MS Financial Engineering after MS Finance

[QuantFinEng]

Hello,

I am new to this forum but I have followed it for long and benefitted tremendous.

I already have an MS Finance (GPA was measly 3.6) from the US but it wasn't an MF engineering so lacked quantitative and programming rigour. Now I want to pursue MFE from a top school in the US. But I am not sure how adcom of MFE program will view my application in terms of:

1. Being a second master in the area of finance
2. My low GPA of 3.6 in my previous MS Finance

Has anyone been in the similar situation or has any advice for me?
Thanks!

 

[Cody.Wan]

From several FE applications I’ve filled out recently, some will ask you (in the form of an essay) why you’d pursue another grad degree besides the one you already have. I think you’ll be fine if you have a well thought out answer. In terms of grades, what MFE mostly care about is whether you’ve taken and done well in calc, linear algebra, probability, programming and other related courses. It’d be a big disadvantage or in some cases enough to reject you if you haven’t. You can always take those required courses for a grade in your local college to get that out of the way.

 

[QuantFinEng]

From several FE applications I’ve filled out recently, some will ask you (in the form of an essay) why you’d pursue another grad degree besides the one you already have. I think you’ll be fine if you have a well thought out answer. In terms of grades, what MFE mostly care about is whether you’ve taken and done well in calc, linear algebra, probability, programming and other related courses. It’d be a big disadvantage or in some cases enough to reject you if you haven’t. You can always take those required courses for a grade in your local college to get that out of the way.

Thanks for your reply Cody.Wan!
I do need to take math courses. Do you know of good online math courses that provide certificate and that will help me bolster my application?

 

[Cody.Wan]

Thanks for your reply Cody.Wan!
I do need to take math courses. Do you know of good online math courses that provide certificate and that will help me bolster my application?

Not a problem. I've never taken any MOOCs (coursera, edx etc) courses on math and can't offer much advice in that regard. But as long as they're on relevant topics and can give your a letter/numeric grade or something like fail/pass/pass w distinction, it may be okay. Some programs have issues with MOOCs because it's hard for them to gauge how well you've understood the topics (this video may be helpful

).

Alternatively, you may be able to get another undergrad degree in math in roughly one to two years (assuming you already have an undergrad degree from a US college and many general ed requirements overlap, so you'd be essentially taking all math courses for an extended period). I know someone who studied Spanish as an undergrad in China, went to Rutgers for two years to get another undergrad degree in math and did his MFE at Columbia Engineering.