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Profile review for MFE

Rajiv Garg

Joined
12/7/11
Messages
1
Points
11
Hi All,

I am new to the forums and wanted to have some expert advice. I know this question has been asked quite frequently in this forum but mostly related to US schools.

To tell you all about myself, I am currently in Singapore working for a Bank in a Back office IT job as a B.A. I have more than 6 years of experience in IB systems. Now, i am planning to do a MFE because i have always wanted to become a trader. I have given my GMAT and my score is 670.

For this, i have narrowed down 2 local courses available as i plan to enrol for a part time course only.
  • NTU
  • NUS
Please suggest me about the courses or if anyone has done this course from any of these institutions and can share your experiences, it will be really great.

Looking forward to hear from you all.

Regards
Rajiv
 
Rajiv Garg said:
Now, i am planning to do a MFE because i have always wanted to become a trader.
Click to expand...
That is something you would want to be more realistic about. Even if you go to the top MFE program in the US, a trading job is not something easy to get, specially with a Back Office IT background.
So you plan to study PT from either local program, I don't think become a trader is a realistic goal at all. See what career paths these programs prepare for people with your background.
 
furthermore, the line that andy/elf has quoted above is above and beyond cliche. go look at any other post here from people who want to do an mfe and i'll bet you somewhere in the post is something along the same lines: "it's been my lifelong goal to trade." hogwash. if you're dreaming of trading at three years of age, your parents should probably be incarcerated.

what you need to answer is WHY. and WHAT.

what do you want to trade? why?
why do you want to trade? money? prestige/glamor? you like high stress environments? you like losing sleep? do you like markets? why do you like markets? what about buying and selling contracts excites you?
what makes you any different from the thousands of other people who say their lifelong goal is to trade?
what's your backup plan? for every bsd (excuse the phrase), there are ten people whose faces he/she ripped off to get there.

and be honest with yourself.

at least 80% of mfe students aren't honest enough with themselves, and i'd bet the percentage is even higher for those who aren't accepted.
 
Hi Andy,

Greetings !!

Well, I am plan to pursue a Masters Program in Mathematical Finance / MFE from a good US university. Accordingly, was exploring my prospects of getting admissions for the same. As far my educational background goes -- I have done my Bachelors in Engineering
( Electrical discipline ) with OGPA of 6.9/10. Post that I did my MBA in Finance and Marketing ( GPA 6.1/10). I am currently a FRM
( GARP, USA) L 2 candidate ( results awaited - Nov 2011 exam). I have a 4 years experience in financial services industry, and private wealth management domain. Currently associated with a Asset Management Company ( exp - 3 years).

I have a distinct stint to learning and studying finance, and mathematics. My engineering degree consisted of mathematical subjects like differential equations, differentiation of vectors, matrices, fourier series, probability, statistics, z transforms, complex variables / integration, etc.

( GRE - will appear in a month)
Please let me know wat are my chances for qualifying for a MFE program.

Regards,

Mandeep
 
Hi,

Please review my profile for MFE .

I am an undergraduate in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (one of the best institutes in India) with a CGPA of 8.1/10. I had quite poor grades in Mathematics in college (its a ridiculously tough place for academics and most universities understand this) and I gave GRE Subject test in mathematics where I scored 880 (97% ile). My GMAT is 790 (QA- 51, VA - 47, awa - 6/6).

Work experience: 6 months as a derivatives trader
12 months as a quantitative analyst supporting the commodity team of Schroders.
Past 1.5 years working as a credit quant for a leading investment bank .
In between had a role of a quantitative analyst for an NGO (helped them in developing a predictor model to study future poverty profiles in the region)

I believe my work experience is good enough to land an MFE in a top school and I am sure of getting good recommendations. The problem are mathematics grades and GPA. Considering that my college comes in top 10 in Asia easily and its academics is considered tough globally will the colleges consider my average grades?

Please reply,

Thanks.
 
Shantanu Misra said:
Hi,

Please review my profile for MFE .

I am an undergraduate in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur (one of the best institutes in India) with a CGPA of 8.1/10. I had quite poor grades in Mathematics in college (its a ridiculously tough place for academics and most universities understand this) and I gave GRE Subject test in mathematics where I scored 880 (97% ile). My GMAT is 790 (QA- 51, VA - 47, awa - 6/6).

