Potential advice and Baruch Pre-MFE question

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Hello everyone, I recently applied to one of the pre-MFE courses offered by Baruch and in my disappointment was rejected, although there must’ve have been a good reason for it. I wanted to ask if it is possible to reapply in the future? In addition do you have any advice for me? I am a finance major, and I want to prepare for a career path in quant, but I think the next step right now is to prepare for a masters degree, so my question is what can I do to better prepare myself and how can I prepare for the Pre-MFE. Would a math minor help? Would taking additional courses online help?. Thank you in advance !
 
Hi @nikosll. Sorry to hear you are disappointed but I encourage you not to give up! (I believe you can reapply again in the future).

What seminar did you apply to? Have you taken any calc classes? The seminar on probability has a strict Calc I & II prerequisite requirement.
When did you apply? The registration opened on November 15th and each seminar is limited to 40 seats. Considering they added an additional Calc seminar this year, I would imagine the seminars are pretty popular and fill up fast.
Do you have programming experience? Their website states that the seminars have a significant programming component so I would Imagine that being able to program (especially in C++) would be a plus.

I can't provide any definitive advice on how to best prepare for reapplying to the Pre-MFE program, but I'll loop in @MikeLawrence as he's been able to answer my questions about the program in the past.

If you are serious about a career path in quant, I think most people would recommend you pursue a math minor regardless. Many master's programs have math prerequisite requirements and the more classes you've taken the better off you'll be. Additionally, I believe that learning to program in either C++ or Python would be to your advantage as well.

Just for some background, I majored in Finance as well, but I am guessing that being able to program in C++ allowed me to get into one of the Pre-MFE seminars and speculate that the handful of math classes I've taken have allowed/will allow me to have been accepted in at least one so far/maybe get accepted into more Master's programs.
 
Hi @nikosll. Sorry to hear you are disappointed but I encourage you not to give up! (I believe you can reapply again in the future).

What seminar did you apply to? Have you taken any calc classes? The seminar on probability has a strict Calc I & II prerequisite requirement.
When did you apply? The registration opened on November 15th and each seminar is limited to 40 seats. Considering they added an additional Calc seminar this year, I would imagine the seminars are pretty popular and fill up fast.
Do you have programming experience? Their website states that the seminars have a significant programming component so I would Imagine that being able to program (especially in C++) would be a plus.

I can't provide any definitive advice on how to best prepare for reapplying to the Pre-MFE program, but I'll loop in @MikeLawrence as he's been able to answer my questions about the program in the past.

If you are serious about a career path in quant, I think most people would recommend you pursue a math minor regardless. Many master's programs have math prerequisite requirements and the more classes you've taken the better off you'll be. Additionally, I believe that learning to program in either C++ or Python would be to your advantage as well.

Just for some background, I majored in Finance as well, but I am guessing that being able to program in C++ allowed me to get into one of the Pre-MFE seminars and speculate that the handful of math classes I've taken have allowed/will allow me to have been accepted in at least one so far/maybe get accepted into more Master's programs.
Hello Ben, I applied for NLA in the past week, since I’ve seen that the only prerequisite was some chapters from the book, and thought it was a good idea and I would benefit from that. In addition, I have had some math and statistics courses in college but only the basics, such as math 1, math 2 (which do not have the rigorous calculus required for MFEs) and statistics 1, statistics 2, C and I’ve tried to had a more quantitative route choosing electives such as: FinTech, Applied Econometrics, Bayesian econometrics these had applications in R, I had a risk management course that had applications in Matlab, and some other theoretical courses such as stochastic methods in finance and for the next semester planning in taking portfolio optimization, computational finance. As of programming experience I do not consider myself an expert but I’m more familiar with R, while trying to learn python and planning to take the c++ certificate ( I would like to prepare before taking it). Lastly from research I’ve done, I found that some of my options are either pursuing a minor in math, or non degree seeking courses and take calculus 1,2 probability 1,2 and I believe it would be beneficial taking more but to apply for Pre-MFE taking calc1,2 and prob1,2 would be enough to attend I think .
Not sure if I forget something but Thank you for taking time to answer me and give me a thorough explanation I appreciate it
 
Not a problem! Whether you do you so through a minor in math or non degree seeking courses I think that your plan to get exposed to calc and probability is a good one, and I would also suggest applying as soon as applications open. I also like your plan to learn python and complete the C++ course. To prepare yourself for the C++ course I would recommend Bro Code on YouTube, his C++ videos and cover the same concepts that are taught in the first few levels of the course.
 
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