COMPARE Preference on Personal Statement

[XYu]

Hi all,

I am a senior applying for MFE programs now. I have a question about the personal statement preference. are the programs looking for a professionally written essay that answers the question at hand or being creative is also OK?

I didn't really have a doubt about my essay because I had it revised many times and read by different people. However, last week when I sent the semi-final draft to one of the professors who is writing my recommendation letters, he told me that my statement is not formal enough. Then I sent it to another professor and he told me that he would be more inclined to accept an candidate with an essay like mine.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[XYu]

Andy Nguyen

hey Andy, any insight?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

As long as you answer all the questions directly, how you tell your story will be judged by the individual admin person so it's hard to say what will work best for each program.
Have you read the articles by the admission people in the QuantNet Guide? They should give you plenty of useful tips.

 

[XYu]

Thank you Andy. I haven't but I'll read the articles asap.

 

[XYu]

Andy Nguyen

I tried to find those tips you mentioned but I could only find those financial math interview guides and textbooks.
Which ones are by the admission people?

Thank you.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The QuantNet Guide is the link in red on top of that page. It's a 80 pages PDF file. In particular, the articles you should read is on page 46 and 52.