Work experience: 6 months as a derivatives trader
12 months as a quantitative analyst supporting the commodity team of Schroders.
Past 1.5 years working as a credit quant for a leading investment bank .
In between had a role of a quantitative analyst for an NGO (helped them in developing a predictor model to study future poverty profiles in the region)

I believe my work experience is good enough to land an MFE in a top school and I am sure of getting good recommendations. The problem are mathematics grades and GPA. Considering that my college comes in top 10 in Asia easily and its academics is considered tough globally will the colleges consider my average grades?

Please reply,

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I don't think an 8.1 GPA at IITK is bad by any standards.... Btw were you with FF?
 
Hi Darth,

Yes I was in FF.

I understand that 8.1 is not bad but when it comes to application it is considered very average by admission committee. The problem is that schools compare your grades with other colleges (non top IITs) where grading is relatively lenient and hence you loose out to a 9 pointer from other colleges (this is the feedback that some of my seniors have given).

This is precisely why I have GRE Subject test because I had C, C and B in mathematics in college. I am sure admission committee would understand that if a "C" grader is getting 880 in GRE subject test then it means that the acads of that college is really difficult. I am not sure how much of an impression would subject test leave.

I plan to target CMU, Berkeley, Colombia and possibly Stanford. Can you give me an idea what would my chances be?

Thanks in advance,
Shantanu.
 
Hi shantanu

First of all , any member of the admission committee would be impressed by your test scores.
I don't have much idea about Columbia and Stanford but I think you have a very strong chance with CMU and UCB.
Couple of FF traders are in current batch of CMU , you can mail them. Their e-mail addresses are on the mscf website.
Also I personally feel UCB is the best MFE program so you should definitely apply there.
What batch IITK ? Actually I have also been working with FF for more than 4 years now :)
 
Shantanu,

Stanford will be tough because they admit very few students. Most of their students are from France and China. You will probably get an admit from UCB, CMU, and Columbia. To maximize your chances at UCB, you should take CFA Level 1 as soon as possible.
For job purposes, your preferences should be:
1. UCB
2. CMU
3. Columbia
in the above order.
 
Ken Abbott said:
That is a really, really bad reason for wanting to do a quantitative masters degree.
Click to expand...

Why do you say that Ken? Seems to me that getting a masters degree in the field that prepares you to work in the field you want to work in would be a good idea.
 
Most people who want to become traders don't.
Most people who become traders don't do it for very long.
Most successful traders don't use quant methods.
Most quant methods don't work very well.

Do a quant masters degree because you find the material interesting and/or because you want to work in one of the many finance -related fields that require an advanced degree.
 
Ken Abbott said:
Many of the jobs are described in Careers in Financial Management, which has been linked many times in this forum.
Click to expand...

Well trading seems to be on that list, so I don't quite know what you're getting at. What you're saying is that if one wants to become a trader he should not waste his time on an MFE? I for one am interested in trading but don't believe I have the right skill set yet and would therefor like to take on graduate work to prepare me better. Would you say that is not a good idea? I don't have experience directly related to the financial industry so I would probably say that it would be highly unlikely for me to be able to get a job at an investment bank directly after graduating from College.
 
gradaplicant said:
What you're saying is that if one wants to become a trader he should not waste his time on an MFE?
Click to expand...
I know some floor traders in CBOT who have barely graduated with an associate degree. There are different types of traders. I assume the best way to justify your career goal as a trader is simply to open a brokerage account and see how you can trade.
 
kevin_charlemagne said:
I know some floor traders in CBOT who have barely graduated with an associate degree. There are different types of traders. I assume the best way to justify your career goal as a trader is simply to open a brokerage account and see how you can trade.
Click to expand...

As a student $25,000 is readily available.
 
gradaplicant said:
I for one am interested in trading but don't believe I have the right skill set yet and would therefor like to take on graduate work to prepare me better. Would you say that is not a good idea?
Click to expand...

I was a trader. Basic economics prepared me far more than any quant courses I took. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that quant courses can actually hurt, because they lead some people to look for patterns where they might not exist. Lots of money was spent in the 80s using GARCH and the 90s using cointegration. Both are brilliant concepts and provide great intuition. Both are hard to integrate into profitable trading models.

I know dozens of traders. Most of the better ones don't have graduate education.
 
I understand that everyone's shooting this guy down for wanting to get an MFE in order to become a trader because it's difficult to become a trader with an MFE, but why not give him some constructive advice and suggestions as to how to become a trader rather than simply telling him that you know people who are successful traders and didn't graduate college?
 
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