Early Application to MFE Programs

[Cricket Freak]

Hi Everyone,

Is there any considerable benefit in applying to 1st round in any program? I am of the belief that some universities don't consider to be of any advantage but i read somewhere, some of them do encourage early applications.
Also, i have not really understood Princeton's program? They say they consider 1-year or 2-year MFins on an individual basis. Does this mean they have quotas on no of seats available in 1-year program?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Some programs that have only 1 deadline and they will only evaluate all of applications after that deadline so applying first may not provide any edge.
Some programs have rounds and round 1 usually has a large number of applicants so your will be evaluated against more people.
You need to learn the way each program evaluates, then strategize and apply accordingly.

 

[Hemant Dua]

@Andy Nguyen
How do you go about learning how each program evaluates? Sure, they all tell you about their deadline rounds (how many, whether they have multiple deadlines at all, by when to expect a response etc.), but their websites never explicitly state anything about whether or not there's a competitive advantage in applying early.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

It's a knowledge learned over the years by talking to administrators, applicants, etc. The easiest for you to do is to look at the timelines on our Tracker, you can clearly see how long after submission is the file looked at. Usually, the shorter overall time suggests that a program uses a rolling admission process (ex Baruch MFE, Boston MathFin).
I know NYU MathFin started looking at applications in Jan right after the deadline.