Profile Evaluation MFE Fall 2021

[Vladimir_H]

Hi everyone, I'm a student from a leading Russian university in Economics and consider applying for some top-tier MFE programs in the U.S. I have a high CGPA (top 1% of my class), a lot of TA experience and several months of RA. Unfortunately, I did poorly on the GRE a week ago, getting 165 in quant section and 152 in verbal. From what I've heard almost no one looks at the latter when it comes to evaluating an international since there is a TOEFL for language check, so I'm mostly worried about my quant section. Almost no one requires GRE in Europe or the requirements are extremely low, and the U.S. universities I want to apply to (MIT and MFE at Columbia) do not require GRE this year. In such case, should I consider retaking the test and, if it won't get better, should I even submit Q165 or just skip the GRE in my application? I assume that at least a fourth of applicants to these places if not more probably have taken the exam anyway and received a better score. Also, I'm thinking of applying to MFE at NYU Tandon, which does require the test this year - but I've read that it is not competitive in NYC area (though the post was written 3 years ago). Is there anyone familiar with this program? Should I even consider it?


Thanks in advance!
Vladimir.

 

[chicago_mm]

There's no way you want get a Q170 in your GRE. No one gives a shit about Verbal if it's above 155ish. So you should take GRE again.

Also, given your background, I would guess that you won't have much trouble in classes, but getting a job won't be easy for you. Are you sure about going to programs with bad career services and placement record? (All three programs you listed belong to this category tbh)

 

[Vladimir_H]

There's no way you want get a Q170 in your GRE. No one gives a shit about Verbal if it's above 155ish. So you should take GRE again.

Also, given your background, I would guess that you won't have much trouble in classes, but getting a job won't be easy for you. Are you sure about going to programs with bad career services and placement record? (All three programs you listed belong to this category tbh)

Thanks for the answer! I've read Tandon has lower employment rate right after graduation, but isn't it different for MIT program? Their career service seems to quite effective

 

[devconnolly]

I would definitely class the MIT career service as pretty effective - the name itself gets you in a lot of doors. There are employment reports available that illustrate these kind of things. It is an interesting one for us as half the class (or more) are not interested in quant finance (consulting, IB, PE/VC), and half go the quant route. I owe a lot of the opportunities I had directly to the career service.

I've heard the current class are having a bit of trouble sourcing internships and full-time, with hiring numbers generally down across the board. This might make it a bit trickier for internationals, but I don't believe that is an isolated problem. That said, I've still seen pandemic hires to some big names both buy side (think Citadel/2S/DE/DRW) and sell-side (GS/BOFA/CITI).