perform well in the program. Baruch, CMU, NYU are good candidates.
Baruch MFE has pre-MFE program where you can take some math courses tailored to MFE applicants. Those grades in red are ugly. You can't erase them. Take GRE and there should be no excuse not to get 800 on the first try. Short of retaking those courses and get A to prove you can do it again, I don't see how you can prove your math is current.

 

[AlexandreH]

@scarface, I had a similar situations with couple of Math courses I did in 1996-1997 (I graduated in 2000). I retook 3 Math courses and got As. retake them, you can do summer and Fall and have grades ready by the time you apply. For the ones that have deadlines before you get your grades, mention in the application that you are retaking courses and send them the grades as soon as you have them (by email if you have to).

For this to work, you better get As. If you get Bs, it will hurt you. If you decide not to send the grades after mentioning the courses in your application, it will hurt you.
Good luck.

 

[bbskater]

Would someone please evaluate my profile as well? I would certainly appreciate it!

Education
Status: Junior
Major: Mathematics and Finance (two separate ones) from non target state school, Honors department
Minor: Spanish
GPA: Right now I have a 4.0 and I expect to graduate with that or something close to that.
I have not taken the GRE or GMAT yet. I plan to do that at the end of the summer. I expect to do well since I typically do well on standardized test (usually in the 98th or 99th percentile on most every test I've taken) and I plan to study hard.

Relevant Math Courses
Calculus 1-4 (My school on the quarter system so it is different but basically two years of calculus)
Two quarters of Linear Algebra
Discrete Mathematics
Ordinary Differential Equations
Fundamentals of Mathematics (Introductory math theory)
Introduction to Abstract Algebra
Introduction to Real Analysis

I have excelled in all of my math classes that I have taken so far, usually making a very high A and often setting the curve for most tests.

I plan to take PDE and Statistics in the fall. I could substitute one of those classes for Theory of Probability. Would you recommend that?

Relevant Finance Courses (I will have taken all of these by the time I graduate.)
Two quarters of Corporate Finance
Bank Management
Investments
Portfolio Risk Management
Money Markets, Capital Markets, and Financial Instituitions
Advanced Financial Management
International Finance

Programming skills
I have only taken a one quarter class in Java. I am pretty proficient with Java though we did not get into anything too complicated. However, I did manage to make a program that computes and lists the prime numbers between two specified limits and made a simple calculator. Basically, I am good at thinking about how to make the computer accomplish a task I want in theory, I just might not have the actual programming knowledge to do it. I became familiar with C++ in early high school, but I can't say I remember much at all. I plan to brush up on some programming over the next year. What languages should I focus on?

Work Experience
I do not have very much formal work experience. I have an internship this summer working with a local business, but it is not necessarily financially related and it has nothing to do with the stock market; it is more sales related. It is just a general internship, nothing to write home about. I plan to apply directly out of undergrad. Would the lack of work experience hurt my chances?

Extracurricular Activities
I am a member of the Math Club (founding treasurer), Pi Mu Epsilon (Math Honor Society), Golden Key Honor Society, Financial Management Association (Honors section), and campus investment club that is through the FMA. Also, a buddy of mine and I are in the process of starting a Student Managed Investment Fund at our school. It should be up and running by the beginning of next year (my senior year). I would be one of the managers of it. I also have some volunteer experience mostly through my church though much of it was not necessarily evangelistic in nature. For instance, we've worked at soup kitchens serving food and nursing homes visiting with the people there.

I'm not completely sure what school I am going to apply to yet. I know I will apply to Columbia but I am otherwise undecided. What are my chances for a top ten school? Top five? The primary things I worry about is the fact that the school I went to is relatively unheard of and my lack of programming knowledge. I plan to work on the programming part, but I know there is only a certain amount that can be done in a short time.

Anyway, thanks for looking over my profile. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[abhishek]

Hi all,

I am a 2005 pass out B. tech(Chemical Engineering) from National Institute of Technology, Warangal.
The institute is one of the top 15 engineering colleges in India(was in top 10 when I entered and left the program) and is an Institute of National Importance(INI, a select group of colleges in India including IITs, NITs, BITS Pilani etc), my aggregate is 66.10%, I took 4 Maths courses and scored an average of 74%, 2 C++ programming courses (scored 70% in each) and 1 Economics and accountancy course(73%).My class topper aggregated 79% and my institute grants a distinction for aggregate 70% and above .

