NYU Tandon acceptance advice

Chacinluis

Chacinluis

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Just got an acceptance letter from the NYU Tandon MFE with 5k scholarship

Backgorund:
GRE: 169Q, 161V, waiting for the official score to finish submitting the other applications
BA in Economics (Summa Cum Laude) from Baruch, BS in Financial Mathematics (Summa Cum Laude) from Baruch, MA in Mathematics,
Undergrad GPA: 3.96/4.0
Grad GPA: 3.61/4.0
4 strong rec letters (among them Baruch MFE professors that also teach undergrad courses)
Research experience in Economics but no work experience in quant finance
Minority: Hispanic (for what it's worth — not many Hispanics in the MFE cohorts could increase my chances?)

Applications without GRE to: NYU Tandon, Columbia MFE
Applications to be submitted with GRE: NYU Courant, Columbia FinMath, UChicago, CMU

Tandon gave me a deadline to accept by the end of February.
I'll wait for the Columbia MFE decision since it will come before Tandon's acceptance deadline.
Should I let the deadline pass and wait for the responses from the other schools I'm in the process of submitting my application to?

Any advice will be welcomed. Thanks!
 
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Tandon's MFE is a great program. I guess you can pay the deposit first if you do not receive other offers by the deadline.
 
Speaking from my experience, Tandon is a great program. With a bit more effort you cannot go wrong with it. But looking at your profile, I think you may have a good chance at tier 1 schools like Columbia MFE and CMU. So maybe you should pay the deposit while waiting for other tier 1 schools? Always good to hedge when there is uncertainty right? :)
 
khoatran said:
Speaking from my experience, Tandon is a great program. With a bit more effort you cannot go wrong with it. But looking at your profile, I think you may have a good chance at tier 1 schools like Columbia MFE and CMU. So maybe you should pay the deposit while waiting for other tier 1 schools? Always good to hedge when there is uncertainty right? :)
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Thanks for your feedback. I was looking at one of your posts from last year. You mentioned that some people claimed several Tandon courses merely have flashy names and their content is lacking. Has this turned out to be true the year you've been there, and how did you go about selecting truly robust courses?
 
Chacinluis said:
Thanks for your feedback. I was looking at one of your posts from last year. You mentioned that some people claimed several Tandon courses merely have flashy names and their content is lacking. Has this turned out to be true the year you've been there, and how did you go about selecting truly robust courses?
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So I was in the same situation as you one year ago. At first, I wasn't sure about this choice since there were so many bad rumors about Tandon on here. I'm sure you read those for yourself. But I have to say those are just some toxic trolls as the people I met so far are very kind and dedicated. I like what I see and many of my friends and myself got offers from great companies both banks and buy-side. And of course, I'm well aware that I can't speak for other schools so I can't do any comparison. One factor to consider is that Tandon MFE is in the transformation process since Peter Carr arrived, so I wouldn't emphasize those stats prior to 2018. Looking at 2019-now you can see the program is in a good trajectory. Since the program approach is to offer a variety of courses and cap the number of students to 30 per class, you may need to move quickly to get into better courses. Tho I noticed the department often works on adding more sessions of courses that are in high demand. Yes, the quality of courses can be inconsistent because not every good practitioner is a good teacher, the same can be said for academic professors. But I think it is not that extreme. Just do your research before picking courses and you'll be fine. Note that you have an option to choose some courses from Courant as well. There are also other resources for you to use so as long as you put in the effort, you'll get something out of it for sure. You can look at the annual competitions and see that Tandon does often have winning teams along with other great MFE programs. Another factor that is often overlooked is that Tandon allows the flexibility to choose between 18-month and 2-year program, which is important for me as an international student because in case I fail to find a full-time offer in the Fall, I can always try again in the Spring. Double the chance and the time to prepare! On choosing robust courses, it's really up to you. Different tracks require different courses, buy-side vs sell-side, quant research vs quant eng, etc. For this, I think you can talk to friends or go to seminars during your time in the MFE. I personally prefer courses with intensive math, stat, and programing contents because that's what you need no matter your positions, and you always can pick up other non-technical details on your own. But with all the other MFE you applied to, really I don't think you can go wrong with either of them. Good luck!
 
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Chacinluis said:
Just got an acceptance letter from the NYU Tandon MFE with 5k scholarship

Backgorund:
GRE: 169Q, 161V, waiting for the official score to finish submitting the other applications
BA in Economics (Summa Cum Laude) from Baruch, BS in Financial Mathematics (Summa Cum Laude) from Baruch, MA in Mathematics,
Undergrad GPA: 3.96/4.0
Grad GPA: 3.61/4.0
4 strong rec letters (among them Baruch MFE professors that also teach undergrad courses)
Research experience in Economics but no work experience in quant finance
Minority: Hispanic (for what it's worth — not many Hispanics in the MFE cohorts could increase my chances?)

Applications without GRE to: NYU Tandon, Columbia MFE
Applications to be submitted with GRE: NYU Courant, Columbia FinMath, UChicago, CMU

Tandon gave me a deadline to accept by the end of February.
I'll wait for the Columbia MFE decision since it will come before Tandon's acceptance deadline.
Should I let the deadline pass and wait for the responses from the other schools I'm in the process of submitting my application to?

Any advice will be welcomed. Thanks!
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Congrats on your acceptance! I recently applied and did not submit GRE either for NYU Tandon MFE. Did it show for you in your application checklist "Awaiting"?
 
Chacinluis said:
Thanks!. ..yes. Email Tandon's admissions department. They'll waive the requirement after checking you have a 4-yr US degree.
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Awesome! Thank you! How long did it take you to get a response back for waiving the requirement?
 
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