"MFE program profile evaluation" master thread

[Sanket Patel]

.... in 12 standard we had derivative,PDE,integration....

Can you be a bit more specific? i.e what topics were covered, how in-depth were the topics covered, how well did you do, etc.

 

[buddyforall]

@Carl -- My maths background --
I think anyone with engineering background from india on this forum should add his view to this question too.

I have an engineering degree from India.

Your profile is not as bad as you are thinking.Give people with 800 in GRE Q a piece of code written by others and you can see them panicking.What you need to do depends on which program you want to join.For top schools like Berkeley,CMU, Baruch,NYU you need to enhance your profile, again how much differs for each of the school mentioned above.For lesser programs your profile is sufficient and may be retaking the GRE and applying can get you an admit.

Ways to enhance your profile, what other Indians have done in past: CFA,FRM,Actury P1,Advance Maths GRE,Getting a quantitative role in India.I would advise against doing too many distance courses as they are not recognised in US, maybe a couple in maths etc in areas where you were weak in undergrad . CFA L1/L2,FRM definately has value but that need a commitment from your side.

Are you willing to wait a couple of years in building your profile , this makes sense as the state of finance in US is not in a pretty state anyways, and the risk on your investment is a factor.Or do you want to join a MFE sooner than later ?

Based on whatever I know I feel that CMU,Berkely, NYU, Baruch are selective enough to give you a nearest thing to a job certainity in the currrent market.

 

[jigsaw]

My confusing profile

Hello guys,
I've been prowling the forum on and off the past few months....some good info and very helpful people here . I know you guys don't evaluate profiles and stuff, and its not fair to ask, but my confusion is a tad different - I'll be applying to FE programs in 2010, and have NO IDEA what my profile would look like to anyone. I have some time - so the aim here is to see what I can do to get a good admit next year.

Profile :
Degree : B.Tech, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay...graduating 2010!
Experience : about 1 year in IT at a major investment bank in Hong Kong
Explanation :D : I failed a couple of courses (both advanced graduate level courses, what was I thinking!) in my final semester, and decided to take up the job and finish them remotely, reckoned I wouldn't get such a chance later (subprime had started). Less said the better, administrative hassles intervened , and I have to return to full time study next semester!

Other stuff : CPI - should end up at around 7.5/10, which I guess is decent for CS in IITB
Will get good recommendation(s) from work
GRE - 800,690,4.0
Have published a research paper at an international conference in CS...going to do more research work coming months..definitely hoping for at least one more!
Research internship in Canada working on General game playing bot...very cool, used monte carlo simulations
Other stuff, decent to good extra currics...national level bridge player, been trading stocks for a year, some algo trading as well
Good scores in JEE and CAT if anyone cares (or knows what that means :P)

So, I guess I have a fairly interesting profile, plus loads of spare time now. Plan for the next few months is : finish courses, write GMAT, write Math GRE, write CFA (been preparing for all three, fairly confident), try and publish a paper. Thinking about the IB Olympiad this year.
Working on some startup ideas with some friends.

Qs : Anything else in particular I should do which'll beef up my profile? I have no target schools in mind as yet, way too early for that.

Long post I know, but would sincerely appreciate any advice! Very determined for a quant finance career, and pretty sure I have what it takes, just in the process of figuring out how to get there.

 

[bluechimp]

Can you be more precise with the courses you've taken? That'll help people to assess how far you've gotten relative to your fellow applicants.

I'm actually more interested in your 'general game playing bot'. What did you do exactly?

 

[jigsaw]

Thanks for the reply!

Courses I've taken : Partial Differential equations, Linear Algebra, Advanced calculus, Statistics and probability, discrete mathematics. Grades : some good, some not so good
Lots of CS courses and programming (obviously :P). Good programming background, was in top 500 worldwide in 'Google Code Jam' few years ago.

Nice to hear you're interested in my project . I made a bot for the 2007 "Stanford General Game Playing Competition" organized by the American Association of Artificial Intelligence and Stanford University. Take a look at games.stanford.edu to get an idea. Not sure if you need more info, I'll be happy to answer if you do.

 

[bluechimp]

Alright. Seems like you know what you're doing; you have the necessary ingredients to create a good grad school application: enough math, enough CS, demonstrated interest in the financial industry, good GRE, good recommendations. I'm pretty sure that accordingly, you'd try to write a good personal statement, too

Now, I think the biggest hindrance in your profile will be your grades. I don't know how much will those failed courses drag down your grades (hopefully not so much). But if you are concerned that your GPA does not reflect your work accordingly, make sure that you express this somehow to the admissions committee -- be this through your interview, personal statement, or just an extra note attached to the application. I really don't know how grades are perceived at IITs; if they're anything like MIT, where grade deflation is prominent, then definitely make note.

Another helpful thing: places like CMU, NYU, Princeton publishes the resume of their students online. Check them out and locate the graduates of IITs that now are in this program, see how much your profile matches up with people they have historically accepted. This way, you'll get a better picture of your chances.

Regarding the schools that you'll need to apply: I think the optimal strategy is to just apply to the best programs out there, in addition to a bunch of 'safeties'. It's just like portfolio building :p

 

[jigsaw]

Thanks for the tips...you're right, I have to reinforce my academic credentials in my application, that's the idea behind the math GRE, hopefully it'll go ok. Have just started researching different programs, quite interesting since no two offer the same things.

