Profile evaluation - Fall 2025 MFE

[strnglv]

Hi,
I'm planning to apply for the Fall 2025 MFE program. I'd love to get some reviews of my profile and any suggestions/advice that would improve my chances of admission.

Education: B.Tech (ECE) from Tier-1 college (NIT) in India
GPA: 3.66/4.0
Relevant Coursework:
Finance: Macroeconomics and Accounting
Math: Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, Mathematics-I (Diff. Calculus, Diff. Eq., Matrix Theory), Mathematics-II (Integral & Vector Calculus, Laplace transforms), Mathematics-III (Complex Variables and Spl. Functions)
CS: Programming in C++, Data Structures and Algorithms, Fuzzy & neural Networks
Other Math-heavy coursework: Signals and Systems, Digital Signal Processing.
(Grade A+ in most of these courses)

GRE: 165Q + 161V

Work Experience: 2.5 Yrs of Experience as a Firmware & Test Engineer in a Top Semiconductor Company.
Work mostly involves programming in C++ and Python.

1 Patent is under process. 1 paper published (internal to the company) - Both are ML-related.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Which programs are you planning to apply?

 

[strnglv]

Which programs are you planning to apply?

UC Berkeley, UCLA, GA Tech, UIUC

 

[Andy Nguyen]

UC Berkeley, UCLA, GA Tech, UIUC

Would be good to share your criteria on picking those programs (tuition, location, job prospect, etc?) so members can advice.

 

[strnglv]

Would be good to share your criteria on picking those programs (tuition, location, job prospect, etc?) so members can advice.

Since I do not have relevant experience, I think my profile is not strong enough for the top ones like CMU/Princeton/Columbia. So I did not go for a lot of ambitious colleges and I chose the ones with relatively lesser tuition.

 

[kombuchalover]

Since I do not have relevant experience, I think my profile is not strong enough for the top ones like CMU/Princeton/Columbia. So I did not go for a lot of ambitious colleges and I chose the ones with relatively lesser tuition.

I’d recommend checking out NCSU in that case as well if you haven’t already!

 

[strnglv]

Hi @Andy Nguyen, @MikeLawrence, @weab, @zephyrus, @arohan, @latus_rectum

Kindly share your advice/opinion. Would be very helpful!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Since I do not have relevant experience, I think my profile is not strong enough for the top ones like CMU/Princeton/Columbia. So I did not go for a lot of ambitious colleges and I chose the ones with relatively lesser tuition.

This means state/public universities with good programs and not extremely selective.
NCSU is a good choice. They have good relationships and alumni network with regional banks. A typical job profile will be a role in risk management with a regional bank in the area. I think it will be a good job for many students.
Mehul Mehta is a graduate of the NCSU program and is quite active on LinkedIn. You can follow him to see the trajectory of his career.
I suspect most people will end up in roles like him and very few people end up in the glamorous quant trader, quant researcher at Citadel like what the finance bros on social media like to portray.

 

[MikeLawrence]

You should also try for Uchicago, and NCSU, as @Andy Nguyen said. Uchicago offers pretty good scholarships so tuition is less of a concern. May as well see what happens.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You should also try for Uchicago, and NCSU, as @Andy Nguyen said. Uchicago offers pretty good scholarships so tuition is less of a concern. May as well see what happens.

I have seen many cases where applicants chose Chicago due to their scholarship. Moving up on the ranking certainly doesn't hurt their reputation.

 

[arohan]

That GRE quant score needs to go up. 168+.

UC Berkeley, UCLA, GA Tech, UIUC

Barring UC Berkeley, I think you are pretty competitive for the programs. I’d say apply to more programs though. UChicago and NCSU I’d totally recommend. I’d also suggest dropping UIUC and adding the Columbia programs, Cornell, NYU MathFin as well. They might be ambitious but you never know when you strike gold.
Your make or break is going to be how convincing you are in your answer to why you want to pursue a career in quant. Have a good answer to that and you may have a shot at these programs.