MSFE Fall 2024 - Profile Evaluation

maitreya · 8/31/23

Hi

I am applying for MSFE/ MSCF Fall 2024.

Profile:-

B.Tech (Chemical Engineering with some Finance Courses) from IIT ( Top Eng College in India). GPA:- 8.35/10

GRE:- 328 Quant 167. VA 161

Work Ex:-
Working(18 months) In a top Investment Bank
at FX Derivatives desk. Creating platform for traders, process market data. Created monitors calculating various stochastic parameters and advanced Greeks. Created pricers for exotic options.

Internship:-
1)At a Big 4 firm , in the field of corp finance
2) Machine Learning Intern in India’s largest FMCG firm

Academic Course Projects:-
1) DCF valuation project
2) LSTM Model to estimate stock prices

Courses:-
Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Probability and Stats at Engineering level
MOOCs:- Machine Learning

3 LORs ( 1 academic and 2 professional)

I am targeting the following Universities:-
CMU, MIT, UCLA, NYU, Gatech, UCB, Columbia, UIUC, Cornell, Uni of Chicago

Please give your views on the profile.

Any areas that should be highlighted more and courses that I should do to make the profile stronger?

weab · 8/31/23

you're good

shuvamsingh · 1/14/24

weab said:
you're good

What if i am not from iit but from nit or iiit ( also top engineering colleges in india ) with cse and cfa level 1 preparing for level 2 along with internship in world quant and goldman . Final goal is to get an admission offer right out of grad school and landing citadel, janestreet @maitreya

arohan · 1/15/24

shuvamsingh said:
What if i am not from iit but from nit or iiit ( also top engineering colleges in india ) with cse and cfa level 1 preparing for level 2 along with internship in world quant and goldman . Final goal is to get an admission offer right out of grad school and landing citadel, janestreet @maitreya

Geez you are literally all over here. Anyway, CMU, Jane Street, and Citadel are things too far ahead in the future. Your premise just before that is extremely unrealistic to begin with. With an engineering degree from NIT/IIIT, an internship at worldquant and/or goldman in a front-office quant role is pretty much not happening. And even a middle office role at goldman is going to be really tough. Quant hiring in India happens almost exclusively through on-campus placements and WorldQuant certainly does not visit any campus except IIT BDM and sometimes the other old IITs and Goldman rarely ever visits NITs and IIITs for quant roles. So, really just keep your expectations tempered here.

The first thing you need to do is build a very strong foundation in basic maths, be adept at a language like Python, have a basic understanding of data structures and algorithms, as well as basic knowledge of ML and data science. I find this list from Berkeley quite useful: Prerequisites | Master of Financial Engineering | Berkeley Haas. Make sure to take up all courses in your university which would be similar in nature to the math courses mentioned on this page. If an equivalent course does not exist in your curriculum, try pursuing some online open course on the topic. Also, at the same time, try to have some projects in your resume where you apply concepts you pick up in maths and CS to problems in finance and economics. And, needless to say, keep your GPA as high as possible. This should be your focus for the next 1/2 years.

As for internships, your goals right now are extremely optimistic. Keep your expectations tempered and try to get whatever relevant experience you can get. If goldman and worldquant happen, well great for you. But if not, have a back up in mind and thoroughly explore the quant industry landscape in India and how you can go about navigating it. However, that comes after you are done with the basics (i.e. building a foundation in maths, stats, CS).

shuvamsingh · 1/15/24

arohan said:
Geez you are literally all over here. Anyway, CMU, Jane Street, and Citadel are things too far ahead in the future. Your premise just before that is extremely unrealistic to begin with. With an engineering degree from NIT/IIIT, an internship at worldquant and/or goldman in a front-office quant role is pretty much not happening. And even a middle office role at goldman is going to be really tough. Quant hiring in India happens almost exclusively through on-campus placements and WorldQuant certainly does not visit any campus except IIT BDM and sometimes the other old IITs and Goldman rarely ever visits NITs and IIITs for quant roles. So, really just keep your expectations tempered here.

The first thing you need to do is build a very strong foundation in basic maths, be adept at a language like Python, have a basic understanding of data structures and algorithms, as well as basic knowledge of ML and data science. I find this list from Berkeley quite useful: Prerequisites | Master of Financial Engineering | Berkeley Haas. Make sure to take up all courses in your university which would be similar in nature to the math courses mentioned on this page. If an equivalent course does not exist in your curriculum, try pursuing some online open course on the topic. Also, at the same time, try to have some projects in your resume where you apply concepts you pick up in maths and CS to problems in finance and economics. And, needless to say, keep your GPA as high as possible. This should be your focus for the next 1/2 years.

As for internships, your goals right now are extremely optimistic. Keep your expectations tempered and try to get whatever relevant experience you can get. If goldman and worldquant happen, well great for you. But if not, have a back up in mind and thoroughly explore the quant industry landscape in India and how you can go about navigating it. However, that comes after you are done with the basics (i.e. building a foundation in maths, stats, CS).

