Please Evaluate

[zeni]

Hello All,

Please evaluate my profile and help me select appropriate colleges. My GRE score is not so great (Q-159 and V-152). Did not get any response on another thread so starting a new one. Please respond...

Education:

1. MBA from a decent college in India with focus on quantitative finance subjects
2. Bachelor Of Engineering from an average college, department topper with gold medal - good scores in engineering mathematics
3. FRM holder

Work Experience:

- 2 yrs as derivatives market risk consultant for a global financial institution
- 2 yrs as corporate treasury analyst with a major investment bank focusing on derivatives liquidity risk, ISDA/CSA, collateral optimization, BASEL LCR, NSFR etc

Can get decent professional recommendations but difficult to get academic ones which appear to be preferred for MS courses. I am looking to get into derivatives pricing, sales, trading or structuring. Have shortlisted the colleges below as these do not require mandatory academic recommendations. Kindly evaluate my profile with regard to chances of admission at below mentioned programs and suggest other suitable programs.

1. CMU MSCF
2. Columbia MFE
3. Baruch MFE
4. NYU MathFin

 

[Azamat Bagatov]

All is great with your profile. There are 2 things I want to point out here:

2. Your GRE math is poor. Students with perfect scores have gotten rejected at the above mentioned FE programs. NYU accepts only 1 out of every 8-9 students. This is a perfect hole in your profile with which they can reject you in my opinion.
1. You've already done an MBA and are coming back to do an MFE. From what I know, MBA is the capping course which any does after acquiring masters level knowledge in one's particular field. You seem to be doing the other way round. You should be able to justify that in your statement: reason it out and give them adequate information as to why you're taking this step.

Retake GRE. Justify.

Good luck!

 

[utkarsh dalmia]

I think GRE Q is too low for the programs you've mentioned. That might kill the application. Having said that, it's for you to decide if the other aspects of your application are strong enough to compensate for the "extremely" low score. I am saying this because you'll hardly find students with less then 90 percentile on quant getting into the top programs and 159 is around 75 percentile.Consider taking the GRE again.

 

[zeni]

Thanks Azamat and Utkarsh...I was planning to apply in round one in CMU. But now i am rethinking my decision after your feedback. Going to retake GRE and will apply in round 2.

My MBA degree helped me to in getting a decent background in finance especially in derivatives and risk management. Proficient in ISDA CSA negotiations in OTC derivatives, FVA, CVA calculations historical simulation and bit of ARCH-GARCH modelling and monte carlo simulation. Now i am looking to move into front desk derivatives trading, structuring and quantitative portfolio management where I feel my current degree is not helping me. With these quantitative finance courses, i think i would be able to move front end. Also, it will provide me with global exposure and an international degree!!!

Any comment, feedback?

 

[Azamat Bagatov]

My MBA degree helped me to in getting a decent background in finance especially in derivatives and risk management. Proficient in ISDA CSA negotiations in OTC derivatives, FVA, CVA calculations historical simulation and bit of ARCH-GARCH modelling and monte carlo simulation. Now i am looking to move into front desk derivatives trading, structuring and quantitative portfolio management where I feel my current degree is not helping me. With these quantitative finance courses, i think i would be able to move front end. Also, it will provide me with global exposure and an international degree!!!

I meant explain that to the university and not us. :P (lighter note)

 

[utkarsh dalmia]

You seem to be on the right track. i have seen a few MBA's being accepted by the top programs. so you have all to aim for. just improve your test scores. also, you might want to include other universities as well. Baruch and NYU are relatively very heavy on quant and look for very particular skill sets in math and computing. So, try to do some more research on colleges and which ones are more keen to have someone with a strong finance background. i can think of Berkely and UCLA.

 

[zeni]

I meant explain that to the university and not us. :P (lighter note)

Good practice for me!

 

[zeni]

You seem to be on the right track. i have seen a few MBA's being accepted by the top programs. so you have all to aim for. just improve your test scores. also, you might want to include other universities as well. Baruch and NYU are relatively very heavy on quant and look for very particular skill sets in math and computing. So, try to do some more research on colleges and which ones are more keen to have someone with a strong finance background. i can think of Berkely and UCLA.

This is a good idea. I have theoretical background in maths (engineering maths which will satisfy all the requirements i suppose) but will look for programs which give more emphasis on the finance background. Bit skeptical about UCLA, the reviews have not been so good...