Just how strong of a candidate am I?

Graduate School
1

<p>So I guess I will start off with a little bit of background info. (I’m sorry in advance if I posted this in the wrong subforum)</p>

<p>When I was in high school I was a bit of a chronic underachiever, so while I did get into some borderline tier 1.5 schools, I decided to go to the University of Denver to help save my dad some money (he is a professor there). As of writing this post, I will soon complete my dual degree Ba (IR)/Ma (International Economics) @ the Korbel School of International Studies (consistently ranked around 8-10 nationally) with minors in Chinese and Economics and approximately a 3.85 GPA (3.95 in IR). Skill-wise, I am fluent in Chinese as well as Hebrew and have spent extensive time both working and studying in China and the Middle East. As for my scores, I managed to get a 720 verbal and 710 quant. on the GRE and plan on taking the GMAT shortly.</p>

<p>I guess the reason I have posted here tonight is that I feel that I am at a crossroads of sorts. On one hand, I can almost assuredly get into DU’s M.Fin program while continuing to avoid the scourge that is student loans. On the other hand, I really want to try to get into a topflight MFE program such as the one offered at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. To complicate matters, I didn’t take a whole lot of Math as an undergrad and I have a sneaking suspicion that this will hurt my prospects. I do plan on taking the GMAT to rectify this situation, but I’m not sure it will be adequate.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Would I be strong enough of a candidate to get into a top flight program considering my linguistic skills, GPA, GRE, resume et al., or would I just be wasting my time? I have a somewhat dynamic and relevant background (half chinese, half american) and make for an interesting interview because of my extensive experiences abroad, but I’m still somewhat unsure of my chances. I am well aware of the fact that going to a top flight business school can make all the difference and I’m not sure I would be doing myself a service by pursuing another degree @ DU. I do not want to get an MBA because I feel it is too broad and an overall waste of time.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

<p>Dave</p>

2

<p>Financial Engineering is heavy on the maths. The 710Q is low (the V will be weighted less by top MFE programs), and you’re going to need a fair amount of math courses under your belt.</p>

<p>Approach the MFE requisites the same as an Econ Ph.D.: math reasoning, real analysis, PDE/ODE, probability/stochastic theory, linear algebra, etc.</p>

3

<p>So an MSF would make more sense? WUSTL’s IB focused track is very attractive to me. Job placement isn’t as important to me as it might be to others.</p>

4

<p>MS in Finance is less stringent on math – yes. You might still need some basics (year of calculus, linear algebra, differential equations), but besides that, you’d have a much better shot at that than an MFE.</p>

5

<p>I see. I did take calculus undergrad, but that, econometrics, statistics, and some quantitative econ. classes were about it.</p>

<p>I guess I should go get another worthless qualitative degree :P</p>

6

<p>That might be enough considering Olin’s site was pretty dodgy about the pre-requisites:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>From [Admissions</a> | MS Finance](<a href=“http://www.olin.wustl.edu/academicprograms/MSF/Admissions/Pages/default.aspx]Admissions”>http://www.olin.wustl.edu/academicprograms/MSF/Admissions/Pages/default.aspx)</p>

7

<p>So I take it that my Economics focused IR MA and my minor in Econ. are quite useful if I apply to Olin?</p>

8

<p>Should be.</p>