UCB MFE UCB MFE Admission Results Discussion

[curltron]

I'd expect all of the fresh graduates in the program to give feedback similar to mine, but I can't read minds nor will I try. The gist though is that the program wouldn't give an offer to a student they didn't think they could place. They have quite a selection to choose from, and good potential applicants are watching placement statistics like a hawk, as this thread demonstrates.

 

[moretodo]

I'd expect all of the fresh graduates in the program to give feedback similar to mine, but I can't read minds nor will I try. The gist though is that the program wouldn't give an offer to a student they didn't think they could place. They have quite a selection to choose from, and good potential applicants are watching placement statistics like a hawk, as this thread demonstrates.

A response that would make a politician proud! You should perhaps consider running for office if and when you retire. Congratulations on your offer! Wish you my best.

 

[duxingxia]

Did anyone hear from the school about the final result? I online chatted with them and they said all applicants will be notified by Apr 4, 2014.

 

[vtomar]

Hi moretodo, I am a UCB MFE student. You had private messaged me earlier to inquire about the program. You had then mentioned that you had applied to the program and got waitlisted. Please make this information clear in your postings or else you are misleading applicants. Also, you mentioned that you are not from India but then you went on to ask questions about non-IITians and if they are disadvantaged in the program. After having sent that message, you realized I might have figured out that you are an impersonator, so you ended up sending me another message clarifying that you are asking all this information for one of your friends and not for yourself.
I am made to wonder, if you think spreading false second hand information about the program is going to bump up your application from the waiting list to being admitted.

 

[TraderJoe]

Hi moretodo, I am a UCB MFE student. You had private messaged me earlier to inquire about the program. You had then mentioned that you had applied to the program and got waitlisted. Please make this information clear in your postings or else you are misleading applicants. Also, you mentioned that you are not from India but then you went on to ask questions about non-IITians and if they are disadvantaged in the program. After having sent that message, you realized I might have figured out that you are an impersonator, so you ended up sending me another message clarifying that you are asking all this information for one of your friends and not for yourself.
I am made to wonder, if you think spreading false second hand information about the program is going to bump up your application from the waiting list to being admitted.

EXCELLENT POINTS. I always get suspicious when people advise others to decline admission to Berkeley. If you take a look at their placement statistics, it is a no-brainer to accept an admit from Berkeley. So these guys are misleading others to decline a Berkeley admit so that they can get admission themselves. This is really pathetic of these guys. I hope they land in IIT-Chicago and get help from BBW for their placement.
I think that he has advised someone else on thi forum to decline Berkeley and go to Columbia MFE.

 

[moretodo]

Hi moretodo, I am a UCB MFE student. You had private messaged me earlier to inquire about the program. You had then mentioned that you had applied to the program and got waitlisted. Please make this information clear in your postings or else you are misleading applicants. Also, you mentioned that you are not from India but then you went on to ask questions about non-IITians and if they are disadvantaged in the program. After having sent that message, you realized I might have figured out that you are an impersonator, so you ended up sending me another message clarifying that you are asking all this information for one of your friends and not for yourself.
I am made to wonder, if you think spreading false second hand information about the program is going to bump up your application from the waiting list to being admitted.

I am not an impersonator. Yes, I had personally messaged you regarding the same since it so happens that an ex-work colleague (my firm was his client) has been admitted to the program who happens to be an Indian and I was asking on his behalf. Since he helped me quite a bit with my work, I was merely trying to return the favor.

Your assumption that I am spreading "false" information with the hopes that my application would eventually be accepted is quite frankly short sighted and unbecoming of a UCB MFE student whom I thought are generally smart. I don't see how affecting the decisions of the MFE2015 admits would affect my chances of making it to MFE2014.

 

[vtomar]

Hi Pablo and students who are planning to apply or have applied straight out of undergrad. Let me share my first hand experience:

Thank you for considering Berkeley! To start with, the top rank holder in the class is a student straight from undergrad with no work experience. He secured an internship at Morgan Stanley and will be joining full time as an Associate at Morgan Stanley. The guy must be around 21-23 years old and he managed to make a jump straight to an Associate position and will not have to work as an Analyst. 2 other guys who after their undergrad joined the MFE program secured internship at Goldman Sachs, NY and have full time offers from Goldman. Again, they both are students with no work experience. Another undergrad, will be joining as a Junior Portfolio Manager on RBC's proprietary trading desk. I am myself joining a high frequency trading firm as a Quant Trader.

