"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

[Andy Nguyen]

kalyan, BrandonMB, AdityaJain
Provided that you meet the requirement of programs you plan to apply, check out the profile of admitted students to see where your scores/gpa/background compared.
If the programs don't publish those, use Quantnet Tracker for this purpose.

If you find that your profile is comparable to those getting admitted, I would spend time on essay and getting good people to write you letters. This is something within your control so you must do well.

 

[kalyan]

kalyan, BrandonMB, AdityaJain
Provided that you meet the requirement of programs you plan to apply, check out the profile of admitted students to see where your scores/gpa/background compared.
If the programs don't publish those, use Quantnet Tracker for this purpose.

If you find that your profile is comparable to those getting admitted, I would spend time on essay and getting good people to write you letters. This is something within your control so you must do well.

Ok, How do I check their profiles using the tracker? When I try to open a programe (like: UCB MFE) it doesn't open.

 

[Kenny L]

kalyan:

Click on "(Read note)" right below the date that indicates last updated date. Not every brief profile is available though.

 

[Goutham]

Hi,

I have an MBA in Banking and Finance and also I have passed CFA Level I. The following are my academic scores.

BE(comp sci) 74%
MBA 65%
IELTS 8.5

No work experience except for a couple of internships.

I have more than 95% in my school math papers. I want to take up an MFE in NTU or NUS due to my great interest in the quantitative finance. Can you please let me know what are my chances in getting a call. Also, what kind of GRE score would be likely for my application to get considered.

Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ram]

Hi everyone,

I need to get my profile evaluated:

GRE: 1370 (Q-800, V-570) AWA: 3
GRE Math: Taking on Nov.12th
TOEFL: Result awaited
GPA: 6.68/10 in Electrical Engineering from NIT Tiruchirapalli (10th position in Times , QS and Nielsen Rankings)
GPA Math: 3.8/4 (As I got an 3 A's and 1 B)

Programming Skills:

Mastered MATLAB during a lab work for a whole semester.
Other programming skills include C++ Java

Others:

Secured All India Rank 74 in National Physics Olympiad in 2007
Completed a 4 week intern at BHEL, Hyderabad on modelling of generators and electrical machines during summer 2010.
I have got a strong recommenders ( my mathematics professors) and a strong quant ability.

Will my undergraduate college's reputation play weight during acceptance? I'm posting this question because many people get much better GPA's from low reputed colleges and if students from IIT's and NIT's are treated on par with them, then its highly impossible for us to study at a good university abroad. Their course content is comparitively easier and pattern of examination contains a lot of loop-holes which helps them to score better.

I'm thinking of applying to :

1) University of Michigan, An Arbor
2) University of Texas, Austin
3) Erasmus University, Rotterdam
4) ETH Zurich
5) University of Waterloo, Ontario
6) National University of Singapore
7) Nanyang Technological University
8) Kent State University

What are the chances of getting an admission into one of the above?
Also, suggest me some good ones.

Thanks

dude how can u say that....just give 1 semester from mumbai university and u l 9 whr nit and iit stand in terms of syllabus and level of difficulty....its just dt u have passed a competitive xam aftr 12th and u r dr...so dont dare challenge ne univ....

 

[rishab dhar]

Exactly ram.

 

[rishab dhar]

Will my undergraduate college's reputation play weight during acceptance? I'm posting this question because many people get much better GPA's from low reputed colleges and if students from IIT's and NIT's are treated on par with them, then its highly impossible for us to study at a good university abroad. Their course content is comparitively easier and pattern of examination contains a lot of loop-holes which helps them to score better.

This is highly flawed argument.

IITs and NITs get their reputation because of huge rush of applicants to these colleges, resulting in competitive students. After doing the hard work, if you slack off, it's your mistake and no one else's.

P.S My cousin studies at IIT delhi, and he doesn't study at all until the exams, and gets a GPA of 7.5. An another cousin, graduated from IIT Bombay in 2010, scored a GPA of 9.5 (He used to study really hard- as hard as he did when he prepared for IIT-JEE).

P.S Do not give lame excuses of tough courses. Because in India, the variation is not so much (as you make it out to be) in syllabus but in marking scheme. I have heard that in many univ's students are just not given internal/external marks even when they did everything right. However, NITs are not such colleges. You should have gotten GPA of 8 or above if you really studied well.

 

[ram]

This is highly flawed argument.

IITs and NITs get their reputation because of huge rush of applicants to these colleges, resulting in competitive students. After doing the hard work, if you slack off, it's your mistake and no one else's.

P.S My cousin studies at IIT delhi, and he doesn't study at all until the exams, and gets a GPA of 7.5. An another cousin, graduated from IIT Bombay in 2010, scored a GPA of 9.5 (He used to study really hard- as hard as he did when he prepared for IIT-JEE).