 

[rarora]

Profile Evaluation Needed

Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum. This is an amazing forum for quant people.

I need help evaluating my profile:

BE Computer Engineering from Reputed University in India, Passed out 2000 with GPA 3.69
7 years of work experience - 2 years at Amtel Exports, which is a parking and security systems company and 5 years at Infosys Technologies.
I have strong work experience in Banking and Capital Markets. I was working with American Express client for 4 years. I have done software development for Ameriprise. I also worked as a business analyst for American Express client for 3 years

GMAT 640(49Q,28V), AWA 4.5
TOEFL 108/120
Strong C++ programming skills
CFA Level I exam given on June 2009
I am taking few math courses(Linear algebra with applications, Differential Equations, Calculus) in UCLA

I wish to apply at UCLA for 2010 batch. Please evaluate if I have good chances to get into UCLA.

Thanks,
Rekha

 

[Shlomi]

Your profile is amazing....
As you can see it is a NYC Community for Quants, so we dont know much about UCLA, just that it will be a great way to spend a lot of money.
Second, we don't evaluate profiles...

 

[alain]

I wish to apply at UCLA for 2010 batch. Please evaluate if I have good chances to get into UCLA.

CHances? None...

 

[wong]

How to compensate my weakness?

My profile is:
Undergraduate degree: Computer Science in a Hong Kong University (2005 graduated)with GPA 5.5/12.

Work experience: IT support (2 year)

Master: Acturial science in University of Nebraska Lincoln. Current GPA 3.7

SOA exam: passed in P and FM..planning to take MFE..

GMAT: 720(Q50,V37).AWA score has not yet recieved.


My first problem is my low GPA in undergraduate degree. In my previous University, 5 is Grade C and 6 is Grade C+...Therefore, 5.5 is extremely ugly for top University. Is it anything I can do for compensating it?

The second question is that my working experience is not related to finanical enginerring at all. Is it a big problem?

Thirdly, is it that the committes of MFE do not want to accept a student(esp. international student) with non-perfect score in quan? And should I retake the GMAT for a perfect score in Quan?(When I finished the Quan. Section in GMAT, there was still 18 minutes left, so I think I can do it better if I do it slower).

Finally, there is lots of Universities do not accept GMAT. So, should I take the GRE in order to apply more universities?

Thank you

 

[Andy Nguyen]

GMAT: take GRE and get 800 on the Math part. Even if you get perfect score there, it's on par with about 50% of people who apply to top programs.
GPA: water under the bridge. In fact, it's too bad I would suggest that you consider other lesser known programs. Use the listing from International Association of Financial Engineers - Academic Programs
Have a plan B when you don't get accepted into any program. For example, you can do the CQF thing.

 

[wong]

Can you give me some suggestion about the ranking of Universities that I should apply for. It seem that lots of Universities, no matter the good or bad, claim that they do not have a minimum score requirement, but the average GPA of income student is around 3.3-3.7.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I can't give you any list of programs you should apply since I don't know much about a great number of them. Since we are in NYC, let just start with the programs in New York City and have your pick.
See Main Page - Quantnet Wiki

The claim about no program has a cut off makes perfect sense. In most case, the application fee is about $100 give or take and why would they discourage potential customers whose chance of acceptance is zero to nil. The time they spent looking at these underqualified applicants is less than two minutes. I said this from first hand experience.

Knowing all this, it's easy to understand that nobody in right mind would turn down $100 for a minimal effort.
On the other hand, the ones got selected are the top and their score, gpa naturally at the top percentile.

I'm not saying you shouldn't apply to Baruch, NYU, CMU with your profile. I'm just saying that you should be realistic and aware that there are other programs out there that may admit you. The work to find out which one is on your course. Do your research.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Can you give me some suggestion about the ranking of Universities that I should apply for. It seem that lots of Universities, no matter the good or bad, claim that they do not have a minimum score requirement, but the average GPA of income student is around 3.3-3.7.

You have to exercise caution. There are a slew of cruddy and newly-launched MFE programs in the market that will be happy to take your money, teach you third-rate material, and leave you with a worthless degree that will give you no traction in a tough market.

 

[vkaul]

Georgia tech admits everybody so you can try there.

 

[wong]

Is it any student get an offer in Georgia tech with very low GPA?

 

[Aditya Chitral]

Georgia tech admits everybody so you can try there.

That is not true. If you see the students at GTech are equally competitive and they do reject if you are not worth them.

 

[wong]

It seem that GPA in undergraduate is essential for admission, while a master degree is just a optional. So, should I transfer to a undergraduate student and use the new GPA to apply universities?

 

[Mr Doe]

It seems that there are a lot of questions on how to get into a good Master/Phd program (and I must addmit some very good answers), but somehow no one mentioned the following: ask your college professors to help you with admission! A recommendation from a famous professor can overcome most GPA, curriculum etc. problems. Of course this implies that you made a great impression on your professsor.
I really think you should give it a try, most of the people from my college, that went to some top class university, had a lot of support from influential professors.