MIT MFin MIT MFin Admission Discussion

[mfegrad]

Looks like another wave of interviews, no news here. I have a better GPA + GRE + work experience than some people on the tracker and yet nothing! So depressed.

perhaps gpa+gre aren't everything?

many students enter mfe programs thinking that all they need to do is graduate with a 4.0 and they'll be gifted an MD position at goldman sachs in trading (but don't ask them what they want to trade! ). the earlier students are disabused of this notion, the better.

 

[Swayum]

perhaps gpa+gre aren't everything?

many students enter mfe programs thinking that all they need to do is graduate with a 4.0 and they'll be gifted an MD position at goldman sachs in trading (but don't ask them what they want to trade! ). the earlier students are disabused of this notion, the better.

What else, other than GPA + GRE + work experience, do you think MIT takes strongly into consideration above and beyond those 3 things? Possible answers are references and the essays we had to submit, but do you seriously believe that they have more weight than the former 3? I think most people would argue that strong essays/references can't really compensate for a lack of the former 3, whilst weak essays/references can sometimes kill an application that's strong in the former 3, but to a much lesser extent. And if not references and essays, what else do you think MIT would care about when giving out interviews?

I would love to hear your views.

Your analogy with getting a job at an investment bank is ridiculously flawed, so I won't even comment there.

 

[mfegrad]

What else, other than GPA + GRE + work experience, do you think MIT takes strongly into consideration above and beyond those 3 things? Possible answers are references and the essays we had to submit, but do you seriously believe that they have more weight than the former 3? I think most people would argue that strong essays/references can't really compensate for a lack of the former 3, whilst weak essays/references can sometimes kill an application that's strong in the former 3, but to a much lesser extent. And if not references and essays, what else do you think MIT would care about when giving out interviews?

I would love to hear your views.

it's a given that most applicants have good gre scores and grades, so those can pretty much be removed from the equation. work experience is a tricky one. there are those, and i count myself among them, who think it's quite important and that students do themselves a major disservice by entering programs fresh out of undergrad. however, these students fare quite well when put up against undergraduates for analyst positions, so programs do enroll students with no work experience.

i truly believe that essays (and recs, to a lesser extent) can make or break an application. if large numbers of applicants have 166+ math new gre and 3.7+ gpa, how else can you distinguish amongst them? there was someone the other day who mentioned getting a rec from a landlord, and this was probably a kiss of death. if your essays are generic (not saying yours are) and do not demonstrate that you've spent a good amount of time thinking about why you want to enter this field and what you want to do, you might as well not apply.

my response was slightly sarcastic, as i tend to be, but it's the flat out truth that the soft skills are extremely undervalued amongst the mfe applicant/student population...and i'd argue that this hurts applicants to both schools and firms.

Your analogy with getting a job at an investment bank is ridiculously flawed, so I won't even comment there.

it's really not, but then, i've been in a program and seen it first-hand.

edit: grammar

 

[Li Cai]

What else, other than GPA + GRE + work experience, do you think MIT takes strongly into consideration above and beyond those 3 things? Possible answers are references and the essays we had to submit, but do you seriously believe that they have more weight than the former 3? I think most people would argue that strong essays/references can't really compensate for a lack of the former 3, whilst weak essays/references can sometimes kill an application that's strong in the former 3, but to a much lesser extent. And if not references and essays, what else do you think MIT would care about when giving out interviews?

I would love to hear your views.

Your analogy with getting a job at an investment bank is ridiculously flawed, so I won't even comment there.

I saw at another thread saying that the approximate weights are 40% LoR, 30% essay, and the rest is only 30%... Obviously this cannot be verified, but you can get a sense of how important everything is.

 

[Umnik]

I saw at another thread saying that the approximate weights are 40% LoR, 30% essay, and the rest is only 30%... Obviously this cannot be verified, but you can get a sense of how important everything is.

Well I saw only one university with written weights - Bocconi University in Milan ( and that was for PhD Program)

"For the PhD in Business Administration and Management, Economics and Finance, Statistics and Applied Mathematics we attribute up to 40 points for your personal and academic curriculum; up to 30 points for the GMAT/GRE scores; up to 20 points for the statement of purpose and reference letters; up to 10 points for any other additional elements you wish to submit to the attention of the selection committee"

http://www.unibocconi.eu/wps/wcm/connect/SitoPubblico_EN/Navigation+Tree/Home/Services/Application+and+Admission/Admission+-+PhD+programs/Preparing+to+apply/Selection+Criteria/?lang=en

 

[AV-Wolverine]

perhaps gpa+gre aren't everything?

many students enter mfe programs thinking that all they need to do is graduate with a 4.0 and they'll be gifted an MD position at goldman sachs in trading (but don't ask them what they want to trade! ). the earlier students are disabused of this notion, the better.

