Value of CFA Lv. 2 for MFE

[HopefulAspirant]

Hi all,

I have passed my CFA Lv. 1 exam in December 2016 and am planning to apply to top MFE (and Mfin) programs in the US and the UK by the end of this year/early next year. (For a 2018 Fall admission)

I'm wondering how big of a value-add would CFA Lv. 2 be on my profile:

International student, 7.9 CGPA, along with 1) An A+ in LSE's Summer School (Options, Futures and other Fin. Derivatives) - one of only 3 students to do so
2) 4-6 week internships in (a) Equity Research (b) Asset Management (c) FO boutique IB firms that are well known in India
3) A one year full time internship (with really great work and a good profile) at a well known American Index provider - which would most likely convert to a full time position in the next six months (P.S. the job requires technical proficiency in SQL and Python)
4) A research paper on Portfolio Optimization (with some C++ coding involved) which would likely make it to an international journal (if not, a domestic one) with an impact factor of ~3
5) A 1st place finish in one of Asia's largest college tech fests for a project on wealth management
6) A 1st place finish in India and 26th overall in the BNP Paribas Ace Manager competition, 2015
7) Editor of the college's Fin magazine and managed the college's finance club's investment fund
8) University level and district level Table tennis player and I've dabbled in social work
9) Cleared CFA Lv. 1 scoring in the top category in each subject
10) Currently doing Berkeley's pre-program MFE courses in Math, Stats and C++

Would an FRM Lv. 1 (instead of CFA Lv. 2) make the profile more well-rounded or would it just make me seem more confused?

Or is there something else (besides CFA or FRM) that I could devote my time to, that would improve my chances?

Thanks in advance!

@Andy Nguyen - any help would be massively appreciated!

 

[MRoss]

IMO, CFA and MFE accomplish very different goals. Certain jobs (investment banking, equity research, etc.) require CFA and almost shun MFE students - when I applied to one of these I was told "why apply here when we have an opening on our quant desk?". Other jobs would rather see MFE: quant research, algo trading, desk dev, etc.

When applying for MFE the best way to get accepted is to view your application to Goldman Sachs to their Quant intern program; because ultimately this is what the MFE programs care about: "Is this student hire-able?"

TLDR; Almost no jobs would require MFE + CFA so don't waste time on one when applying for the other. Instead learn that extra machine learning, programming, or math course that will put you over the top.

 

[Rafael F]

Just out of curiosity, why a MFin right now?

 

[HopefulAspirant]

@Rafael F

I barely have any work experience now and I doubt that I'd be able to make it to the top MBA programs in a few years' time. (Considering there's little scope to land a job here in India that would look appealing to the MBA adcoms in the future)

I really want to study in the USA/UK and gain some good work ex before I head back home.

@MRoss

Is there absolutely no overlap? Say, for some of the less "quanty" quant roles or something?