I am a CFA level 2 candidate for 2011 exam.

I have been professionally working on C, C++ and Perl since July 2005 in various capacities as a coder, automation tester, code reviewer, system analyst, subject matter expert and technical leader. Out of 6 years till now, I have 2 years of experience in Banking product development and 4 years in Telecom Billing/charging/rating/pricing Product development. All the companies I worked with till now have revenues above 3 billion $. I have received various appreciation letters from my directors and project managers for my contribution to the company.

I proposed a generic solution for achieving Zero downtime during ERP release roll outs in an annual innovation fair at my company last year and received an award for the same. The solution was accepted to be funded and prepared as a part of solutions portfolio of the company. The solution was coded in C++ and Pro C*.

I was a member of the Self Governance Team, a group of 20 people that represented 500+ trainees during periodic meetings with the management and worked as a SPOC for other trainees to raise any concerns/issues/suggestions to take forward to management during our training in my first company(Infosys Technologies Limited, India).

I have presented technical papers on applications of Supramolecular Chemistry in semiconductor devices development during my college days and have received awards for the same.

I was the treasurer of my branch student society and also started a monthly magazine in my college and was editor-in chief of the same.

I want to apply for MFE programs starting in 2012 as I am currently preparing for CFA Level 2 exam(it is a beast, I need to tame it on June 5th, 2011) and I am yet to take my GMAT (I want to apply for MBA programs as well, this is the only opportunity window for me to apply for higher education). I am hoping to be able to write GMAT by August 16, 2011.

Although I know GMAT scores could be a big part of my application, I would appreciate profile reviews and suggestions on which programs I have a chance of getting into with the assumption that I get 700+ in GMAT with a good quant score(49 or more).

My dream MFE programs are Baruch and UCB Haas. Am I aiming too high? Could you please suggest if I can take any steps to further strengthen my application?

 

[kichuxj]

Hi all,

I am a 2005 pass out B. tech(Chemical Engineering) from National Institute of Technology, Warangal.
The institute is one of the top 15 engineering colleges in India(was in top 10 when I entered and left the program) and is an Institute of National Importance(INI, a select group of colleges in India including IITs, NITs, BITS Pilani etc), my aggregate is 66.10%, I took 4 Maths courses and scored an average of 74%, 2 C++ programming courses (scored 70% in each) and 1 Economics and accountancy course(73%).My class topper aggregated 79% and my institute grants a distinction for aggregate 70% and above .

I am a CFA level 2 candidate for 2011 exam.

I have been professionally working on C, C++ and Perl since July 2005 in various capacities as a coder, automation tester, code reviewer, system analyst, subject matter expert and technical leader. Out of 6 years till now, I have 2 years of experience in Banking product development and 4 years in Telecom Billing/charging/rating/pricing Product development. All the companies I worked with till now have revenues above 3 billion $. I have received various appreciation letters from my directors and project managers for my contribution to the company.

I proposed a generic solution for achieving Zero downtime during ERP release roll outs in an annual innovation fair at my company last year and received an award for the same. The solution was accepted to be funded and prepared as a part of solutions portfolio of the company. The solution was coded in C++ and Pro C*.

I was a member of the Self Governance Team, a group of 20 people that represented 500+ trainees during periodic meetings with the management and worked as a SPOC for other trainees to raise any concerns/issues/suggestions to take forward to management during our training in my first company(Infosys Technologies Limited, India).

I have presented technical papers on applications of Supramolecular Chemistry in semiconductor devices development during my college days and have received awards for the same.

I was the treasurer of my branch student society and also started a monthly magazine in my college and was editor-in chief of the same.

I want to apply for MFE programs starting in 2012 as I am currently preparing for CFA Level 2 exam(it is a beast, I need to tame it on June 5th, 2011) and I am yet to take my GMAT (I want to apply for MBA programs as well, this is the only opportunity window for me to apply for higher education). I am hoping to be able to write GMAT by August 16, 2011.

Although I know GMAT scores could be a big part of my application, I would appreciate profile reviews and suggestions on which programs I have a chance of getting into with the assumption that I get 700+ in GMAT with a good quant score(49 or more).