P.S Do not give lame excuses of tough courses. Because in India, the variation is not so much (as you make it out to be) in syllabus but in marking scheme. I have heard that in many univ's students are just not given internal/external marks even when they did everything right. However, NITs are not such colleges. You should have gotten GPA of 8 or above if you really studied well.

yup...very true...evn in MUMBAI UNIV...dr r 100+ colleges affiliated to it nd d internal marks vary alot....

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

This is highly flawed argument.

IITs and NITs get their reputation because of huge rush of applicants to these colleges, resulting in competitive students. After doing the hard work, if you slack off, it's your mistake and no one else's.

P.S My cousin studies at IIT delhi, and he doesn't study at all until the exams, and gets a GPA of 7.5. An another cousin, graduated from IIT Bombay in 2010, scored a GPA of 9.5 (He used to study really hard- as hard as he did when he prepared for IIT-JEE).

P.S Do not give lame excuses of tough courses. Because in India, the variation is not so much (as you make it out to be) in syllabus but in marking scheme. I have heard that in many univ's students are just not given internal/external marks even when they did everything right. However, NITs are not such colleges. You should have gotten GPA of 8 or above if you really studied well.

First of all i am not defending the guy for his low GPA.
But when you say that variation is not so much ,you are not quite correct.I have studied at both kind of colleges and course content and rigor vary to a large extent.For example people from other engineering colleges hardly study Real Analysis and Linear Algebra to the extent and rigor as guys from IITs do.As far as i know their syllabus doesn't have the epsilon,delta and all the introductory real analysis concepts.What they study is mostly engineering mathematics or applied mathematics.

 

[rishab dhar]

He depicted getting a GPA of 6.8 as though it were really a hard nut to crack, and I believe this is just a plain lame excuse. Further you do understand that conversion of % into GPA is not exactly dividing 100 by 10. AFAIK, I may be wrong, you get a GPA of around 9+ when you get 80%+ at IIT.

To be clear that we are on the same footing, I said that statement of variation of syllabus relatively in comparison to variation in grading.

On variation in syllabus between different univs : I would say that still there wouldn't as high as made out to be. The courses still would be more or less same. You wouldn't have one univ teaching high school calculus and the other teaching graduate (master's) level math. The courses still would be engineering focused: Theory of Compuation, Comp Arch, Discrete Math, etc would be taught to everyone and at about the same level. Further, these students at IITs and NITs are assumed to intelligent, so they are given slightly extra work load. Therefore, they should be able to cope with that work load and be able to get similar marks as those from lower colleges.

On variation of courses vs Variation in grading: This argument can be easily nullified. My first question : Are there more affiliated colleges or more universities? (Mumbai Univ has 100+ colleges. Similar case with Anna Univ.) Ofcourse, Universities. Now, each university has its own syllabus, and each college affiliated to the university will follow the same course. This is guaranteed. However, can same standard for giving internal marks be guaranteed? Of course not. Therefore, there is more variation in grading than in syllabus. In fact some colleges barely give more than 30 out of 50 in internals, whereas some give 40/50 to even mediocre students.

Come to think of it, I've seen a variation in which a topper from 1 college got 85-90% marks, and a topper from another college got 65-70%, and this is with same syllabus, and the difference usually used to be because of internal marks.

Now this is one instance of plain injustice.

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

He depicted getting a GPA of 6.8 as though it were really a hard nut to crack, and I believe this is just a plain lame excuse. Further you do understand that conversion of % into GPA is not exactly dividing 100 by 10. AFAIK, I may be wrong, you get a GPA of around 9+ when you get 80%+ at IIT.

You do understand GPAs are relative grading, so even if you score 90% and so did most of your batch it won't matter as you will get an average grade.So it doesn't really matter at what % you get what grade.But you can really flaunt that score if you were using %.Anyway i will avoid to discuss the merits/demerits of grading over % system.

On variation of courses vs Variation in grading: This argument can be easily nullified. My first question : Are there more affiliated colleges or more universities? (Mumbai Univ has 100+ colleges. Similar case with Anna Univ.) Ofcourse, Universities. Now, each university has its own syllabus, and each college affiliated to the university will follow the same course. This is guaranteed. However, can same standard for giving internal marks be guaranteed? Of course not. Therefore, there is more variation in grading than in syllabus. In fact some colleges barely give more than 30 out of 50 in internals, whereas some give 40/50 to even mediocre students.

Come to think of it, I've seen a variation in which a topper from 1 college got 85-90% marks, and a topper from another college got 65-70%, and this is with same syllabus, and the difference usually used to be because of internal marks.

Now this is one instance of plain injustice.

It happens across all the IITs and NITs too.Due to their autonomy different IITs and NITs have different grading scheme,examination patter and varying level of syllabus.Even at these institutions grading vary corresponding to different departments.Ultimately during placements or applying abroad,all are weighted equal.So such instances are quite common.

 

[rishab dhar]

You do understand GPAs are relative grading, so even if you score 90% and so did most of your batch it won't matter as you will get an average grade.So it doesn't really matter at what % you get what grade.But you can really flaunt that score if you were using %.Anyway i will avoid to discuss the merits/demerits of grading over % system.