That's an extremely valid point to raise. I have seen a lot of people in the tracker with top GRE scores and GPAs, but still getting rejected. Whereas, there have been some with not so great GPAs getting in based on GRE and other factors (which gives me some hope).

Having said all that, are there any mfe/math fin schools that anyone knows of that do actively give a lot of consideration to work experience and rec letters? Are there any that I should completely rule out with a low GPA?

 

[gradaplicant]

it's a given that most applicants have good gre scores and grades, so those can pretty much be removed from the equation. work experience is a tricky one. there are those, and i count myself among them, who think it's quite important and that students do themselves a major disservice by entering programs fresh out of undergrad. however, these students fare quite well when put up against undergraduates for analyst positions, so programs do enroll students with no work experience.

i truly believe that essays (and recs, to a lesser extent) can make or break an application. if large numbers of applicants have 166+ math new gre and 3.7+ gpa, how else can you distinguish amongst them? there was someone the other day who mentioned getting a rec from a landlord, and this was probably a kiss of death. if your essays are generic (not saying yours are) and do not demonstrate that you've spent a good amount of time thinking about why you want to enter this field and what you want to do, you might as well not apply.

my response was slightly sarcastic, as i tend to be, but it's the flat out truth that the soft skills are extremely undervalued amongst the mfe applicant/student population...and i'd argue that this hurts applicants to both schools and firms.



it's really not, but then, i've been in a program and seen it first-hand.

edit: grammar

Just a quick input here. MIT states on their website that the M.Finance program is aimed towards students fresh from college with little work exp. I would therefor think that it should not be a deal breaker if a student has little exp. while having exp. might strengthen another application.

 

[TeeKay]

I wouldn't rule out MIT having more round two interviews. The calculation in this thread was for 40 admits; however that assumes both 1)100% yield rate 2)equal distribution among rounds; the yield rate is always below 100% and round 2 is the most popular. I'm not counting myself out yet and you shouldn't either.

 

[twwsc]

Keep in mind that about 50% of interviewed applicants are admitted (from the chat transcripts), and the class size is projected to be 120. Assuming <100% yield rate, you're looking at a whole lot of interviews. I definitely wouldn't count myself out yet.

My interview dates were within 3-4 days of my invitation, so it seems that MIT is going through interviews very quickly. MIT also placed great emphasis on the fact that they continue to send interviews out right up until the notification deadline. Good luck, everybody!

 

[TeeKay]

did they place emphasis on that in the chats?

 

[twwsc]

did they place emphasis on that in the chats?

It's in bold on the main "M.Fin. Admissions" page and it's also in the receipt email you get after submitting your application.

 

[TeeKay]

Yes I know it's on the website (it wasn't in my email receipt) but I was wondering if they mentioned it in the chats. I forgot that they bolded it on the website though, that's good

 

[lanmine]

hey guys,
i saw on the tracker that it seems a new round of interview invitations are out. anyone got any updates?

also, i was wondering if anyone could share some insights/ideas about what the procedures would be after the interviews? would the interviewer make the decision or bring the conversations to the admission committee and let the whole team decide? any idea/insight would be appreciated!

 

[FCC]

do you guys think that more interview invites will come??

 

[gradaplicant]

I finished my interview today and she said that they still have a few more days of interviews, so I am assuming that they still have a few more invites to send out.

 

[GoIllini]

I haven't heard anything either. The funniest part is that I got an interview at Princeton but not MIT. Given that these guys contact our group about opportunities for their more qualified candidates on a regular basis, I had figured they might be more interested.

Ms. Strong seems like a smart lady and it would be fun to talk with her, but college admission is really not worth losing hair over. This is coming from a guy who landed on the street from a state school with $100K less debt than everyone else. If you're good with numbers and can offer insights that we don't already have, we're just as happy to take you out of Michigan or Baruch.

 

[monetoile]

I haven't heard anything either. The funniest part is that I got an interview at Princeton but not MIT. Given that these guys contact our group about opportunities for their more qualified candidates on a regular basis, I had figured they might be more interested.

Ms. Strong seems like a smart lady and it would be fun to talk with her, but college admission is really not worth losing hair over. This is coming from a guy who landed on the street from a state school with $100K less debt than everyone else. If you're good with numbers and can offer insights that we don't already have, we're just as happy to take you out of Michigan or Baruch.

same here. I had an interview with princeton, but haven't heard back from mit...

 

[ferdowsi]

same here. I had an interview with princeton, but haven't heard back from mit...

Me too. Either MIT is looking for vastly different qualities, or they still have some interview slots left.

 

[GoIllini]

Hmmm. Any correlation with experience here? I'm four years out of undergrad. VP at a bulge bracket in S&T.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Did any of you tell them that you got an interview from Princeton? Or that you want to be a quant in the traditional MFE sense?
It could be that they don't feel you are a better fit for MFE programs and not good fit for them.