Profile Evaluation

[Transcending]

Hi everyone,

Kindly advise on my chances of getting into any MFE program, regardless of ranking. Here are some of my accomplishments and skills:

-May 2017 BS Mathematics graduate, 3.35 GPA (courses in Calc 1-3, DiffEq, Real Analysis I&II, Complex Analysis, Probability Theory, Topology, Advanced Linear Algebra, and few actuary courses [FM, P, MLC]). Top 100 ranked from US News National University in New York.

-Full time work experience as a Pricing Analyst for an aviation engineering company. I've been there for 5 months already immediately after graduation and looking to stay until I get in a program (hoping for Fall 2018).

Job summary:

• Develop integrated pricing models and cost analysis for aircraft component repair
  
  
• Forecast revenue/profit margins and present analyses and recommendations to executive management team
  
  
• Prepare business proposals, validate bills of material pricing, and leverage budget analysis to maximize revenue and mitigate risk

-GRE Score: Not yet taken but I will take it October or November of this year. Right now my practice scores from Magoosh are around Q: 160-161 range, V: 152-154, and writing I assume to get a somewhere between 3.5-4.5. I know I'll need to do better on the quant section.

-Financial representative internship at Northwestern Mutual during my undergrad

-Calculus 1 & 2 Teacher's Assistant. This professor, who is the director of calculus at the university I graduated from, is writing my recommendation letter (along with one of my managers from my current job).

-Limited knowledge of Python and Access. Haven't formally learned programming but I might consider Baruch's C++ pre MFE course. I have advanced Excel skills though as I use it heavily at my job every day.

-Private math tutor for Wyzant.com with over 80 hours of tutoring and 5/5 star rating.

Please let me know if you think my profile is strong enough to gain acceptance for certain schools based on my experience. If you have any more questions to evaluate my profile do not hesitate to ask. Thank you for your time and I appreciate your help.

-Transcending

 

[rnvpx]

You'll get into a program, not sure if you'll get into any of the top 10 though. You have a pretty low gap. Your work experience sounds very interesting though. If it's at a well known company, it should help make up for your lackluster gpa. These schools care more about how employable you are as opposed to if you can handle the workload, so don't worry too much about the math. Problem is, it's hard to get top quant jobs without knowing much programming.

 

[Transcending]

You'll get into a program, not sure if you'll get into any of the top 10 though. You have a pretty low gap. Your work experience sounds very interesting though. If it's at a well known company, it should help make up for your lackluster gpa. These schools care more about how employable you are as opposed to if you can handle the workload, so don't worry too much about the math. Problem is, it's hard to get top quant jobs without knowing much programming.

Thanks for your reply! Yes, my GPA doesn't make the best impression. I mostly averaged B's in my math classes. I'm hoping to make up for this with strong letters of recommendations (also getting one from one of my math professors I took 3 upper level classes with) and a good GRE score.

Do you think attending a lower ranked program for MFE is a waste of time or will hurt your chances of employment significantly?