My dream MFE programs are Baruch and UCB Haas. Am I aiming too high? Could you please suggest if I can take any steps to further strengthen my application?

Lot of people from NIT w has made into top programs I know about two guys who applied this year one got in Columbia MFE and other in CMU and many in Columbia MSOR..For u the biggest hurdle is the GPA.. It actually doesnt count much how much the topper scored bcoz most of the schools dont have a provision for that in the online application..i believe writing GRE would b better bcoz u r gonna miss out on a lot of good programs in u take GMAT..

 

[abhishek]

Lot of people from NIT w has made into top programs I know about two guys who applied this year one got in Columbia MFE and other in CMU and many in Columbia MSOR..For u the biggest hurdle is the GPA.. It actually doesnt count much how much the topper scored bcoz most of the schools dont have a provision for that in the online application..i believe writing GRE would b better bcoz u r gonna miss out on a lot of good programs in u take GMAT..

Thanks a lot for your comments. Is there any way in which I can cover for the GPA issue? Because GPA is something I can't go and change now.

 

[kuberkhan]

@abhishek,
Just a thought. You can try publishing a white paper. Show that you can take initiative in the area in which you're interested. Research extensively about the programs and tune your personal statement accordingly. Follow this forum regularly and talk to alumni of your dream schools. Contact your undergrad alumni who have done FE. I'm sure you can get into top schools. All the best!

 

[kichuxj]

Thanks a lot for your comments. Is there any way in which I can cover for the GPA issue? Because GPA is something I can't go and change now.

I guess kuberkhan has answered it well.. There are ways to do certain math courses but all are very expensive and mostly wont help u much..I am also from NIT W 2009 batch

 

[abhishek]

I guess kuberkhan has answered it well.. There are ways to do certain math courses but all are very expensive and mostly wont help u much..I am also from NIT W 2009 batch

So I should forget about applying to these places, I guess...since I'm not so sure about other MFE programs, I think I'd rather look at my MBA applications then..I guess I can leverage my experience in a better way while applying to a B-school then...

btw, what is your GPA...and what schools did you apply to or are planning to apply to..in case it isn't too much to ask for..

 

[kichuxj]

So I should forget about applying to these places, I guess...since I'm not so sure about other MFE programs, I think I'd rather look at my MBA applications then..I guess I can leverage my experience in a better way while applying to a B-school then...

btw, what is your GPA...

7.9 but had ex grades in math and comp sci..not sure of the other point i will let someone else answer it

 

[bbskater]

Would anyone mind reviewing my profile, maybe @Andy Nguyen? Basically I just want to know if I have a chance applying to top schools or if it would be a waste of time and I would be better off looking for a job in the finance industry. Or if you have any suggestions about which schools would be more applicable to me (for instance, I am automatically disqualified from some school due to my lack of work experience). I value honesty and just don't want to spend time doing fruitless activities.

Also, I will be taking a Theory of Probability course and a Theory of Statistics course in addition to the classes listed below. I will also be writing an Honors Thesis related to finance, hopefully financial modeling.

Thanks for your help.

Would someone please evaluate my profile as well? I would certainly appreciate it!

Education
Status: Junior
Major: Mathematics and Finance (two separate ones) from non target state school, Honors department
Minor: Spanish
GPA: Right now I have a 4.0 and I expect to graduate with that or something close to that.
I have not taken the GRE or GMAT yet. I plan to do that at the end of the summer. I expect to do well since I typically do well on standardized test (usually in the 98th or 99th percentile on most every test I've taken) and I plan to study hard.

Relevant Math Courses
Calculus 1-4 (My school on the quarter system so it is different but basically two years of calculus)
Two quarters of Linear Algebra
Discrete Mathematics
Ordinary Differential Equations
Fundamentals of Mathematics (Introductory math theory)
Introduction to Abstract Algebra
Introduction to Real Analysis

I have excelled in all of my math classes that I have taken so far, usually making a very high A and often setting the curve for most tests.

I plan to take PDE and Statistics in the fall. I could substitute one of those classes for Theory of Probability. Would you recommend that?

