Well the idea flopped on GD. I would have pushed for it more, but I don't like their idea of banning QN and so on. I will push for it more here.
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here is a profile that was put up in the GD thread.
makaveli121
Vanilla Options Specialist
« Reply #9 on: Today at 10:02:46 AM »
Since I'm almost done with applications now, I thought I may as well get started on mine...
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad/Uni: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at the University of Auckland, majoring in Operations Research and Finance
Undergrad GPA: First Class Honours, Between an A- and A average (We use a 9 point system, not a 4 point one) - I think this translates roughly to 3.7ish, maybe a bit more
Should probably mention I also graduated a year early, finished what is usually a 4 year degree in 3 years. First 2 years I had around an A- average, and in my final year I got nearly striaght A+ grades and was on numerous honours lists...
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: 770/560/4.0 q/v/a
Math Courses: Numerous - calc, sto calc, stats, optimization etc... typical engineering undergrad maths
Econ Courses: None
Programming Courses: C,
Python, Matlab, R, VBA, SQL, AMPL
Relevant Finance Courses: Financial Maths, Stochastic Methods in Finance, Corp Fin, Modern Investment Th./Portfolio Theory, Financial Management...
Other Courses: Comp. Fluid Dynamics, Continuum Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, Engineering Design papers, Numerous Optimization & Algorithmic courses - meta-heuristics: genetic algorithms, ant colony etc, stochastic programming, dynamic programming, MIP.
Letters of Recommendation: 2 senior professors who knew me pretty well, one was my engineering project supervisor...
Research Experience: Completed a 1 year research project on multi-stage integer stochastic programming for use in capacity planning for process industries. Spoke at conference on it etc...
Teaching Experience: Nothing other than tutoring/marking work...
Research Interests: None really, more interested in a job tbh....
statement of purpose: Took some time to write it, not gonna copy/paste it lol...
Other: 1 Internship at Large Engineering Contractor - Developed a training record database that was implemented nation-wide, had to tour the country giving presentations...
2 Internships at Investment Banks, one large well known one, one smaller local based one.
RESULTS:
Acceptances: Columbia MSFE,
CMU MSCF, MIT MFin, Cornell MEng FE, LSE MSc Finance, Imperial College MSc Finance.
Waitlists: None
Rejections: Princeton MFin, Stanford Financial Maths
Still Waiting on: NYU MathFin (not hopeful on this one), Cambridge MPhil Finance
What would you have done differently?
I have no doubt that my 770 quant would've got me rejected straight away at Princeton and Stanford (and probably NYU) - would've been nice to do a bit of study for it and get 800 - I know its not hard, its literally high-school level stuff.
Saying this, I think a lot of people on this forum are very (wrongly) vocal about the importance of GRE scores. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen people saying "don't even bother if you don't have 800 quant" for courses I clearly got accepted to. Yes I admit, it is important to do decently in them, but I don't think its the end of the world if you're only in the high 700s - just make sure you have other aspects to counter-balance your scores...
Saying all of this, I don't know if I would have bothered applying for any of these places if I didn't have generous parents prepared to fund my studies. I don't know if the huge amount of debt you'd accrue doing a course like the 70k MIT one would really be worth it (especially given the current visa situation in the US, and the slim chance international students have of obtaining visas - my ultimate fear would be to graduate and get kicked out of the county with 100k+ in debt and no job, but obviously since my parents are paying this is not a consideration for me, luckily)...
And Whats Next?
I have a few interviews for graduate jobs in IBs in Australia coming up. If I get an offer I won't bother doing postgrad at all, and will simply work for a few years and then look at doing a top tier MBA in the US or maybe LBS or INSEAD.
If I don't get an offer, I'll be going to either LSE or Cambridge.
Why?
I think the probability of finding an employer willing to use up one of their precious H1B visas on an international grad student with zero real finance experience is very slim given the current climate (especially in IB with the new government restrictions). I'm heading to the UK because:
1) I'm guaranteed a 2 year visa on graduation by the UK government, so even if I dont get an offer straight away, I can go do some internships and apply again next round - rather than get kicked out of the country.
2) London is a major financial hub obviously, and I feel that coming from the commonwealth I'll probably fit in better there as well.
3) LSE is pretty much "the" investment banking university over in the UK - it just has such a massive rep over there, and like Columbia and NYU are to Wall Street, LSE is pretty much 500m from all the major banks and hedge funds.
And yeah, another factor was that I've decided not to become a quant and to instead pursue a generalist finance degree. I don't really want to restrict myself at this point, or label myself in any way.