I very much liked your forthright reply , and honestly i am happy to learn, can you please tell me which college would good iiit Hyderabad cse or top nit cse or iiit allahabad if i want cmu right outta grad school and want to atleast have a chance in quant internship during college

arohan · 1/15/24

shuvamsingh said:
I very much liked your forthright reply , and honestly i am happy to learn, can you please tell me which college would good iiit Hyderabad cse or top nit cse or iiit allahabad if i want cmu right outta grad school and want to atleast have a chance in quant internship during college

As far as recognition amongst ad-coms go, somewhere like NIT Trichy would be as recognised (or unrecognised) as IIIT-H. I really do not think one would give you any perceived advantage over the other. Nor would either give you any advantage in terms of getting relevant quant experience. Both are equally well (or not so well) regarded when it comes to breaking into quant roles. So, when speaking strictly in terms of industry and ad-com value, you should be agnostic to either the choices. Base your decision on which provides a better curriculum, has more relevant pre-reqs that you'd be expected to know as a quant, provides more opportunities in terms of research projects, and, while may not provide placements in quant, but have a strong track record placing students well in allied roles (data science/analytics/other jobs that involve using math and stats). I think IIIT-H would be better at all these compared to any NITs or IIIT-A so should be the natural choice. That being said though, take my opinion with a pinch of salt since I've been out of school for 3.5 years now. Anyway, what you absolutely need to do is stop obsessing over CMU and quant roles at this point. I mean you don't know the first thing about quant right now, how do you even know if that is really something that you want to do? Just look up the coursework required for these roles and focus on that and projects for now while improving your understanding of what quant finance actually is, what different type of quant roles are out there, wether you find it interesting or not, and what roles do you find suitable for you. You are very far from thinking about CMU MSCF and roles at Citadel and Jane Street right now.

shuvamsingh · 1/15/24

arohan said:
As far as recognition amongst ad-coms go, somewhere like NIT Trichy would be as recognised (or unrecognised) as IIIT-H. I really do not think one would give you any perceived advantage over the other. Nor would either give you any advantage in terms of getting relevant quant experience. Both are equally well (or not so well) regarded when it comes to breaking into quant roles. So, when speaking strictly in terms of industry and ad-com value, you should be agnostic to either the choices. Base your decision on which provides a better curriculum, has more relevant pre-reqs that you'd be expected to know as a quant, provides more opportunities in terms of research projects, and, while may not provide placements in quant, but have a strong track record placing students well in allied roles (data science/analytics/other jobs that involve using math and stats). I think IIIT-H would be better at all these compared to any NITs or IIIT-A so should be the natural choice. That being said though, take my opinion with a pinch of salt since I've been out of school for 3.5 years now. Anyway, what you absolutely need to do is stop obsessing over CMU and quant roles at this point. I mean you don't know the first thing about quant right now, how do you even know if that is really something that you want to do? Just look up the coursework required for these roles and focus on that and projects for now while improving your understanding of what quant finance actually is, what different type of quant roles are out there, wether you find it interesting or not, and what roles do you find suitable for you. You are very far from thinking about CMU MSCF and roles at Citadel and Jane Street right now.

Thanks a lot also is not being from iit ever effected you ??

QuantCoach · 1/15/24

Also even if you do get into CMU MSCF, I can count the number of CMU MSCF students over the entire history of the program that got into Jane Street with one hand.

shuvamsingh · 1/15/24

QuantCoach said:
Also even if you do get into CMU MSCF, I can count the number of CMU MSCF students over the entire history of the program that got into Jane Street with one hand.

Then how do i get into it which college would be good i mean where jane street hires the most i know it depends on individual but still. Which college is the major supplier.

potatopeeler · 1/15/24

shuvamsingh said:
Then how do i get into it which college would be good i mean where jane street hires the most i know it depends on individual but still. Which college is the major supplier.

From what I know, the likes of Jane Street hire right out of top undergrad programs. The question you should ask yourself is about what you want to do as a quant, and what skills you need for it.

shuvamsingh · 1/16/24

potatopeeler said:
From what I know, the likes of Jane Street hire right out of top undergrad programs. The question you should ask yourself is about what you want to do as a quant, and what skills you need for it.

No post grad ???

shuvamsingh · 1/16/24

potatopeeler said:
From what I know, the likes of Jane Street hire right out of top undergrad programs. The question you should ask yourself is about what you want to do as a quant, and what skills you need for it.

I heard that citadel actively hires from baruch and all I mean which college ( masters) to go for to get a quant job @potatopeeler @QuantCoach @arohan

benzenephi · 1/16/24

You are daydreaming, to put it bluntly. Its cool, but don't involve us in your dreams man. I too would like to be a billionaire, own five companies and have a rocking hot wife, but you are not gonna find me on public forums asking, "which is the best college to become a billionaire. please help...my imaginary wife is waiting for me."