Profile evaluation - Fall 2025 MFE

[strnglv]

Hi,
I'm planning to apply for the Fall 2025 MFE program. I'd love to get some reviews of my profile and any suggestions/advice that would improve my chances of admission.

Education: B.Tech (ECE) from Tier-1 college (NIT) in India
GPA: 3.66/4.0
Relevant Coursework:
Finance: Macroeconomics and Accounting
Math: Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, Mathematics-I (Diff. Calculus, Diff. Eq., Matrix Theory), Mathematics-II (Integral & Vector Calculus, Laplace transforms), Mathematics-III (Complex Variables and Spl. Functions)
CS: Programming in C++, Data Structures and Algorithms, Fuzzy & neural Networks
Other Math-heavy coursework: Signals and Systems, Digital Signal Processing.
(Grade A+ in most of these courses)

GRE: 165Q + 161V

Work Experience: 2.5 Yrs of Experience as a Firmware & Test Engineer in a Top Semiconductor Company.
Work mostly involves programming in C++ and Python.

1 Patent is under process. 1 paper published (internal to the company) - Both are ML-related.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Which programs are you planning to apply?

 

[strnglv]

Which programs are you planning to apply?

UC Berkeley, UCLA, GA Tech, UIUC

 

[Andy Nguyen]

UC Berkeley, UCLA, GA Tech, UIUC

Would be good to share your criteria on picking those programs (tuition, location, job prospect, etc?) so members can advice.

 

[strnglv]

Would be good to share your criteria on picking those programs (tuition, location, job prospect, etc?) so members can advice.

Since I do not have relevant experience, I think my profile is not strong enough for the top ones like CMU/Princeton/Columbia. So I did not go for a lot of ambitious colleges and I chose the ones with relatively lesser tuition.

 

[kombuchalover]

Since I do not have relevant experience, I think my profile is not strong enough for the top ones like CMU/Princeton/Columbia. So I did not go for a lot of ambitious colleges and I chose the ones with relatively lesser tuition.

I’d recommend checking out NCSU in that case as well if you haven’t already!