Quantnet MFE Application Tracker

[AMIRHAMED]

Andy if you could somehow distinguish the tracked program by each year, then it would be better. it will show which program was most tracked in each year.
Some information on the tracker are obsolete. because it shows the cumulative data through years. A refreshed tracker for each year will be more helpful for applicant of that year.

Ideal format: TOP Tracked Programs By (a drop down list to choose the Year)

 

[AMIRHAMED]

Ok guys I have the new fields set up. Please go ahead and help me repopulate your data.
Major/undergraduate institution/work experience/etc should go to the Notes field. I only have so much room to display data

Last update field could be replaced by an acronym for Major. That would be more informative, interesting and helpful.
Also, working experience(WEX) can be just a number(a drop down list: 0,+1,+2,+3,+4,+5)

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks for the input and filling out the details, guys. Appreciate it.
The Tracker looks much more useful now. We have a better idea of each candidate's profile with the additional stats.

 

[ferdowsi]

Andy, is there a way to just write that data once for your profile instead of entering it for each school? It seems like it can be more efficient that way.

 

[aaronhotchner]

I don't know if this was brought up, or maybe I'm alone, but I only took the GMAT and not the GRE.

 

[AMIRHAMED]

Andy you can provide a form in one's profile named CV with 3 sections, Academic background(Major, Institute, GPA for each school), Test Scores (GRE,GMAT,TOEFL), Working Experience(finance and non finance).
When one fills out the form, his applications information will input accordingly. No repetitive inputs.

 

[Priyank Pandey]

I don't know if this was brought up, or maybe I'm alone, but I only took the GMAT and not the GRE.

I only took the GMAT and asked CMU whether it is advantageous to take the GRE. They said that altho no one test is given preference, historically GRE has provided a better indication of math abilities. I feel it will not be a make it or break it type criteria, but given all other things equal, the GRE applicant would win. So I went ahead and took the GRE.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I don't know if this was brought up, or maybe I'm alone, but I only took the GMAT and not the GRE.

In that case, one solution is to put the GMAT scores in the Notes field and put NA in the GRE fields.

 

[Umnik]

I have another question concering the tracker. Why some of Master in Finance Programs are in the tracker, and some are not?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I have another question concering the tracker. Why some of Master in Finance Programs are in the tracker, and some are not?

MIT MFin and Princeton MFin are two that a good number of our members apply to, along with other MFE programs. We simply offer a way to track the data of what MFE applicants apply to.
For that reason, you are unlikely to see traditional programs like Vanderbilt MFin in our Tracker.
There are plenty of MFE programs out there that don't get mentioned here often and are not in our Tracker as well.

 

[MathFinCS]

There are plenty of MFE programs out there that don't get mentioned here often and are not in our Tracker as well.

Like?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Hawaii MFE? NJIT Math Computational Finance? There are hundred more like these.
http://iafe.org/html/resources_acad.php

 

[Umnik]

So is there a possibility to add Master in Finance at Barcelona GSE to the tracker, so I can Add my application to the tracker?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

So is there a possibility to add Master in Finance at Barcelona GSE to the tracker, so I can Add my application to the tracker?

Done.

 

[Umnik]

Done.

Thanks, added my application to the tracker.

 

[JDawg]

Here are my opinions/suggestions on improving the tracker:

Right now it does a great job of helping applicants keep track of where they're at in the application process (ie. if people have received interviews yet or gotten admitted already). Since you named it the "Tracker", I'm guessing this may have been your primary goal. However, my primary use of the Tracker over the past year or so has been to see the profiles of other applications who have already been accepted/waitlisted/rejected in order to gauge the probability that I'll get into certain schools. I think this is the most useful aspect of the Tracker since you can't get this information anywhere else for programs that don't post student profiles on their websites (like Columbia MFE and MIT MFin). The Tracker could definitely be improved to obtain and display this information better.

1. First, when adding an application to the Tracker, I think that their should be designated fields for school, major, and work experience. Right now there's a single "Notes" field, but most people don't write anything informative in there (eg. they rewrite their GPA/test scores and add "undergrad in china"). Having designated fields for that info would definitely encourage more people to write that information.

2. I also think that there should be designated columns for school, major, and work experience in the Tracker. True, you can click on "Read Note" but it'd be much more efficient to see all of that info on one page without having to click individually on the "Read Note" link in each row.

3. When I added my applications, it was kind of annoying to have to rewrite all my information (GPA, GRE scores, notes) for each application. That info could just be stored in each user's account so that when a user adds a new application, any previously entered info is already filled in .

4. It'd be nice if when you clicked on someone's name in the Tracker, it automatically loaded up all of their applications (so the same thing as if you had just filtered applications by their name).

5. Also it'd be great if you could do the same for anonymous posters (see all of the applications made by a particular anonymous person).

Anyways these are just ways that I'd change the Tracker if I was in charge. Let me know what you think.

 

[MRoss]

Anyways these are just ways that I'd change the Tracker if I was in charge. Let me know what you think.

Excellent suggestion!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks JDawg
A lot of consideration went into the Tracker and many of your suggestions were debated during our design/coding phrase. I'm going to answer them in reverse.

5) If people can specify which anonymous poster, it is no longer anonymous. We offer 100% anonymous function because privacy is important to us.
4) We offer a few ways to find applications by a certain member. The best way is to enter their username on the filter box. The suboptimal way is to sort by the first Poster column. There also needs to be a way for people to visit that user profile, read his posts, etc so that's why we need that feature.
3) Thought about it but it is not a good design decision. You want people to create a new Application in the Tracker to stay on one place, not go to their profile and then go back. It takes only few seconds to fill out the GPA/GRE boxes.
2) There isn't enough space to add more columns. There also needs to be a balance between more info and personal privacy. People are more willing to provide GPA/GRE, but less open to enter what schools/major they go to. If people decide to fill that with junk info or just wrong info, what would be the point?
1) See 2). It all comes down to how willing people to share their profile. A lot of people didn't even want to share their GRE/GPA.

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll continue to see how it evolves and improve it accordingly.

 

[jn_lil]

Hi Andy,

Can you please add"WUSTL Quant Fin" (Washington University in St. Louis) to the tracker?
Thanks

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Nice. Two programs with similar name.
I added the location to their name so now we have WU Vienna Quant Fin and WU St Louis Quant Fin

Hi Andy,

Can you please add"WUSTL Quant Fin" (Washington University in St. Louis) to the tracker?
Thanks