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How would not taking PDE/Stochastic Calculus in time diminish chance for admission to top MFE program?

johnsong

johnsong

C++ Certificate with Distinction
Joined
12/8/19
Messages
17
Points
263
Hi all,

My name is John. I am currently an undergrad student doing mathematical economics & computer science double major at a Canadian university. I am looking to apply for an MFE program in the US in Fall 2021.

I see that there are a few courses ODE/PDE/Stochastic Calculus that are highly recommended on this forum and I plan to take those courses during my final undergrad year. That being said, I would not have these courses' grades listed on my transcript during the application season but it would show as in progress.

In terms of other aspects of applications, I have done semi-relevant research in econometrics and internships in both buy-side (large Canadian pension plan) and sell-side (BB quant summer analyst). What I am particularly worried about is not taking these courses in time? My concern is how big of a problem would it be not having these courses completed before application season?
 
johnsong said:
Hi all,

My name is John. I am currently an undergrad student doing mathematical economics & computer science double major at a Canadian university. I am looking to apply for an MFE program in the US in Fall 2021.

I see that there are a few courses ODE/PDE/Stochastic Calculus that are highly recommended on this forum and I plan to take those courses during my final undergrad year. That being said, I would not have these courses' grades listed on my transcript during the application season but it would show as in progress.

In terms of other aspects of applications, I have done semi-relevant research in econometrics and internships in both buy-side (large Canadian pension plan) and sell-side (BB quant summer analyst). What I am particularly worried about is not taking these courses in time? My concern is how big of a problem would it be not having these courses completed before application season?
Click to expand...
From my personal experience, it's not that big of a problem. I also took Stochastic Calculus/PDE in my last semester and I applied to MFE programs without having a grade for these courses. I got an offer from most of the programs I applied. Feel free to send me a message if you need more info.
 
Not knowing both SDE and PDE could be a drawback. Still, most models are built around these pillars I reckon.
Of course, the lack of can be compensated by other talents like programming ability, for example.
 
Daniel Duffy said:
Not knowing both SDE and PDE could be a drawback. Still, most models are built around these pillars I reckon.
Of course, the lack of can be compensated by other talents like programming ability, for example.
Click to expand...
Thanks! That’s why I want to take it in my final year to prepare for entry into. I did take a few grad level CS courses, would that compensate partially for this?
 
johnsong said:
Thanks! That’s why I want to take it in my final year to prepare for entry into. I did take a few grad level CS courses, would that compensate partially for this?
Click to expand...
One way (and not a bad way) to learn maths is to reverse engineer an algorithm by programming it in C++ and work backwards to the original maths formulation. I do that all the time these days.
 
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