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MIT MFin Profile Evaluation

sarahboston

Joined
10/5/11
Messages
11
Points
11
Dear all,
I am new to this forum and in the process of applying to a variety of Finance Master programs, mainly in the UK (LSE, Cambridge, Warwick, Oxford), but also France (HEC) and am thinking about applying to MIT as well. I am not sure whether the application makes sense or whether I do not stand a chance anyways. Would you thus be so kind to help me evaluate my profile?

GPA: 3.97 (Business Administration Undergrad with Finance Major - studied in US (2 years) and Germany (2 years at top German business undergrad program - GPA here was 1.3 on a scale from 1-6)​
GMAT: 730 (48q,42v) (Could quant be a problem?)​
Math courses: Calc I, Stats I, Microecon Theory, Macroecon Theory, International Econ Work Experience: (1) 3 months internship small consulting firm in Germany, (2) 4 months internship Audit Financial Services Big 4, (3) 6 months work experience VC provider focused on debt in Palo Alto, (4) 4 months internship at PE arm of one of the big IBs​
Other info: German National Merit, Member of Beta Gamma Sigma (Business Honors Undergrad Society - don't know whether such helps as I am German and thus cannot really evaluate this), have written Research Bachelor Thesis as part of my German undergrad degree on Venture Capital Due Diligence (but main focus on qualitative aspects) and received a grade of 1.2 on it​

If any of you could help me I would very much appreciate it​

Thanks very much,​

Sarah​
 
sarahboston said:
Dear all,
I am new to this forum and in the process of applying to a variety of Finance Master programs, mainly in the UK (LSE, Cambridge, Warwick, Oxford), but also France (HEC) and am thinking about applying to MIT as well. I am not sure whether the application makes sense or whether I do not stand a chance anyways. Would you thus be so kind to help me evaluate my profile?
GPA: 3.97 (Business Administration Undergrad with Finance Major - studied in US (2 years) and Germany (2 years at top German business undergrad program - GPA here was 1.3 on a scale from 1-6)​
GMAT: 730 (48q,42v) (Could quant be a problem?)​
Math courses: Calc I, Stats I, Microecon Theory, Macroecon Theory, International Econ Work Experience: (1) 3 months internship small consulting firm in Germany, (2) 4 months internship Audit Financial Services Big 4, (3) 6 months work experience VC provider focused on debt in Palo Alto, (4) 4 months internship at PE arm of one of the big IBs​
Other info: German National Merit, Member of Beta Gamma Sigma (Business Honors Undergrad Society - don't know whether such helps as I am German and thus cannot really evaluate this), have written Research Bachelor Thesis as part of my German undergrad degree on Venture Capital Due Diligence (but main focus on qualitative aspects) and received a grade of 1.2 on it​
If any of you could help me I would very much appreciate it​
Thanks very much,​
Sarah​
Click to expand...

Hi Sarah

Even though you have a great profile but it is not good for MIT MFin as you donot have quantitative background like Cal1, 2,3 , Linear Algebra, Diff Eqn, Stat, Probability, Stochastic Processes .. etc

Its like you are one of the very good chess player but want to join a poker school. I would recommend going for UK school as they are less Quant and more finance oriented. Best of luck with the application process
 
Hi Bansalmohit,
thanks so much for getting back to me that quickly. I get the concerns about the lack of quantitative subjects - I thought there are business undergrads as well and supposedly with the same lack of quant undergrad classes!
Does anyone else know about such prerequisites? Or know anyone in the MFin Program with a similar background?
I am planning on mentioning in my application that in case of being accepted I would totally be willing to enroll in Math classes at one of the best German universities (this is possible in Germany for just 1 semester - I could simply take 4 classes and get a transcript for those) - Do you think that makes sense?

Thanks again very much
 
read what the requirements are on their website and do NOT listen to whatever random people tell you in forums ;) Good luck
 
Thanks! It's just sometimes hard to inter prate the requirements on the website. MIT lists certain math classes as "Suggested Mathematical Background", but it's hard to say whether only having some of those will be a rejection criterion.
If they list certain subjects as suggested math background, is it still possible in your opinion to get in with having taken only some of them?
 
sarahboston said:
Thanks! It's just sometimes hard to inter prate the requirements on the website. MIT lists certain math classes as "Suggested Mathematical Background", but it's hard to say whether only having some of those will be a rejection criterion.
If they list certain subjects as suggested math background, is it still possible in your opinion to get in with having taken only some of them?
Click to expand...
hey sarah,

i am from germany as well facing same kinds of problems. it's hard for germans to get into us programs. i want to apply for lse preferably and i do also not have enough math courses on my transcript. mostly economics and finance courses which were math intense. However admission staff cannot figure out how math intense a course is if it says 'Investments' or 'Macroeconomics'. The course can be more theory based at some schools whereas some focus mostly on the math.

i figured to be on the safe side i have to do what you just said. i enrolled in the b.sc. in physics at technical university in darmstadt in order to take linear algebra 1,2 and calculus 1,2. and that's about it. i hope this is enough to signal that u will meet the requirements until the start date of the master's program.
 
