Profile review – 3.9+ GPA Ivy undergrad w Internship

[anthony_s]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone had relevant context, beyond the tracker, for my probability of breaking into MFE.
I am hoping specifically to get into Princeton, Columbia, or Baruch.

My background is as follows:

• 3.9+ GPA Math major at Ivy league (HYPS)
• Proficient in Python, have high-school Math olympiad and C++ programming olympiad awards
• Upcoming Quant Trading intern at Prop firm (Jane Street/CitSec/Five Rings)
• Two internships as a hedge fund analyst, one of which involved some development/data science
• One internship as an analyst in an Investment Bank
• Applying without GMAT/GRE

Though I am applying soon, I am happy to hear about any potential holes in my application.
I am not sure if they would count my internship, given that it would take place during the summer before the MFE starts.

 

[QuantCoach]

If this is a serious post (and I’m not sure it is) then just focus on getting the return offer. What are you even hoping to get out of a MFE here? There’s probably less than 10 students in all the MFE programs from the past decade that landed an internship to JS/CitSec/5R. A MFE will do nothing but dilute your profile and cost you a nice chunk of money (1.5 to 2x your internship pay for most programs)

 

[anthony_s]

If this is a serious post (and I’m not sure it is) then just focus on getting the return offer. What are you even hoping to get out of a MFE here? There’s probably less than 10 students in all the MFE programs from the past decade that landed an internship to JS/CitSec/5R. A MFE will do nothing but dilute your profile and cost you a nice chunk of money (1.5 to 2x your internship pay for most programs)

I assure you, this is a serious post. In case I miss the return offer (all three firms have an RO rate of <50%, so this is likely), I think it would make sense for me to do an MFE to build research/data science skills. Regardless, I am focusing my utmost on getting the return offer.

This internship will be after my senior year, I will be done with my higher education once I know if I got an offer. Supposing I do not get the RO, do you think my time would be better spent doing something other than an MFE? I am open to any suggestions

 

[QuantCoach]

If you had three internships already as a hedge fund and investment bank analyst, did you not have any return offers lined up? One of the most useful parts of the MFE is it allows you one last chance for an internship but if you already done 4 internships (including the upcoming one), the marginal value of a fifth one is low. If the issue is not being able to convert internships to return offers then what would you do if you hypothetically did do a MFE, did your fifth internship and still didn’t secure a full time job? Would you do another MFE or PhD?

 

[anthony_s]

If you had three internships already as a hedge fund and investment bank analyst, did you not have any return offers lined up? One of the most useful parts of the MFE is it allows you one last chance for an internship but if you already done 4 internships (including the upcoming one), the marginal value of a fifth one is low. If the issue is not being able to convert internships to return offers then what would you do if you hypothetically did do a MFE, did your fifth internship and still didn’t secure a full time job? Would you do another MFE or PhD?

My HF internships and the Bank internship were mainly at smaller firms and for experience, both outside the US.
In effect, I have done one internship at an HF that would have led to a full-time offer. By the time of starting MFE, I would have done one HF internship and one prop trading internship, and I think a third internship would be justified. All of this being said, I'm open to the idea that I am being unreasonable

This mostly feels like a siderail – my main question is still: how do my likelihoods look for the top 3 schools given my background?

 

[QuantCoach]

Well your likelihood of getting into those 3 schools are clearly high. The only reason Columbia would potentially reject you is if they think you’re overqualified and wouldn’t accept. Only reason Princeton would reject you is if you do really bad on your behavioral with Bracken. Only reason Baruch would reject you is if you do really bad on your interview with Dan and staff.