Profile evaluation

[FedericoM]

Hi everyone!
Being a 2nd year undergrad, I'm going to apply for a MSc with a strong focus on Quantitative Finance in October. Therefore, I'd like to ask you 2 questions:

1) Could you please rank these EU MSc, according to your knowledge and experience?

1. Imperial College: MSc Risk Mgmt and Financial Engineering / MSc Finance;
2. Warwick: MSc Finance;
3. London School of Economics: MSc Finance / MSc Financial Mathematics;
4. Bocconi: Msc Finance.

2) Here is my profile:

• 2nd year BSc Mathematical Engineering (1st ranked university in Italy), GPA=3.79/4;
• Expected finale grade: 108-110 / 100;
• 3 internships in non-financial companies (one in Germany, one in Holland and one in Italy);
• many volunteer activities.

Thank you very much for any advice

 

[Dismantler]

You are a 2nd year undergrad and want to apply for a masters program?

I don't think that is possible unless you somehow managed to finish your degree in 2 years.

 

[FedericoM]

I confirm it's possible. Actually, a lot of students apply to a MSc right after undergraduate.
I will finish my degree in June 2013, so I'm going to start my MSc in Semptember 2013. Therefore, I have to make an application in the period October-December 2012

Still waiting for different opinions on this forum!

 

[CChow]

In Europe, their undergrad is only 3 years long.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

For color on UK programs, maybe read some of DominiConnor past posts.
How is your programming skills?

 

[FedericoM]

I know how to program in C ("medium proficiency", I could say ) and I can use MATLAB, SQL and R quite well.
It seems that the Imperial College and LSE courses (both MSc Finance and RMFE) have a good reputation in Europe, don't know in the US.

If possible, I'd also like to know whether it's useful trying to enter a 1-year MSc without having a previous working experience in the financial sector. How are the job prospects?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If at all possible, try to get some job experience before going to graduate school. It can only enhance your admission profile.
I don't know the job market in Europe but it doesn't sound too promising amid their own political and financial crisis.

 

[ravi kiran k]

Hi Andy,

I'm planning to apply for MFE in 2013 fall. Below are my details.

10th standard - 83%
12th - 84%
Engineering- 7.86/10 ( Cgpa)
2 yrs work exp in a IT company

Gmat - 640( Quant 49 Verbal 28) ( Awaiting IR and Essay scores)

I have shortlisted the following universities

University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign
Vanderbilt University
George Washington University
Washington University : Olin

What are my chances of admits for the above univ ( assuming I do well in essays and post application process)? Also suggest me some more universities I can apply for?

 

[Faisal]

Hi Andy,

I'm planning to apply for MFE in 2013 fall. Below are my details.

10th standard - 83%
12th - 84%
Engineering- 7.86/10 ( Cgpa)
2 yrs work exp in a IT company

Gmat - 640( Quant 49 Verbal 28) ( Awaiting IR and Essay scores)

I have shortlisted the following universities

University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign
Vanderbilt University
George Washington University
Washington University : Olin

What are my chances of admits for the above univ ( assuming I do well in essays and post application process)? Also suggest me some more universities I can apply for?

If you are planning to apply for fall 2013, by now you should be aware of the fact that your 10th and 12th grades are not even a part of the decision making process anywhere, hence posting them here is irrelevant.

Among the programs you have mentioned, only UIUC is a conventional MFE program. If are aiming for one of the above programs, you should no have much problems getting in.
For conventional , top MFE programs (Columbia/UCB/CMU/Baruch) or even for second tier ones (Michigan/BU etc) the game is more complex and your chances cannot be determined by the data you posted above. It depends on your background and rigour of courses in Mathematics/ Programming, relevance of your work to quantitative finance, prestige of your UG etc.

 

[ravi kiran k]

Hi Faisal,

Thanks for the reply. I have decent math grades in engineering. I took 4 4-credit courses and managed 2 A's(9/10) and 2 B's(8/10). I also took 2 3-credit programming courses( C++ ) and got A's in both. As far as university standards are concerned, M.I.T, Manipal stands around mid 30s in rankings ( among Indian colleges). My work has no relevance to quantitative finance in general but I work for an investment bank client(DB) and manage their risk applications. I have not started applying for universities yet and would like to consolidate the list to 6 universities.

I assess my profile just above average. Hence, I want your suggestion in shortlisting universities. I shall want to go by popular 2 safe- 3 moderate- 1 high value approach. What are my options for tier II colleges?

 

[ravi kiran k]

Hi All,

Can you please advice on the above?

 

[Faisal]

You must act on your instinct based on your profile to judge which Universities to apply. A good way would be going through the tracker and assessing the best fits for you. Personally, I think you might be underestimating yourself. Many candidates apply with similar profiles and a lot of it comes down to your essays and LoRs, which cannot be judged or commented upon by anyone else, save you. With your profile, you might want to explore UIUC and U of Washington CF&RM, BU MSMF & U Michh FE. With good essays and recommendations, who knows, you might even get in one of the top ones too.