It's worth noting that we have quite a few members here who are current MIT MFin students and have posted in our Tracker while they applied there last year.
You should check out the Tracker and see the profiles of those who got admitted as well as denied. That would give you a much better idea of how compatible is your profile
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/tracker/
 
Thanks for your replies - I will check the trackers so talk to current MIT Mfin students.

PSQuad - Are you already taking the additional classes? In my case I could only enroll after the application deadline - I am not sure whether schools consider it if I mention in my application that next semester I could be doing Calc., LinAlg, Stats, Econometrics or the likes
 
sarahboston said:
Thanks for your replies - I will check the trackers so talk to current MIT Mfin students.

PSQuad - Are you already taking the additional classes? In my case I could only enroll after the application deadline - I am not sure whether schools consider it if I mention in my application that next semester I could be doing Calc., LinAlg, Stats, Econometrics or the likes
Click to expand...

hey i enrolled in it this semester. so i don't think i will wait until i wrote the exams. what i could do is maybe to get a letter of recommendation from a maths prof there stating that I am taking these courses, doing well in assignments ect., but would be to late if u wait until march or sth when the actual exam is taking place. when are u planning to start ur masters?
 
hi, I am planning on starting Fall 2012; I am already in the process of applying (have taken GMAT, have profs finishing up recommendation letters, started essays, etc.) - I am currently doing an internship so cannot take any classes right now, but I could enroll for next semester if I were to be given a conditional offer
Which program at LSE are you applying to? What other programs are you applying to?
 
wow not bad... i am not even close to that. taking gre right now. so just focused on that. i'll apply in december as lse has rolling admission. my planned to apply to lse, university college london, oxford, warwick, eth zurich, and maybes are hec paris, imperial london, st. andrews, st. gallen, u chicago and maybe some other american school will depend on my mood, gre results, recommendations ect.!! lse i prefer the msc in financial mathematics. what about you? can i ask which school u from in germany? i am from frankfurt, goethe university
 
I started that early because MIT Round 1 Deadline is Nov 1st; I am thinking about MFE Oxford, Mphil Cambridge, Finance LSE, Financial Econ or Finance HEC, Warwick Finance; maybe Princeton or MIT, but guess this would be really difficult and thus might save the effort; also thinking about some "safer options" such as Cass, Stockholm
I am not so much looking for quant, rather finance master with possibility of taking few subjects with focus on quant or economics
german school was ESB Reutlingen, but also went to Northeastern University in Boston and have BSc degrees from both universities
I really liked Boston and the US and would thus love to go back but there are not many Finance Master programs comparable to LSE, etc. in the US - only Princeton and MIT, but more quant focus and incredibly tough to get in
 
Princeton MFin is arguably much more quantitative and harder to get into than MIT MFin. The admission numbers of both programs show that fact.
There are plenty of Master of Finance in the US that you can get in and take a few "quantitative" courses. Take a look at their placement stats and available career services as well.
Anthony DeAngelis runs a website called MSFHQ that focuses on MSF programs. The master programs that Quantnet covers are those that have C++ programming, stochastic calculus as their main building blocks.
 
Thanks Andy, I didn't know about the website focusing on MSF programs. What you are saying about Princeton being more quantitative is exactly what I used to think and was thus thinking about applying to MIT, but according to Bansalmohit without a long list of quant classes I do not stand a chance.
I will look into the other website to get more information. thanks for your help
 
On the topic of MIT MFin, I have plenty of chance to interact with them over the year so here is my word of caution.
MIT MFin would not like the fact that people think of it as close sibling of MFE/MathFin programs which is the vast majority in Quantnet's universe. They would like applicants to think of it as a "very flexible" Finance programs that allow you to learn finance fundamentals or quantitative finance as you like to make it.
This is a curious situation as many of Quantnet members applying to MFE programs also apply to MIT MFin and are assuming they will get a similar job profiles as MFE graduates. If you look at their placement report, it is pretty closer to a traditional MBA/MSF placement than MFE career path (quant developer, modeling, etc).
There are a small number of MIT MFin graduates who end up in quantitative finance but it's a small as in 10% or so.
The fact that MIT MFin is run under the same Sloan business school as MIT MBA program should give people some idea on what to expect about their admission selection, etc. Unlike MFE programs where majority of applicants and admits are Chinese/Indian, MIT MFin wants to build a more diverse class profile so you would see a lot of people from Europe, South America, etc. That comes with the side effect of lower average GRE, GPA, etc.

So to really stand a chance at any specific program, you need to really learn about them, what they are looking for, etc.
Did I mention we have a wiki entry on MIT MFin? [wiki]mit-mfin[/wiki]
 
Thanks Andy, what you are telling me is basically what I thought and hoped and the reason why I want to do the MIT MFin. I am looking for a flexible Finance Program with wide variety of job functions - I do not want to be quant trader or go into product structuring - more thinking about Porfolio Management, PE/VC
From your experience and having talked to them frequently over the year, do you think with my background (first post in this thread) I could have a chance of getting into the program? Does it make sense to explain that I might not have certain required quant subjects but am willing to enroll before starting at MIT?
Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it!!
 
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