"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

[Oxymoron]

OK, this is quite embarassing. Do you actually think you're going to convince members of the MFE admission panel by fighting it out here? Where exactly are you guys getting at besides getting a wank on your ego?

 

[rishab dhar]

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

I was gonna post something constructive, but deleted it.

 

[ravikantbhatt]

hi friends,

its very nice of you people guiding so many people towards what they want achieve academically
i too need your guidence .. i tried searching for people in my vicinity who might have gone for MFE but hard luck for me.
i am a 2010 b.tech graduate in Civil engineering from NIT calicut ,which is a decent college in my country. i opted for civil engineering on my own but with the advancement of my course my interest grew more and more for finance because of the financial crash and stuff,eventually making me to take CFA(USA) and now i will be applying for my level 3. i have a work experience of 10 months as a business analyst in worlds largest KPO i.e Mu-sigma,worked on various business problem and conversant with SAS and SQL,i had one semester course on C & C++ during my graduation. i have done all basic financial modules from National Stock Exchange of India .i have a decent gre score (750 quants and 650 verbal) and decent score in toefl.my problem is my gpa ie 5.85 on a scale of 10.

it will be very nice of you people to tell me where i stand and what i can do further to strengthen my chances.

 

[ravikantbhatt]

please help ...it will help me to get a better picture

 

[Felix Kotey]

compare your profile against admitted students using the tracker.

 

[ravikantbhatt]

compare your profile against admitted students using the tracker.

i cant see their profiles..i guess i need to send individual messages....i need an overall comment on where i stand and what further i should do......so guys if can help ....it will be of great importance for my cause

 

[NiranjanKasi]

Even I had the same doubt how do I check the profile of person on the tracker.

 

[Felix Kotey]

filter the result by clicking on the drop down menu and selecting admit. You can then click on "Read note".

 

[NiranjanKasi]

I managed that, but the admitted students have included very less information about their profile in these notes.

 

[darth]

Low GPA coupled with Low gre quant score may spell trouble.

 

[Kenny L]

How important is the GRE Verbal score then? And what score (upon 800) will be considered low?

 

[rishab dhar]

@ iesztransform

It's not about verbal. It's about quant score. Quant score of 800 in GRE is common at most top MFE programs.

 

[rishab dhar]

@ ravikanbhatt

If I were you, I would first retake GRE to score atleast 780 - I would probably aim for 800. Also, if by any chance, those low GPA scores were due to low scores in Math, or your Math scores were just about average, I would also take GRE Math Subjective.

I assume, as your background is civil engineering, that your programming knowledge would be at best basic and at worst nil, so I would also get some certifications in C++. If possible try taking a C++ course from an open university ( UCB also offers a C++ course, but it charges for it).

Your finance knowledge, at-least to me, seems good enough.

P.S Remember your other part of the profile has to be so much better than the other students to compensate for you low GPA.

 

[kalyan]

@ ravikanbhatt
P.S Remember your other part of the profile has to be so much better than the other students to compensate for you low GPA.

rishab, any tips on improving other parts of profile in order to compensate low GPA.?
Also, a good percentile in GRE mathematics subject test play a role in addition to my Q= 800 in GRE General test?

 

[kalyan]

I second that. With the level of variations seen in Indian grading system, I wonder how does the admission committee relatively evaluate the applicant's transcripts. I am from a Non-IIT, Non-NIT top 10 Engineering college (and for Gods sake its not VIT!!) and the highest we have is a 78% or so.

Maybe you found what rishab said acceptable but I find your attitude condescending towards universities like VIT.
Let me quote an example:
A friend of mine with 6.02 cgpa (Donno exact percentage, although after conversion to cgpa) but good quant skills (85+ percentile) in Math GRE subject test got into a decent MFE programme. Also, he doesn't either have work experience or any related research in the FE field. The surprising point is that he got admit offers from GaTech, NYU, University of Chicago and University of Michigan.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

With the level of variations seen in Indian grading system, I wonder how does the admission committee relatively evaluate the applicant's transcripts.

It should give you some idea about how luck may play a role in this. Admission is not an exact science and when human judgement is involved, there is room for errors.
The risk is more evident at programs that don't interview candidates but rely heavily on test scores and grades. As complex as education system in India/China is, you have little control over whether the reader of your file will know the intricacies of them all.

 

[kalyan]

It should give you some idea about how luck may play a role in this. Admission is not an exact science and when human judgement is involved, there is room for errors.
The risk is more evident at programs that don't interview candidates but rely heavily on test scores and grades. As complex as education system in India/China is, you have little control over whether the reader of your file will know the intricacies of them all.

So true. After sending the application package, everything is in the reader's hands.

 

[Mery]

Hi, I was wondering if my profile is good enough to have a chance to get admission to Baruch MFE:

McGill University: Bachelor of Arts, Major in Mathematics and Minor in Management

GPA : 3.5 /4.0 ( I still have two other semesters to complete my undergrad degree, so should increase to around 3.7)

GRE quantitative: 760/800

Research : McGill University, Summer undergraduate Research Assistant , I worked on the subject of " Statistical Credit Scoring"

Papers published: I am working on publishing a paper by the end of this fall on "SuperLearner method in Statistical Credit Scoring"

Mathematics Courses taken: Advanced calculus, Probability, Statitics, Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Regression and Analysis of Variance, Stochastic Processes, Complex variables, Advanced Algebra, Theory of Interest, Dynamic Programming.

Programming: took Java course, Introduction to C++, I know Matlab, STATA and R.

Management courses: Financial accounting, Economic theory ( 2 terms) , Finance, Information Systems, Econometrics (2 terms)

Thank you !

 

[rishab dhar]

Here is my point of view:

You profile looks good, if you can get GPA up to 3.7. Programs usually say that an introduction to C++ is required, but believe me, you need more than that. If you can get advanced courses in C++ (programming) try to get them. I would also try to touch at-least 780 on GRE quant.

 

[rishab dhar]

Best of luck for your Application!