These are just a few examples that come to my mind when trying to answer if the program is good for undergrads or not. Personally speaking, I am extremely happy that I took the decision to join the program. I had not in my wildest dreams imagined that I will get the amount of focus and opportunities I have been given by the program. The amount of work Linda and the crew puts in is unparalleled. I haven't seen a better career services than what's being offered over here. During my internship, I got a chance to interact with students who were interning as well and were enrolled in Princeton, Columbia and Chicago. And while sharing their first hand experiences, it was confirmed to me that my decision was right to choose Berkeley over any other program. To be honest, Berkeley was the only program I applied to. Mainly because, the traders and financial engineers I had come across at the firm I was working for prior to joining the program were from Berkeley and they all suggested me to go for Berkeley over any other program. It helps a lot since the alumni of the program are spread across the Wall Street. More often than not, you end up getting interviewed by a Berkeley MFE Grad, thus helping your job prospects.

I can go on and on about how much I owe to this program and how much the program has helped me shape my career in the direction I wanted it to. For now, I guess I will stop here and leave it to you to ask us any questions or doubts that you have in your mind.

And don't go by what you see on chat rooms, some of the students who apply and don't get admitted end up holding grudges against the program and end up posting comments as if they are sharing their first hand experiences. Sometimes, all they needed to do is work slightly more on their application.

Let me know if you have any more questions. More than happy to guide you through.

 

[moretodo]

Hi Pablo and students who are planning to apply or have applied straight out of undergrad. Let me share my first hand experience:

Thank you for considering Berkeley! To start with, the top rank holder in the class is a student straight from undergrad with no work experience. He secured an internship at Morgan Stanley and will be joining full time as an Associate at Morgan Stanley. The guy must be around 21-23 years old and he managed to make a jump straight to an Associate position and will not have to work as an Analyst. 2 other guys who after their undergrad joined the MFE program secured internship at Goldman Sachs, NY and have full time offers from Goldman. Again, they both are students with no work experience. Another undergrad, will be joining as a Junior Portfolio Manager on RBC's proprietary trading desk. I am myself joining a high frequency trading firm as a Quant Trader.

These are just a few examples that come to my mind when trying to answer if the program is good for undergrads or not. Personally speaking, I am extremely happy that I took the decision to join the program. I had not in my wildest dreams imagined that I will get the amount of focus and opportunities I have been given by the program. The amount of work Linda and the crew puts in is unparalleled. I haven't seen a better career services than what's being offered over here. During my internship, I got a chance to interact with students who were interning as well and were enrolled in Princeton, Columbia and Chicago. And while sharing their first hand experiences, it was confirmed to me that my decision was right to choose Berkeley over any other program. To be honest, Berkeley was the only program I applied to. Mainly because, the traders and financial engineers I had come across at the firm I was working for prior to joining the program were from Berkeley and they all suggested me to go for Berkeley over any other program. It helps a lot since the alumni of the program are spread across the Wall Street. More often than not, you end up getting interviewed by a Berkeley MFE Grad, thus helping your job prospects.

I can go on and on about how much I owe to this program and how much the program has helped me shape my career in the direction I wanted it to. For now, I guess I will stop here and leave it to you to ask us any questions or doubts that you have in your mind.

And don't go by what you see on chat rooms, some of the students who apply and don't get admitted end up holding grudges against the program and end up posting comments as if they are sharing their first hand experiences. Sometimes, all they needed to do is work slightly more on their application.

Let me know if you have any more questions. More than happy to guide you through.

Again, in my opinion, this is very poor justification of whether or not students right out of UG get good opportunities coming out of the UCB MFE program. 3 of the 4 examples that vtomar provides are of students who have stellar grades. One is a valedictorian and Goldman Sachs weighs one's GPA heavily in determining candidates to be interviewed at the UCB MFE program as told to me by a current student who is active on this thread. That implies clearly that at least 3 of the 4 students provided as examples have stellar GPAs.

Now, ofcourse, for any program, the probability that a fresher gets a great job coming out of that program conditioned on the event that he has stellar grades is astronomically higher.

A more appropriate assessment would be assessing final placement of student profiles with reasonably competitive profiles (CGPA from 3.3-3.6).

 

[curltron]

Again, in my opinion, this is very poor justification of whether or not students right out of UG get good opportunities coming out of the UCB MFE program. 3 of the 4 examples that vtomar provides are of students who have stellar grades. One is a valedictorian and Goldman Sachs weighs one's GPA heavily in determining candidates to be interviewed at the UCB MFE program as told to me by a current student who is active on this thread. That implies clearly that at least 3 of the 4 students provided as examples have stellar GPAs.

Now, ofcourse, for any program, the probability that a fresher gets a great job coming out of that program conditioned on the event that he has stellar grades is astronomically higher.

