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Only looking in the US? There are some great EU courses that you could get into and would help land great jobs. Not persuading, just asking.
Thank you for your response! I will probably also apply at LSE and Warwick but would much rather prefer the USA.
Reason I ask if because you have to think of where you want to work after. If it's the US, then the schools listed above are fine. If it's Europe, then there are a few European schools that have more pull than Vanderbilt and UCSD. Princeton, MIT and Yale would help you land solid European jobs but Bocconi, LBS, LSE HEC and Oxbridge would blow USCD and Vanderbilt out of the water in the EU. Even if you end up working in the US, I'm sure that Oxbridge, LBS and LSE may have more pull then Vanderbilt or USCD.
Heya! I haven't aced the admission process yet, but I have done enough research to know a bit.
UC Berkley has a solid program in Financial Engineering. If you want to be a quant, it is worth considering. Princeton's cohort is really small; so I am assuming the they would demand a prett y solid background. I am not sure what was your undergrad, so can't comment on this one.
I would strongly suggest you to conisder the MFEng program at Baruch College. It's in NY and has solid street cred, from what I have heard. You should also look into Carnegie Mellon's MS Computational Finance. There's Columbia's MSFEng and University of Chicago's MS Mathematical Finance as well. UChicago has good repute as a quant school, especially because of its the PhD cohort (Eugene Fama - the father of efficient markets and his prodigy Cliff Asness, the founder of AQR, are from UChicago's PhD Program); so I think that will flow into the MSMF as well. I think Stanford also has something in Mathematical & Computational Finance; although I don't know anyone from that part of the world.
It always makes sense to cast a wide net if you can afford it. If you take up the recommendations in the above point, you will have UCSD, Vanderbilt, Princeton, MIT, Yale, Baruch, Columbia, UChicago, UC Berkley - you will have a nice set of schools. If I were you, I would add one more to this list to make it 10 and then just sit back.
Use your best GRE score.
Much more than anything else, focus on communicating your raw intellectual horsepower. Any Math Olympiad background would help. Your GRE Quant scores are good; but so would be those of the other applicants. Think about how your specific experiences have prepared you the best for these programs and a career as a Quant.
Also - don't go for the CQF if you want to do a full-time masters. Although you did not ask about this, but I remember a few of my friends telling me that the CQF was a waste of money; especially because they wanted something more rigorous since that is what's expected out of a Quant. The CQF gives a nice refresher to the primary concepts but does not go deep enough to prepare for the entire gig. I am not a Quant, so I have just put the comment verbatim.
I don't know much about the European programs.
Just to make it clear - if you are even considering working in IB or CorpFin in general, we will have to look at an entirely different set of schools. Keep us posted. Cheers!
Thank you for taking your time for such a long answer!
I did not study Math and don't see myself competing against guys that spend their whole education in Math/Engineering and the alike. I see myself way more as a person that understands quantitative concepts and can also communicate them pretty well.
My goal is it to work in Asset Management - preferably as a Portfolio Manager. Would you still exclude Vanderbilt? What about USC. The name sounds good and the career office is probably very well connected.
My Undergrad was in Germany with good but not perfect grades.
If you are not that sure about competing with the engineering folks, probably the programs I listed won't help. Vanderbilt is a solid school, but is notoriously selective in taking international students. Less than one sixth of its last class is international.
USC looks like a good school; but I personally don't like the cost of living around the west cost. If you are planning to take up asset management, you will have to clear CFA irrespective of what program you get into. East coast does have more asset management shops, because a ton of banks and banking talent is in the East coast.
So the schools I listed around New York will be pretty good. All the schools you listed will also comfortably get you a good alumni network that can help you break into asset management.
On the flip side - I just saw that you are already in an MSF program in Amsterdam. How will you justify going for another MSF, given you already have relevant experience in place? Think hard before applying.
Hi, I am also looking at MFin and MBA programmes to apply to with the aim of breaking into IB. What would be the target MFin schools for IB? Looking for NY/London as a future destination.
Background: B.Com(Hon.), CFA L3 passed, 1 year at Barclays as finance analyst, 2 years at Teach For India (NGO - Education), GMAT - 750 (Q50V42).
One more query: should I apply for MBA or MFin? Again, the goal is to change sectors and move into IB (NY/London).
Thank you.
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