Admissions to Masters Degree in Finance

[akshatmittal]

Hi,

I had applied to few MS programes in Finance in top grade universities like MSFE, Columbia / MSCF, CMU / MFin, MIT / MFM, Stanford. Unfortunately, I could not make it through most of these except Columbia which offered MSOR ( which I didnt find good enough) , and CMU where I'm still in waitlist ( i dont have any hopes on that now ). I wanted to pursue a masters degree in Finance and might apply for next Fall. But I want to work on my profile in the right direction so atleast next year I have better chances. Therefore, I request all the experienced guys and people from quantnet to recommend what could be the reasons of not making it this year and what i can work towards. Looking forward to good advice.

My General Profile :

--Bachelors in Engineering, from above average University in India with CGPA of 9.13/10
-- GRE Score : Qaunt:800, Verbal :550, AWA:4.0
-- TOEFL Score: 113/120
-- Certificate Courses on Financial Markets, Currency Derivatives, Options Stratergies and Portfolio Management by National Stock Exchange of India
-- At time of application, work experince of 6 months in Telecom Industry ( currently completed 1 yr )

I was wondering If the main reasons were a non finance education/work experience background, or majorly lacked in the GRE score.

Thanks

 

[ramnik]

I think that a 550 in GRE verbal is very decent and isn't a reason as to why you weren't accepted (Not much weightage is given to Verbal scores I presume).

You haven't mentioned your mathematical and computational background which are critical to an MFE. The fact that you don't have relevant work-ex could be also be a deciding factor.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You want to study in a MS Finance program and you applied to mostly Financial Engineering, Math Finance programs?
Your GRE score is fine.
You mostly were rejected on other things: personal statements, letter of rec, course grades, etc.

We don't see them here so it's impossible to say.

 

[Connor]

I think relevant financial work experience would help your application, but I don't believe not having it would hurt you.

How much math courses you took could be an issue.

For GRE 800 quant score is necessary, but I feel that your verbal is low. GRE verbal can be very difficult because of the vocabulary required. You may try taking the GMAT which doesn't require so much vocabulary. (MIT accepts GMAT)

Passing CFA level 1 would be an option

Good personal statements and essay responses.

 

[akshatmittal]

@thanks everyone..

@ramnik : I have sufficient mathematics background because i confirmed it with the prerequisites required for each course.. During Engineering, we had mathematics for 4 semesters with some advanced concepts esp on Probability and Calculus.
For computational background, I have experience in programming in C, C++, Shell programming for Linux, MATLAB.. I am currently working as a Software Engineer.. so I guess that also qualifies for min requirement.

@ Andy : The topic i used for the discussion could be misleading but i was interested in either of the two.. MS Finance or Fin Engineering courses.
Just that when i was going through some previously admitted students profile, I figured out that majority has a good GRE score.. say 1400+.. and just felt that could be one of the reasons.
My mathematics course grades during engineering were A+,A+, A, B in the fours semesters while for Computer Courses it was A and A. My letters of recommendation were from Mathematics Dept Head and senior Profs.

Any other info which i should provide for a better understanding on how to proceed further for future application to the program.

 

[Connor]

One tip I read about somewhere for math courses was even the actual courses you have taken don't have specific topic names like "Linear Algebra I" then you can include short course descriptions from your university so the admissions board has an idea of what topics you covered in say for example "Engineering Math".

I would think there would be slightly different expectations/desired profile in MFE vs. masters in finance students.

 

[akshatmittal]

@Connor :
Thats what i had done while applying to all these universities.. I had provided a detailed list of topics under each maths course.
I do understand that the desired profile for Ms Finance and MSFE is different. I felt since having a computers background and with the current job profile of software engineer, i was more appropriate for the MSFE prog.