The prep before starting an MFE should really depend on your background. Depending what you did for work or in your undergrad, its going to be really important to cover some or all of the general angles of quant with relevant math, computer science, finance, and machine learning. Among these, finance people will have the most catching up to do. Generally speaking, I'd break down the most important topics like this:
1) Coding - you're expected to be an intermediate programmer. There's really no hiding from it, you'll need to code in every class and most likely at some stage of the interview cycle for a good firm you'd like to work at. ChatGPT has made it really easy to be able to work with and understand code, which can help you on projects, but for interviews, you're going to need to be able to code from scratch. I'd suggest focusing more on
Python (unless you want to be a Quant Dev, then go all in on
C++), as this is what most interviews and classes will focus on. Best way to get good is to do a ton of Leetcode problems, particularly related to data structures/algorithms and dynamic programming. You also want to be as good as possible with pandas and numpy.
2) Probability - I think most prospective students are looking to be traders or researchers. Knowing probability for these jobs is the equivalent of knowing how to code for the rest of the jobs, without strong probability knowledge, you won't get from interview 1 to interview 2. I'd suggest refreshing with the Ross book, and then doing problems from the Green Book (
A Practical Guide To Quantitative Finance Interviews by Xinfeng Zhou). The Green Book is really useful, I've been asked a lot of questions directly from there or a light remix of those.
3) Resume/Projects - There's some time between now and August/September when most programs start, so I'd suggest working on the things that will get you interviews. Getting work experience over the summer before an MFE is uncommon, but if possible and relevant it's a no brainer. A solid alternative is building a project portfolio. I personally think this goes a long way, not only will your resume stand out more, but you'll bring topics you can discuss confidently with you to interviews during the behavioral bits. From my experience, behavioral interviews in quant are really just a high level discussion of what you've done/what you like in this space. You want to be an expert on something, ideally down the career path you aspire to work in. This will also help you think more about what career it is you want to pursue, maybe doing the work of a dev/researcher on your own time confirms your goals or makes you rethink. This is a great time to do so while not under the pressure of finding a summer/full time role.
4) Finance - This is not as crucial as the 3 above. Most have already had some exposure, but if you're not confident about your finance knowledge,
Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (8th Edition) by John Hull is really the golden standard for being up to speed quick. Referenced in one way or another in every class I've had.
For some general tips, I'd say not to focus too much on certifications including ones like CFA, FRM, etc, but the
C++ course on here is an exception because you'll learn how to properly code. Research the industry. I'm posting my Excel
tracker for this last cycle for y'all to get an idea. I asked ChatGPT to rank them 1-5 stars so I can save the 5 star interviews for when I had some practice. The bottom 200 or so are my manual input so those have a little personal bias. Applications open in August so you should plan your application pace out accordingly and stay strict to it (I did 10 a day). I suggest taking a little break from everything in July so you start strong, the first semester can be demanding.
If you're planning on joining the Tandon program feel free to reach out
