UCB MFE UCB MFE Admission Results Discussion
- Thread starter BryanMartin
- Start date
My application was recently placed on Hold status. The letter that accompanied notification of my hold status wrote:
After receiving this letter, I spoke with an administrator at their office, and they indicated that UCB intended to interview me a second time relatively soon. It would seem that it would be in my best interest to read the above books in short order.
My guess is that the Hold status in my case actually means that UCB wants to collect more information.
We advise you to complete the following:
• The admissions committee will schedule another interview with a current student or alumnus
• Take the preprogram courses in C++, Mathematics, and Statistics offered by our department
• Read Crack’s Heard on the Street, Hull’s Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives, Brealey, Myers, and Allen’s Principles of Corporate Finance and Zhou’s A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews and read the Wall Street Journal regularly
After receiving this letter, I spoke with an administrator at their office, and they indicated that UCB intended to interview me a second time relatively soon. It would seem that it would be in my best interest to read the above books in short order.
My guess is that the Hold status in my case actually means that UCB wants to collect more information.
- Joined
- 3/10/11
- Messages
- 24
- Points
- 11
Kosta.. Since you have a second interview.. you still have a good chance..let us know how your interview goes.. If you don't mind, could you please share your profile?
Hey Michaelbevan, thanks for the encouragement. To be fair, I haven't actually received the interview yet, so there's a lot that can go wrong still.
I have an unusual profile for someone applying to an MFE program -- by training I am a scientist.
Education:
McGill University: BSc in Physiology, minor in Mathematics; MSc in Physiology,
University of Calgary: PhD in Medical Sciences.
I've co-authored 17 peer-reviewed academic publications. The majority of these publications utilized novel statistical analysis, novel time-series analyses and/or novel mathematical models.
GRE:
Quantitative - 780, Verbal - 680, AWA - 5.5
I am a CFA Level II candidate
Work Experience:
Presently running a small investment fund employing bespoke statistical arbitrage strategies of my own design.
Spent a year as a statistician at a company building medical diagnostic devices.
Spent 5 years in environmental risk assessment where I would quantify environmental impacts, then estimate present- and future-day concentrations using mathematical models, and then estimate future-day risk from these results.
Recommenders:
Two glowing letters from professors from my grad school days, and a solid letter from my last boss (medical diagnostic device).
My strengths have to be my demonstrated creative capabilities evidenced by my publication record as well as my proven ability to apply quantitative approaches in multiple fields. My major weakness is that I have no experience in finance. Also, it have been quite a while since I've taken a course in mathematics. While I can model, as well as run packages like Matlab, R and Excel, I may be a little rusty in deriving equations, solving differential equations or integrating formulas.
I have an unusual profile for someone applying to an MFE program -- by training I am a scientist.
Education:
McGill University: BSc in Physiology, minor in Mathematics; MSc in Physiology,
University of Calgary: PhD in Medical Sciences.
I've co-authored 17 peer-reviewed academic publications. The majority of these publications utilized novel statistical analysis, novel time-series analyses and/or novel mathematical models.
GRE:
Quantitative - 780, Verbal - 680, AWA - 5.5
I am a CFA Level II candidate
Work Experience:
Presently running a small investment fund employing bespoke statistical arbitrage strategies of my own design.
Spent a year as a statistician at a company building medical diagnostic devices.
Spent 5 years in environmental risk assessment where I would quantify environmental impacts, then estimate present- and future-day concentrations using mathematical models, and then estimate future-day risk from these results.
Recommenders:
Two glowing letters from professors from my grad school days, and a solid letter from my last boss (medical diagnostic device).
My strengths have to be my demonstrated creative capabilities evidenced by my publication record as well as my proven ability to apply quantitative approaches in multiple fields. My major weakness is that I have no experience in finance. Also, it have been quite a while since I've taken a course in mathematics. While I can model, as well as run packages like Matlab, R and Excel, I may be a little rusty in deriving equations, solving differential equations or integrating formulas.
Your background seems excellent for UCB : Phd, relevant work experience (statistics + investment fund), research, etc.
I guess the applicants pool is really strong this year.
- Joined
- 3/10/11
- Messages
- 24
- Points
- 11
Thanks Kosta for sharing your profile. Your profile looks great to me. Where else have you applied ?
Thanks for the encouragement Moumou and Michaelbevan. But to be fair, I must really downplay my investment experience. My present position is with a very small private issue, and only started a few months ago. So while I applied to many schools this past year, I did not place that job experience on my CV in the majority of my applications.
I applied to Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, CMU, NYU, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, Berkeley and USC (MF). I haven't heard back from USC, I've been accepted to the University of Chicago, and I am waiting for a second interview from UCB.
About Berkeley, I applied to their school in R4 of last year. I received an interview, which I did poorly in.
I applied to Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, CMU, NYU, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, Berkeley and USC (MF). I haven't heard back from USC, I've been accepted to the University of Chicago, and I am waiting for a second interview from UCB.
About Berkeley, I applied to their school in R4 of last year. I received an interview, which I did poorly in.
Hi Kittu, where did you hear this from?
Based on what I've read so far it seems like those on HOLD are not very much different from those on WL.
By the way I just joined the HOLD club in R3.
Ok, I supposed, but I don't know why they put you Hold and at the same time recommend you to take that program
Why? because the preprogram begins on January (until March), a few weeks before start the program. So, you must wait until the last time for a response??
In my case I had the same situation, put Hold and take de preprogram course, but if the situation is like I described before, I think to leave the application process. I know a lot people who were accepted together to suggestion to take the preprogram course.
Why? because the preprogram begins on January (until March), a few weeks before start the program. So, you must wait until the last time for a response??
In my case I had the same situation, put Hold and take de preprogram course, but if the situation is like I described before, I think to leave the application process. I know a lot people who were accepted together to suggestion to take the preprogram course.