Relevant Finance Courses (I will have taken all of these by the time I graduate.)
Two quarters of Corporate Finance
Bank Management
Investments
Portfolio Risk Management
Money Markets, Capital Markets, and Financial Instituitions
Advanced Financial Management
International Finance

Programming skills
I have only taken a one quarter class in Java. I am pretty proficient with Java though we did not get into anything too complicated. However, I did manage to make a program that computes and lists the prime numbers between two specified limits and made a simple calculator. Basically, I am good at thinking about how to make the computer accomplish a task I want in theory, I just might not have the actual programming knowledge to do it. I became familiar with C++ in early high school, but I can't say I remember much at all. I plan to brush up on some programming over the next year. What languages should I focus on?

Work Experience
I do not have very much formal work experience. I have an internship this summer working with a local business, but it is not necessarily financially related and it has nothing to do with the stock market; it is more sales related. It is just a general internship, nothing to write home about. I plan to apply directly out of undergrad. Would the lack of work experience hurt my chances?

Extracurricular Activities
I am a member of the Math Club (founding treasurer), Pi Mu Epsilon (Math Honor Society), Golden Key Honor Society, Financial Management Association (Honors section), and campus investment club that is through the FMA. Also, a buddy of mine and I are in the process of starting a Student Managed Investment Fund at our school. It should be up and running by the beginning of next year (my senior year). I would be one of the managers of it. I also have some volunteer experience mostly through my church though much of it was not necessarily evangelistic in nature. For instance, we've worked at soup kitchens serving food and nursing homes visiting with the people there.

I'm not completely sure what school I am going to apply to yet. I know I will apply to Columbia but I am otherwise undecided. What are my chances for a top ten school? Top five? The primary things I worry about is the fact that the school I went to is relatively unheard of and my lack of programming knowledge. I plan to work on the programming part, but I know there is only a certain amount that can be done in a short time.

Anyway, thanks for looking over my profile. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[sleekmover]

Brief Background: I would like my profile reviewed as I have got rejections from Masters in Finance, London Business School and CMU MSCF. MIF, LBS has rejected my profile twice (last year and this year when I applied both times in the 3rd round). CMU MSCF rejected my profile last year where I applied in the 3rd round. I have applied again in the third round this year with a much improved GMAT score and am awaiting results. Going by the first lot of i/w decisions released it seems the chances are slim. I have applied only to these schools so far and will apply to UCB, MFE and UCLA MFE once I get a reject from CMU MSCF. I really need my profile evaulated as I somehow feel that my profile is unique. The uniqueness itself is leading Admissions Committess to think it is unbelievable.. not entirely sure of my last statement though.

My profile:
GMAT II: Tot: 730, Verbal: 41, Quant: 49 Date: Feb 2011
GMAT I: Tot: 670, Verbal: 33, Quant: 49 date: Jun 2009

Education: Top Engineering institute in India

Personal: Married with two kids

Work Exp: 13 years in IT with last 8 years building from scrath front office IT systems. Highlight: working closely with business users and technology teams built the subprime mortgage backed securities system for a top 5 investment bank for Europe and Japan.
Tons of international exposure by staying for 3 - 5 months in NY, London, Tokyo etc.
In last 8 years I would have established around 10 teams completely from scratch in which I had contributed to all of programming, architecture, business analysis, project management, stakeholder management, setting up the first KPO for my company etc.

Currently: Working for a top 10 investement bank in Gurgaon, India (for last three years) in their IT division. I am starting on a new strategic project that involves front to back migration of trades (IRD, FXO etc) from one book to another.

Ultimate Goal: to contribute in setting up a MBS market in India as I have around 6 years of exp in RMBS/CMBS domain. Learning from a developed market and applying to a nascent market seems to be natural choice.

Immediate goal: work on structured finance products especially on the risk mitigation side in the Fixed Income and Currencies market.. to strengthen my knowledge on risk so I can later help in creating risk mitigating strategies for the nascent MBS market in India.