Agreed.

GPA's were meant to relative grading.

But unfortunately, the relative grading is not so strictly followed (almost no where in the world, let alone India). I hope you have read about grade inflation in the US. The best relative scoring system is usually in standardized tests, and for this reason most universities require you to take some sort of a standardized test.

Anyway, do you really think 90% marks are given so easily in India? Not in my university. Generally speaking, test markers are reluctant to give anything more than 60-70% - to a topper, unless it's a quantitative exam.

For this reason, it is often recommended that you request your professor to mention your class rank when you apply at various universities.

Further, even if I assume that I'm wrong, a GPA of 6.8 indicates a below average performance on a scale of 0-10, on which 5 is usually the pass mark.

It happens across all the IITs and NITs too.Due to their autonomy different IITs and NITs have different grading scheme,examination patter and varying level of syllabus.Even at these institutions grading vary corresponding to different departments.Ultimately during placements or applying abroad,all are weighted equal.So such instances are quite common.​

Agreed.

 

[kalyan]

@ rishab dhar do you mean to say that IITs and NITs have low level curriculum than University of Mumbai? And even in NITs and IITs grades are not given like candy bars.

P.S.: Anyway, it is not either of our decision. If the acad dept. at the university finds the candidate overall package good enough he gets an admit.

 

[rishab dhar]

rishab dhar do you mean to say that IITs and NITs have low level curriculum than University of Mumbai? And even in NITs and IITs grades are not given like candy bars.

No. If you carefully parse through what I've written, you wouldn't get that impression.

Let me summarize what I said.

I said that the curriculum of almost all universities are same (especially the subjects), although some universities will include/discard something to what is taught at other universities.

A computer scioence student at both IIT and Mumbai (any other Univ) would be taught computer graphics, microprocessors, computer architecture, discrete math, digital electronics, advanced computer architecture,theory of computation etc. These subjects are the core of computer science. If they weren't they wouldn't be computer engineers at all. What might differ would the application based subjects that would be taught. Some might be taught just Java, C, and C++. Other might also be taught .NET etc.

But I doubt that studying more(breadth) is directly equivalent to being more tough. At least this is the impression that I got on reading my cousin's Math book (he studies at IIT Delhi.), and I was familiar with almost 90% of the Math in that book.

 

[rishab dhar]

rishab dhar do you mean to say that IITs and NITs have low level curriculum than University of Mumbai? And even in NITs and IITs grades are not given like candy bars.

The fact is grading at Mumbai Univ is in %, whereas at IIT and NITs is as per GPA ( so you get a relative score not an absolute one). Tell me how would you distinguish yourself from others in the same university, if your college just doesn't give you internals. I have seen at many colleges (good ones at that) where class topper scored 65-70%, but the university topper scored 85-90%. An example is YMCA Faridabad.

Grades might not be given like candybars at IITs, but you wouldn't see a situation in which class topper is given 30/50 in internals, and yes I have seen such a situation in many colleges in my part of the world. Also, you do realize how scripts are so carelessly marked in universities where a large number of colleges are affiliated, because of the huge volume. At-least, this shouldn't be the case at NITs/ IITs.

Also, what I meant was marks are not given so easily at many universities as at others. ( I do not know about Mumbai Univ). I do know about situation here in North India. I have heard guys scoring jaw dropping 90-95% at UPTECH university, and at my university the university topper scored 85%.

 

[vaibhavk]

At my class highest is 78%.(RGPV university M.P)

 

[kalyan]

No. If you carefully parse through what I've written, you wouldn't get that impression.

At least this is the impression that I got on reading my cousin's Math book (he studies at IIT Delhi.), and I was familiar with almost 90% of the Math in that book.

A friend of mine studies math at Stanford university Undergrad (mathematics). They use the same book used by NIT and IIT Erwin Kreyzig. So now according to you Stanford university is on par with IITs NITs and University of Mumbai? Atleast I get that impression.

 

[rishab dhar]

Please do not compare two different education systems. India's education system gives more emphasis to rote learning than to practical learning. The things nit/ Iit lack is not quality of theoretical curriculum but quality of practical learning. Further Stanford derives it's reputation from quality of research at graduate/ doctorate level, and quality of research at even iit is pathetic at masters/ doctorate level. At undergrad level quality of education (at least theoretical) is at that same level as that of Stanford. If anything the theoretical knowledge of students in India easily exceeds that of the Americans.


P.S my cousin who studied at Iit Bombay said this, and for this reason rejected admission from standard for Iit Bombay( for undergrad) . Now he studies at MIT, with full funding.

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

P.S my cousin who studied at Iit Bombay said this, and for this reason rejected admission from standard for Iit Bombay( for undergrad) . Now he studies at MIT, with full funding.

At my time IIT JEE rank 5 rejected MIT to join IIT.Go figure.

 

[kalyan]

At my time IIT JEE rank 5 rejected MIT to join IIT.Go figure.

Tejaswi Venumadhav?