Profile Evaluation

[tkwsean]

Aiming for the following: Columbia MFE, MIT MFin, UChicago MSFM, CMU MSCF, Cornell MFE (planning to enrol in 2026)

Profile:

Internships:
- 2 month internship as a project management intern at blockchain company, seeking to tokenise real estate
- 3 month internship at edutech startup as a full stack software engineer intern
- 3 month internship at a Chinese AI startup, worked on Computer Vision algorithms
- Incoming 5 month internship as a Quantitative Finance Intern at a ~1B AUM asset management company (may be extended to 7 months)

Educational background:
- Math&CS double major student at a T5 Asian University.
- GPA: ~3.5/4
- Relevant Coursework: OOP, Data Structures and Algorithms, Regression Analysis, Computational Economics, Statistical Learning & Data Mining, Data Analytics & Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Technologies, Business Finance, Investments, Statistics, Neural Networks & Deep Learning
- may want to pursue CFA level 1 in 2025
- GRE is 320/340 (168Q, 152V), planning to retake in 2025

What are my chances? Any areas for improvement?

 

[fatcatking]

Aiming for the following: Columbia MFE, MIT MFin, UChicago MSFM, CMU MSCF, Cornell MFE (planning to enrol in 2026)

Profile:

Internships:
- 2 month internship as a project management intern at blockchain company, seeking to tokenise real estate
- 3 month internship at edutech startup as a full stack software engineer intern
- 3 month internship at a Chinese AI startup, worked on Computer Vision algorithms
- Incoming 5 month internship as a Quantitative Finance Intern at a ~1B AUM asset management company (may be extended to 7 months)

Educational background:
- Math&CS double major student at a T5 Asian University.
- GPA: ~3.5/4
- Relevant Coursework: OOP, Data Structures and Algorithms, Regression Analysis, Computational Economics, Statistical Learning & Data Mining, Data Analytics & Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Technologies, Business Finance, Investments, Statistics, Neural Networks & Deep Learning
- may want to pursue CFA level 1 in 2025
- GRE is 320/340 (168Q, 152V), planning to retake in 2025

What are my chances? Any areas for improvement?

Why do you want to retake the GRE?

 

[tkwsean]

Why do you want to retake the GRE?

I've looked at the test scores of people who have enrolled in programs I'm interested in applying. They're at least 325, and I feel that my verbal score has a lot of room for improvement.

 

[fatcatking]

I've looked at the test scores of people who have enrolled in programs I'm interested in applying. They're at least 325, and I feel that my verbal score has a lot of room for improvement.

I think your quant score is good enough. I have heard low verbal can be compensated by a decent TOEFL score (can someone correct me if I am wrong?).

So I would work on my SOP and LOR if I were you.

 

[tkwsean]

I think your quant score is good enough. I have heard low verbal can be compensated by a decent TOEFL score (can someone correct me if I am wrong?).

So I would work on my SOP and LOR if I were you.

Yep, for sure

 

[kombuchalover]

I've looked at the test scores of people who have enrolled in programs I'm interested in applying. They're at least 325, and I feel that my verbal score has a lot of room for improvement.

Retake if you feel that it will help you. In my conversations with programs, I’ve been almost exclusively told that very little (if any at all) weight is given to the verbal score. I know for a fact UChicago doesn’t even look at the verbal score. Take that for what you will.

 

[tkwsean]

Retake if you feel that it will help you. In my conversations with programs, I’ve been almost exclusively told that very little (if any at all) weight is given to the verbal score. I know for a fact UChicago doesn’t even look at the verbal score. Take that for what you will.

Alright, appreciate your advice!

 

[tkwsean]

Btw, are there any other areas I can work on, to further improve my chances of getting into these top programs?