Additionally:
Really appreciate any help before I apply to other MFE programs.
Please try to poke holes in my profile..that will really help (after two rejections I know how to handle this )

 

[sleekmover]

In addition to this: I have an average academic record in my undergraduate studies. I was exactly in the middle of my class in terms of rankings. Out of 4 maths courses 2 of them have a C grade and other two are A grades. Other courses on finance and Coputer Programming are mostly A s with one or two being B.
However I have excellent extra curricular activities and lots of awards in my previous company

 

[sleekmover]

it just seems I am getting paranoid. Should have waited for the official results to come out before posting this. But what do you do when you are in this seemingly endless wait

 

[Andy Nguyen]

@bbskater
A quick look at your post tells me that you realize your weakness (programming and lack of relevant experience).
Some program would prefer to admit students with relevant work experience so it's easier for them to get placed and higher salary leading to better stats. But saying no work experience is automatically rejected is false. You just have to make up for it in being outstanding otherwise.
Focus on C++ and get better with it. Take more C++ courses.
Take a look a programs in NYC as the east coast has some of the most competitive programs in the country.
www.quantnet.com/wiki/

Dig around on each program, then read some more. After a few months, you will have a better sense of which program will be a good fit for you. That's what I did back in the days.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

@sleekmover
I do not see anything unbelievable from your profile. Your average academic profile is what killed your chance as far as I can see from the available info you post. I can't read your essay and letter of recommendation and those may not be as good as you thought.
As I worked on admission committee, I would clear you off on the programming/GMAT/work experience/ fronts but there are more to a successful application than those things.

Good luck with CMU.

 

[sleekmover]

thanks Andy for your review. (and for best wishes)
Any advise on how I can improve on the seeming short comings of my application:
1) Average Academic profile: I thought 13 years of experience would be enough to cover it. Clearly that's not the case. So how can I improve on it? Should I try CFA L I or a part time Financial Risk Management course from a good institute in India to show case that I can do really well on the Academics front as well?
2) Essays: I have not taken any help in writing those except getting them reviewed by some close relatives who have excelled in Academics. Should I take some professional help from somebody who understands admissions process?

I said "unbelievable profile" based on following facts:
1) I have achieved all of the above by being based out of India. I have never stayed beyond 5 months in any other country. Usually people from emerging market countries tend to stay back in developed market countries when they get an opportunity. I had multiple such opportunities but I moved back as soon as the critical part of a project got over by handing over to other people. Kind of unique but can raise eye brows as well.
2) One of my recommenders was an ED in IT division at the top 5 Ibank when I worked for him for the sub prime mortgages system. During the turmoil of financial markets in 2007 he along with at least 50% of the team was asked to leave. He is now heading IT in a relatively unknown bank in London.
3) The MIF LBS interview last year with an Alum was one of the toughest I have faced. Though the person was quite nice, however he was asking questions firstly about the ED (in point 2 above) such as why he left the Ibank, what kind of quantitative work did you do with him etc. Additionally, instead of asking me about my knowledge on RMBS/CMBS and the systems that I created across geographies, he was checking with me on my continued interest in MBS. Now MBS has been down for at least 3 years in a row and most of Mortgage professionals have been sort of displaced. I was prepared with some research on future of MBS (esp in India) but no matter how hard I tried there was not much available in India to work on MBS for these last three years. So I am not sure if I would have convinced him with my answers. In my current role I keep working on Fixed Income and currencies related projects.
4) The bank that I work for has been going through a major transformation for past two years. There is redefinition of roles and responsibilities every 6 months with things stabilizing only just now. Not sure if this adds to the confusion.

Any thoughts would be appreciated?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Forget about CFA or FRM. It does not significantly boost your profile and just gives the admission people (me) reasons to think that you have no direction in your future career.
Let's start by the http://www.quantnet.com/master-reading-list-for-quants/
There is no excuse that you are applying for MFE programs and haven't read Hull, Stefanica, Shreve, Joshi, Neftci, Wilmott, etc. These are books used by many programs and that should give you something to gauge your readiness.
Get a few of those books. If you are lost in a few pages, it means you are out of school for too long and need refreshers.
Simplify your career narrative. There are just too much going on and much of these detailed aren't needed to make a strong case. You don't want to invite more questions or confuse the readers as it's evident here.

 

[sleekmover]

Got it. Thanks again for your advice. I think my reaction to rejection was to let the adcom know more details about my profile..... which could have been avoided. In the Berkley MFE information session while evaluating my resume the ad com member said it looks good but am not sure what you wish to achieve. I think I need to work both on refining my resume to say more by writing less and also on the Academics by self studying and letting the Adcom know my endeavours in this area.