Is my profile competitive for Baruch?

[fabiantum]

Hi,
I was wondering, if my profile is sufficient for the Baruch MFE program and hopefully I can get some advice on how to improve my odds.
I’m currently in my last year of my undergraduate in mathematics, with a GPA around 3.4-3.6. I’m at the best maths program in my country (I guess it’s around top 20 in the world). I currently don’t have any working experience, besides a research internship in the mathematical finance department. I did the C++ course here on QuantNet and I’ve done some Deep Learning projects in python. I also competed in a few trading competitions ( rank 19 in the first round of the imc trading prosperity competition). My mathematics course work includes: analysis 1-3, linear algebra 1-2, graph theory, algebra 1(group/field theory), optimization, calculus based probability theory, markov chains, quantum computing and statistics. I also took a few masters courses such as: measure theoretic probability theory (martingale theory mostly), discrete time financial mathematics (option pricing, mean variance optimization), continuous time financial mathematics (stochastic analysis and options pricing using PDE, Monte Carlo and Fourier), quantitative risk management (coherent risk measures, extreme value theory and copulas), functional analysis ,Reinforcement learning and U-statistics.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You got several strong points: C++ course and Python background which Baruch values highly, relevant math courses, IMC competition, top math school.
Your weakness is low GPA and no work experience.
I suggest the samething I would if you apply to a different program
Your to-do list:

• Crush GRE
• Apply early. Don't wait until last round.
• Craft a compelling story of why MFE in your SOP
• Get strong letters of recommendation
• Build relevant projects

@MikeLawrence has prepared his Baruch application a year or two before he applied. He knows exactly what it is looking for and he has customized his preparation for it.
This is the only program he applied to. Talk about confidence

 

[fabiantum]

Thanks a lot Andy, I already got 3 strong LOR from the financial mathematics department. Are there any projects or directions which are interesting to Baruch? Currently my research is about model selection in machine learning. I also have a GitHub where I posted some of my code for trading competitions, and I’m building a side project with a fellow student to do mid frequency forecasting with deep learning models. I also plan on showing my skills there on risk management (such as using extreme value theory to generate distributions out of limited data to more accurately predict the CVaR).

 

[MikeLawrence]

You got several strong points: C++ course and Python background which Baruch values highly, relevant math courses, IMC competition, top math school.
Your weakness is low GPA and no work experience.
I suggest the samething I would if you apply to a different program
Your to-do list:

• Crush GRE
• Apply early. Don't wait until last round.
• Craft a compelling story of why MFE in your SOP
• Get strong letters of recommendation
• Build relevant projects

Fabian, we’ve talked elsewhere but I’ll say some stuff here too.

The GRE doesn’t matter much, and doesn’t matter at all for Baruch. Don’t do poorly though.

Applying early is helpful for most programs but irrelevant for Baruch. They have no cap. I wasn’t ready to apply until after the spring pre-mfe courses ended, and so applied in the final round.

SOP does matter. Programs need to know if you have a good one. The same questions will come up in interviews, and if your’s sucks it’ll be harder to place you.

The last two things Andy listed are fine.

I still think you probably need to go over the cpp topics a bit more. You went through the course too fast.

Apply for the pre-mfe courses. Read much more about the program, try to get to know people. Be more active here and make some friends, learning in public is helpful for your reputation and network.

 

[MikeLawrence]

I’m building a side project with a fellow student to do mid frequency forecasting with deep learning models. I also plan on showing my skills there on risk management (such as using extreme value theory to generate distributions out of limited data to more accurately predict the CVaR).

I don’t think you should do this.

A. There are much better uses of your time if you’re targeting Baruch.

Plus, this is the type of ‘the theory is fun, but is it practical?’ Project I see practitioners make fun of students for all the time. It just isn’t the best signal you can send.

B. If you do this, and make it a big part of your application, you allow the possibility of getting grilled on all possible details and extensions of theory. If you want this, alright, but I don’t recommend it.

C. Going back to A; focus on interview preparation. Read the books from fepress by Dan and others.

 

[fabiantum]

I don’t think you should do this.

A. There are much better uses of your time if you’re targeting Baruch.

Plus, this is the type of ‘the theory is fun, but is it practical?’ Project I see practitioners make fun of students for all the time. It just isn’t the best signal you can send.

B. If you do this, and make it a big part of your application, you allow the possibility of getting grilled on all possible details and extensions of theory. If you want this, alright, but I don’t recommend it.

C. Going back to A; focus on interview preparation. Read the books from fepress by Dan and others.

I mostly do it to prepare for future trading competitions and improve my coding and data science skills in python. I don't know if I make it part of my application

And I'm planning to do the books and solutions manual.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Apply for the pre-mfe courses. Read much more about the program, try to get to know people. Be more active here and make some friends, learning in public is helpful for your reputation and network.

I very strongly second this suggestion. Be active and professional on QuantNet help way more than most people realize. It is always better to build and maintain and positive profile in the public than remain an anonymous lurker or silent member.
There are just so many people with good grades who are competing for the same roles. Learning to stand out with a public profile is one strategy to get noticed by potential employers.

 

[fabiantum]

Thanks Andy and Mike, for your suggestions! For others who want to get into Baruch applying this fall, you can dm me if you are interested in a study group to keep each other motivated

 

[fabiantum]

@Andy Nguyen I currently have an offer to be a co-author of a paper on ML, but it would mean that I can't do another internship and get more practical experience. Does Baruch prefer internship experience over research experience?

I also contributed to a paper, which will be published in the journal of machine learning research, but I'm not a co-author there; I only coded the statistical test of their paper in python. Would this be useful to mention on my CV for Baruch, or is it more or less irrelevant?

 

[MikeLawrence]

Internship greater than paper

Coding the test isn’t great on its own, but could go under a ‘research’ section with other things if you need to fill space. ‘I contributed to the following…’ or something.

 

[indexquanty]

Internship greater than paper

Coding the test isn’t great on its own, but could go under a ‘research’ section with other things if you need to fill space. ‘I contributed to the following…’ or something.

it seems youve done alot of research into this so pls if i may, if you could give a ranking of the most important aspects of your successful Baruch application, that'll be really helpful. so from the above it seems experience > paper but actual work experience > project etc. how would you rank these various components of a profile for a strong application? especially in the context of someone who had a bsc econ undergrad which i believe was your case.

for context im hoping to do applied maths/stats instead of an mfe and in the UK. but would expect admission teams to be fairly correlated with what they look for(?)

 

[MikeLawrence]

Relevant work experience trumps pretty much anything else as it shows (most importantly) that you can get a job and also signals you have the required base of mathematics and coding.

Baruch is pretty explicit about what they want to see, go look at their website.