A more appropriate assessment would be assessing final placement of student profiles with reasonably competitive profiles (CGPA from 3.3-3.6).

Moretodo, what you are saying is just false. 3 or 4 students is the amount of fresh grads in the program... I was able to secure the internship at Goldman Sachs and my GPA was definitely not 4.0, closer to 3.5. The valedictorian I believe you're referring to is an alumni from previous years. They likely will look at grades, and are rumored to, but the fact that I interned with them shows that you don't have to have the very best grades. In my experience, grades can, sometimes, get you an interview, but it'll never get you a job. It'll be your projects (in my case) or experiences, and how well you can explain them. Fortunately, the UCB MFE is near 100% group work, with projects in almost every other class, so it's your time to shine.

 

[moretodo]

Moretodo, what you are saying is just false. 3 or 4 students is the amount of fresh grads in the program... I was able to secure the internship at Goldman Sachs and my GPA was definitely not 4.0, closer to 3.5. The valedictorian I believe you're referring to is an alumni from previous years. They likely will look at grades, and are rumored to, but the fact that I interned with them shows that you don't have to have the very best grades. In my experience, grades can, sometimes, get you an interview, but it'll never get you a job. It'll be your projects (in my case) or experiences, and how well you can explain them. Fortunately, the UCB MFE is near 100% group work, with projects in almost every other class, so it's your time to shine.

Good for you! Frankly, I don't care what the UCB MFE program actually is and what you make it out to be. I know a couple of alumni from your program as decently close friends and I based my comments based upon my interaction with them. I also am in touch with the guy who interviewed me since we have similar career interests in spite of not doing well on the interview but in my defense most of the questions were extremely challenging. Stuff that they did not know pertaining to the current situation, I asked you guys!

I know for a fact that I wont be going to the program even if I was admitted now since I have other options. I am not at all disheartened nor do I maintain a grudge towards the program or its students/alum.

I'd like to thank you and the rest of the guys to have taken out the time and answered my queries (although I must confess 90% of the current batch did not respond at all) and wish you my best in your careers.

 

[Junyong Choi]

I got an invitation for an interview this morning by email.
I thought I had been rejected, but I guess I might be one of the last people to do an interview.

To those who have already done their interviews:
Are there technical questions, or are the questions more general as in all other interviews?

 

[sin]

Who is going to interview you? If anyone apart from ad com then it would be a technical round. You can call them and ask.

 

[sin]

Any news? Has anyone heard back from the ad com? It is already 19th mar

 

[Udit Gupta]

Any update from anyone?

 

[Rohit Sarma]

Have they started conducting interviews for R2 admissions? I submitted my application on 01 April.

 

[QuantOutcry]

Hi all,

I just got an interview from Berkeley. There will be two MFE current students (one with a Econ phd from Chicago). Can any one give me some ideas what will the interview be like? Is it pure technical, or mixed? How long will it be? What do you think would be a good preparation for it?

 

[Zerocool]

It is pure technical!

Brainteasers,finance questions (bond pricing etc), stats & prob problems, programming code and some mathematics..

Freshen up on your basic finance and math skills, be ready to write some code in any OOP language and do not be intimidated to say "I DO NOT KNOW".

Best of Luck.

 

[QuantOutcry]

Thanks Zerocool! I see you will join this program. Hopefully I will meet you there!

 

[Alps]

Guys

I understand this is not the best of questions but still asking. I was recently interviewed in UCB R2. While the personal interview was okay, the technical did not go the best. I was asked questions on mathematics and programming where I did falter. The reason is that I passed my undergraduate engineering 10 years back and although I have 4 years of core J2EE programming skills, I wrote the last code 7 years back. Post that I have been working in core finance industry post MBA.

While I have highlighted the same (that although I have mathematical background and code experience, they are quite sometime back and if admitted, I will take up the refresher courses/learn on my own since I will have 6-8 months before the course starts) in my application, I am just curious to know how much of importance is assigned to the technical interview. Does a negative break an application totally?

If anyone of you have any experience to share, it will be good to know. Not that it will change the outcome but may be I will be prepared a little better for the news. Additionally, any idea when do people hear back from the office after interview in case of accept/reject?

 

[Zerocool]

When I had my UCB R1 technical interview I was told this is not a make-it-or-break-it interview. Among other things it is an assessment of your technical skills and to help UCB better tailor a study plan for you if they decide to admit you.

I heard back from them about 2-3 weeks after my technical interview but it was right before the R1 decision deadline date so I am not sure if that played any part in the timeline.

To be honest, I am not sure if you hear back from them in case you get rejected, maybe they send out a mass email on decision deadline date for your specific round of application?